La Fine.

3 and a half months,
15 weeks,
108 days,
5 Countries,
25 Cities,
324 delicious meals,
and 10 pounds later...

I am sad to say that I am leaving Florence.

Today has been a rough day, with two finals and everyone crying. I don't know if I am ready to leave, but I guess it is time to go. All my bags are packed, I bought an extra giant suitcase that I will be taking back all my extra goodies in. Today my whole host family was crying at dinner while we ate my favorite meal. I am not ready to leave them!!!

But tomorrow my American family will be waiting for me with a Synergy, and we will go get my other favorite meal...SUSHI!!

This has been an amazing experience that I will never ever forget and has made me grow so much as a person. I am so sad it is over.

My diet starts tomorrow.

The end.

My Cheesy rhyming poem about the amazing city of Florence

For my creative writing class we had to write something about going home. So I wrote this
( I am such my mother's daughter)

What will I miss about Florence you ask

Well this answer is long so this isn’t a simple task

I’ll miss Angela with her diva hair flip

Our walks to school

And our Venice trip

I’ll miss Francesca and our gym workouts

Just so we could lay on the beach in Cinque Terre and the Amalfi Coast

After eating very VERY large amounts

I’ll miss Michelle and her new phrase “and then I found 20 bucks”

Her mother’s funny texts

And talking about how art history sucks

My roomy Jillian and her contagious laugh

When trying to speak Italian at dinner, she’s my other half

And then there’s my Italian family I will miss the most

The sweetest family in the world

I still don’t understand why they eat cookies for breakfast instead of toast

My mama with her delicious food and radiant smile

I can’t believe I am leaving her and going so many miles

Then there’s Despina my older Italian sis

All of our chats about friends, boys and life I will truly miss

Theresa the youngest of the fam

Speaking such great English

And helping me study for my Italian exam

Gianco my babbo cracking funny jokes

These people have become so much more than just my hosts

Florence, I’ll miss your pasta and cheap wine

Your scenery and boys that are oh so fine

I’ll miss your baby sized coffee and all your gelati

My Italian class at the VR

And taking trains everywhere instead of driving my car

The Duomo as a guide when always getting lost

Can I stay here all summer?

How much will that cost?

Oh Florence, I am so sad that this is the end

That this is it.

The only thing I won’t miss will be all of your dog shit. 

It's the final countdown.

I have 3 days left in Italy and realized I haven't been updating my blog much..so here are some highlights

1) My family came to Italy! After a long 44 hours of traveling due to: electrical problems on the plane, broken bathrooms, and 4 plane changes. But they made it! We got to stay in a Villa in Tuscany and they convinced me to miss school for most of the week because they said that B's were good enough for the semester (I love being abroad!) We went to Sienna, Lucca, Rome, Chianti, and Volterra. My favorite day was our Chianti day because we had a picnic, went wine-tasting, and that night we got a private cooking class. I think that might be what I would do if I had to plan a perfect day for myself.

2) The play..read the post below.

3) I attended a Florence soccer game!! It was really fun to see all of the Italians rooting on their team (even though the Florence soccer team sucks.)

4) Kai and I went to Cinque Terre this past weekend (My favorite place ever!) My friend Alison came with us the first day and we went to the place I went to before with the best Pesto pizza ever made on this planet. Then we just hang out on the beach all day. We layed in the sun and the water was even warm enough to swim in. Kai and I went to dinner at a place where he ordered Pesto Ravioli and I ordered sea-bass that they filleted at the table for me. The next day we went to the Cinque Terre, or the 5 lands. My favorite was Riomaginare.

Those are my highlights. I am so sad my semester is coming to an end :(

Come you like it.

When you go abroad you learn all sorts of things about yourself you didn’t know.. well folks, I learned I am an actress!!

Haha, well not quite, but I was in our school play, “As you like it.” So how did I end up signing up for this? Well, my friend Francesca is in a class about the history of the Italian theatre. Long story short she got extra-credit for being in the play, so my friend Angela and I decided we would be good friends and do it with her. For the past couple months we have been asking ourselves how we got ourselves into this. But, the night of the play we realized what a blast it was! Going abroad is all about doing things that you would never do at home, and I am glad that putting myself out there for the school play was something I did. It was an experience I will never forget.. Pictures will be up soon but my wi-fi is too slow at my house.

Canceled Flight!

Welp..my families flight got canceled to come here today..stupid United! But hopefully there flight tomorrow leaves!! Keep your fingers crossed for me!

The Amalfi Coast!

I am sad to say that this past weekend was my last major travel weekend! But it was such a great one!! On Thursday  Franchesca, Michelle, Jesse, and I headed to the Amalfi Coast! We were supposed to go with a student run program called Florence for Fun, but they canceled on us last Monday so we quickly decided to put the trip together ourselves. We took a 3 hour train to Naples and then a sketchy hour metro from Naples to Sorrento. I was very glad we were with our guy friend Jesse for that part of the trip. When we finally got to Sorrento we checked into our AWESOME hostel!! It had a bar downstairs, a sun deck and the rooms were so nice! The only problem was we were staying in a room with a girl that had a stick up her ass (pardon my french) and couldn't stand the music at the bar downstairs and turned the heat up to 90 degrees (no joke) every night.
The first day we had a lazy day where we explored Sorrento, ate delicious pizza, and layed on the beach and got our tan on. The weather was BEAUTIFUL. For dinner we went to the coolest restaurant that our hostel told us about, that had only Italians in it. It was so cool to see that since we haven't been to too many places that aren't overpowered with Americans in Florence.

Sorrento

On Saturday we took an all day boat tour to the Island of Capri. The person that owned the boat was friends with the guy who ran the Hostel so we got the trip for half price and the other 8 people on the boat tour were from our hostel. We met the cutest New Zealand boy ever :) I decided that him and Kai would be best friends because he had the biggest spice for life like Kai does. He was so much fun to have on our boat tour because he got everyone enthusiastic about everything and everyone became friends because of him.

Michelle and me with our New Zealand friend

I'm on a boat.

Love

Our boat!

We first headed to the Island of Capri on this tour and got to hang out there for a couple of hours. It was beautiful but unfortunately it was raining while we were on the Island, but when we got back on the boat  it was sunny out again! We ventured around the Island on our little boat. Let me just tell you this is a huge accomplishment for me because I have this weird irrational fear of open water in the ocean (even though I was a swimmer my whole life.) But I accomplished my fear because this is what the semester is about. I even got in the 45 degree water. This was not a wise decision.
4 people from our group decided to get in the water and I was debating it. Francesca looked around and goes, Look at all of the jellyfish in the water, oh my god!! So I asked the guy, do those jellyfish sting a lot of people and looked at me and just says "Yes" but I was in the mood to be adventurous and while Francesca was getting nervous, I just decided to jump off of the boat. I hadn't felt the water with my feet or anything and as soon as I jumped in the breath got knocked out of me because of the freezing water. But I decided to swim a couple minutes to where I could get up onto a rock to walk up to a cave. I swam there and tried to get up, it was a lot harder than I thought and I couldn't use my strength considering I couldn't breath, so I had to swim back to the boat without seeing the cave. But hey, I went swimming with Jellyfish in Capri, pretty cool.

Capri

Freezing water!!

That night we went to the best restaurant ever! The cutest old Italian man picked us up in his macchina, aka car, and drove us to the restaurant. The people were very excited to have us because it was far away from the center of town so no tourists ever come there. They talked to us about California and what we were doing in Sorrento. Then they gave us there homemade bread with their orange and lemon infused homemade olive oil and their homemade wine to go along with it. We got fried mozzerella and rosemary roles and fried anchioves for our appetizer. He gave his homemade passionfruit and papaya sorbet before our main course. We ate seafood for dinner, and he gave us his homemade special desserts afterwards! Followed by his homemade digestive alcohol. It was everything people think of when they think of an Italian meal. The nicest people, with the best homemade food and wine, and tons and tons of it.

Sunday we headed to Pompei on our way back to Naples. It was so cool seeing such an ancient city preserved so well. If anyone gets the chance to see Pompei I highly recommend it because it was just a really interesting place that is hard to even put into words.

I am sad that my major traveling is over, but I am SOOOOOOO excited to see my family on Saturday and Kai again in 3 weeks! I can't believe I only have 28 days left abroad!!!

Cinque Terre=Heaven!

This past weekend I went to Cinque Terre. It had to be one of the most beautiful and breathtaking places I have ever been!
We stayed in a cute little place on Monterosso where a cute Italian lady rented out rooms to travelers. For 30 euros a night, we got an adorable room with views of the ocean! She also had two sons, one who owned a pizza place, and one that owned a nice restaurant. We got discounts for going so we figured we would give them a try.
The pesto pizza we ordered at lunch was UNBELIEVABLE! It is in a tie with Dad's grilled pizza for the best pizza I have ever had. Cinque Terre is known for their pesto, so when we went to the other restaurant that night I ordered homemade ravioli with pesto. Cinque Terre's pesto is for sure the besto!
The next day we did the most beautiful hike from Monterosso to Vernazza. It was two hours and it was amazing! We then hopped on a train to go see Corniglia. We had to get back though, and couldn't visit the other villages. Therefore I will have to go back to this amazing place in the future to see the rest! I am hoping I can return in the next month.

Off to the Amalfi Coast on Monday!

Spring Break in BARCELONA!

Last week I had my spring break and I headed to Barcelona to see the city that Kai is studying abroad in! Because I was there for a while, I am going to list the highlights of the trip.

1) The trip started off a little rocky, when I took my first RYANAIR flight. The plane felt very different than any other plane I have been on when taking off. After about five minutes in the air, the plane had a huge drop while it was sideways and everyone on the plane screamed bloody murder. I wasn't sure if I was going to make it to Barcelona. BUT I DID! And I am alive!

2) The first full day I was there, Kai and I did another Fat Tire Bike Tour! It was funny, because this bike tour really resembled the culture of the spanish people. We took about five breaks, each break my tour guide got a beer, one of the breaks he also took us to go get a drink, and the last break we took a long break to eat. This was one of my favorite parts because he took us to an awesome Tapa's bar that Rick Steve's reccomends, that I would have never found! It was very fun tour and I got to see and learn about so many things in Barcelona such as the Sagrada Familia, bullfighting, the history, the beach, and so much more. Bike tours are my favorite way to see a city so you should do one next time you are visiting a new place!

3) I met up with my friend Alison a few times who is also studying abroad in Barcelona! It was so good to see her and made me so excited for next year when we are living together! She also introduced me to my new favorite drink. Tinto de Verano. It is really similar to Sangria, but BETTER! It is 1 part red wine and 1 part carbonated lemonade. It is delicious! If you are in Spain, you must try this drink.

4) Kai and I took a day trip to a cute little beach town that Kai's friends had told him about called Blanes on Thursday. We took a train there and the whole train ride we were looking at the beach and the ocean. That is until about 5 minutes before we got to Blanes. Right before we got there, the train went inland to what looked very similar to the midewest. This was not a good sign because Kai and I were trying to go to the beach, not away from it. We just decided to get off at this stop because we knew we were trying to go to a place called Blanes. Right outside the train station was a bus stop and that was it, so we figured if we got on a bus we would get to the beach. There were two different buses that came to that stop, and no map around to figure out which one we should take. So the plan was, we would take the bus that the most people got on because they were probably all headed to the beach. A bus showed up and everyone stood inline to get on it, so we did to. We paid our 3 Euro and sat down. As we were leaving we saw another bus coming in that said "BLANES" on the top. Kai and I looked at each other and Kai said "I think we might want to be on that bus." We were already driving on this one though, so we just decided to see if it also took us near the beach. At the round-about there was a sign that pointed right that said "PLAYA." Kai and I decided if the bus went right than we would stay on it, but if it didn't we were for sure on the wrong bus. The bus started to slowly turn right and we got really excited but then quickly turned left and we were going away from the beach. Finally when a sign read that we were leaving Blanes we decided we better get off. We ended up in the middle of nowhere. We were near car dealerships but that was about it. We went to the bus stop across the street and waited 20 minutes to go back to the station, and then at the station we waited another 10 minutes to get on the other bus. A 3 euro, 10 minute bus ride, turned into a 9 euro 40 minute adventure.
Once we got to the beach, it was totally worth it. The town was adorable and we spent the afternoon eating paella and lounging on the beach!

5) The Boqueria in Barcelona is amazing! If you are ever visiting, you need to check it out. It is a huge market open from Monday-Saturday. There is amazing fruit, chocolate, meat, and even restaurants. It was very cool to see and gave a great sense of Spanish culture.

6) The last day we focused our attention around Gaudi. We went up to Parc Guell. The Park that Gaudi designed. To get there we walked through a neighborhood that looked very similar to San Francisco. When we got to the park we were able to see views of the entire city. It was gorgeous! Also in the park are two houses that Gaudi designed. It was supposed to be an entire neighborhood for wealthy people, but people didn't want to buy his gingerbread looking houses, so there are only two. We also visited one of the apartments that Gaudi designed. This was one of my favorite things I have seen in Europe. Gaudi's architecture is so fascinating and it was amazing to be able to see inside of it and learn about why he did the things that he did. It also had such a crazy rooftop.

Barcelona was such a cool city. It was very fun to see such different architecture and be in pretty warm weather by the beach for a week. I will say though, that I do like the Italian culture more than the Spanish culture. I think that the Spanish culture is too lazy for me. Not only do they take about a 4 hour siesta everyday, but they also have about 35 holidays! (and they wonder why their economy isn't doing so well.) From my experience they weren't all that friendly either. It made me really appreciate the Italian  culture and how nice and welcoming everyone is!

Well, that was my Spring Break in Spain. My plan is to stay in Italy for my last month and a half and discover all that Italy has to offer now! Thursday, I am headed to the Cinque Terre for a night, and then to Urbino on Saturday with my art history class.

I AMsterdam.

My new years resolution this year was to say "yes" to people when they asked me if I wanted to do something. So when my friend Danielle asked me if I wanted to go to Amsterdam at the end of February I said YES, even though this was a place I really knew nothing about.

We headed to Amsterdam Thursday and flew out from Milan. We walked a mile to the train station, took an hour and forty-five minute train ride to Milan, took a 30 minute bus ride to the airport, took an hour and a half flight to Amsterdam, and a 30 minute train ride into the city center. It was a lot of traveling but that is all part of the adventure. I went to Amsterdam with my friends Danielle and Danielle, who both go to CU, and my friend Annie and Emily who go to Northwestern. When we booked our flight Danielle and Danielle accidently booked the morning flight because they got confused with military time so they were there a whole day ahead of us.

When we finally arrived to our hostel, Danielle and Danielle were ready to show us around. Well it turns out that they had just gone on a tour of The Red Light District and we happened to be staying right in the Red Light District so we headed out to see it all. (Diana, maybe don't read this next sentence to Annelies and Ava.) We roamed the allies looking at prostitutes in little rooms trying to get men to come in for some sexual pleasure. We were pretty much the only girls out at 11:30 at night. We also walked by all of the coffee shops that sold weed like they sell coffee. Considering this was the first thing I saw of Amsterdam, I was pretty much in culture shock. I felt like I was at the zoo going to look at the pandas or tigers or something but instead I was looking at these women and a few transvestites as well. I went to bed wondering where the heck I was and what planet I had just landed on.

Our amazing hostel! 

Friday morning, Emily and I woke up early so we decided to go see the other parts of the city while we waited for the other girls to wake up. Now that I was seeing it in daylight and not only The Red Light District, I began to realize what a cool and beautiful town I was in. Once the other girls woke up we headed to The Anne Frank House. I had been told by other people that it wasn't very cool or worth seeing, so I didn't know what to expect. Well trust me, it was worth seeing. Going to this house was extremely impactful. I got chills walking through it thinking of the history and the horror that this house had seen. Anne Frank's journal entries were also put up about different parts of the house and what they were doing. If you are ever in Amsterdam this is worth going to.

Anne Frank House

After this sad start to the morning we needed something to cheer us up, and what could be better than pancakes!! Amsterdam has amazing pancakes, but they are more like crepes and you can get savory or sweet ones. I got a pancakes with cream cheese, lox, and tomatoes on it. It was unbelievable! After that someone thought that we should go try french fries, cause we hadn't already eaten enough for lunch. Amsterdam is known for there french fries so those were also amazing. We finished our afternoon by roaming around The Red Light District again, and going for a walk by the water. My hostel was really fun because in order to get to the hostel, you had to go through a bar, and we got discounts at this bar so we ate dinner and spent our night there. It was very convenient.

Now that is a Pancake.

Amazing French Fries

The next morning we slept in and then headed to the Heineken Experience! I was told to do this by people from my program that had been to Amsterdam so we decided to give it a try. It was only 15 euro for the whole experience, plus 2 beers! Pretty good deal if you ask me. We were able to see the history of Heineken and learn how it is made. Then, we go to go into their brewing room. After that we entered a room only to find a "Be the Beer Ride!" What you did was stand on a moving platform and watch how beer was made. It was sort of like "Honey I Shrunk the Audience" for adults. We got sprayed by water and bubbles and felt heat lamps. It was a fun way to appreciate how beer is made. When we got off the ride we did "beer tasting" which was very similar to wine tasting. We had to swirl and smell the beer and then take a big gulp. It tasted like every other beer to me though, so it didn't have the same effect as wine tasting does. When we left that room we got to go into a "bar" and get our beer and hangout.  This was an extremely fun experience.

Heineken Experience

After, that we went to the big I AMsterdam sign and got our pictures there and ate lunch. We decided to head back to our hostel because a few girls wanted to take a nap. My friend Danielle and I didn't want to nap and saw a movie theatre on the walk back. In Amsterdam, pretty much everyone speaks english because dutch is becoming extinct. So, the movies that were out were all of the ones we have in the movie theatres in the United States and they were in English so we saw "No Strings Attached." It was funny because we got a seat assignment in the movie theatre. I love going to movies at home so it was nice to get a little taste of the United States since I have officially been out of the country for 7 weeks. We finished off the night by getting food from a Wok place! Stir-fried vegetables and tofu! I miss my healthy food :)

I AMsterdam in the rain

Dutch Movie Theatre 

I don't know if Amsterdam is a place I will ever go on vacation to later in life, so I am so glad that I was given an opportunity to see it and experience it!

Cheers to London

This past weekend I headed to London to celebrate an early 21st birthday with Kai. Kai and I both booked our tickets to arrive at the same time on Thursday, however he found out he had a midterm that day worth 30% of his grade and had to come to London on Friday. So.. on Thursday I got in to London and figured out how to get to my hotel from the airport (I am starting to get good at this whole solo traveling thing.) Since it was my birthday, my parents booked us a room in the Marriot and I was able to order "Eat, Pray, Love" as well as some delicious room service (delicious isn't sarcastic, it really was delicious.. Tabouleh and Sweet Potatoes.. my kind of meal.)

Friday, I woke up and headed to the tube, to meet my Fat Tire Bike Tour. I figured this was a great way to see the city while I was by myself, and it was! I had a very cute tour guide named Liam who was born in South Africa, moved to London, then Amsterdam, then Southern California, and back to London. He did a great job about teaching us about the history of London. This bike tour was very different than the one in Paris because London is full of beautiful and huge parks, so we had to do less "Street Domination" as my Paris tour guide called it, and more easy riding through the parks.

My Tour Guide showing us that this is where they will play Beach Volleyball for the Olympics

By the time I got back, Kai had arrived at our hotel and we headed out to a fantastic Indian Restaurant in the city. *Fun Fact- London has more Indian food than fish and chips! We took our time because we were headed to a musical called "Thriller-Live" at 8:30 and it was extremely close by. We finished by about 7:30 and decided to get a coffee at Starbucks while we waited (I will admit, even though Italian coffee is good.. I REALLY REALLY MISS STARBUCKS!) As we sat in Starbucks at 7:45 I pulled out the tickets. As I glanced at them I blurted out to Kai, "Let's go, the play started 15 minutes ago!" Yup thats right.. the play started at at 19:30, not 20:30. STUPID MILITARY TIME! We ran across the street and into the theatre. Luckily, we only missed one song, and we were in the 4th row! This musical was more like a concert than a musical full of all of Michael Jackson and Jackson Five music. It was extremely fun and put a smile on your face throughout the entire show. Th characters also had fantastic voices and great charisma. We finished the night of by playing a few games of my travel yam slam (my favorite game ever) and me killing Kai every game we played :)

Saturday morning, we woke up to the pouring rain and 40 degree weather. Our plan was to walk to all of the sites that I got to see on the bike tour Friday, but that plan quickly changed when we saw the weather. One of the benefits of staying at a hotel is you have a great concierge, he recommended we go on a double decker bus tour, that way we could see everything and still stay dry. The bus tour was perfect for a rainy day and I got to see a lot more than I had seen by bike, such as the London Bridge (which is not actually called the London Bridge, also I always thought the song went "London Bridges falling down" but Steph burst my childhood knowledge yesterday and informed me that it is "London Bridge is Falling down" makes so much more sense now.) When this was over we hopped off at Buckingham Palace and got to see the Changing Guards which was really cool and pretty crazy to me that people do this everyday. We headed to a typical British Pub where Kai got the fish and chips he had been craving all weekend, and we got a huge platter of very very fried food.

On the cold/rainy bus tour!

Lunch time! (not Boulderhealthnut worthy)

 After lunch we went to go see "Wicked" (for my 6th time, but Kai's first) and I made sure to check the tickets about 5 times to make sure we weren't showing up late this time. It was really fun because although I could probably quote 75% of the lines in this play, I have never seen it in a British accent. The Glinda was the best Glinda I have seen in Wicked, besides Kristen Chenoweth of course. Of course, I really enjoyed the play and so did Kai (but even if he hated it, I think he would tell me he loves it because of my obsession with this musical)!

We went to an amazing restaurant called "The Goring" for my birthday dinner where we were treated like royalty. The food was fantastic, and the atmosphere and staff were even better. When we got back to the hotel, I had chocolate covered strawberries, champagne, flowers, and a birthday card waiting for me from my family. The weekend was the best birthday celebration I have ever had and unlike any birthday celebration I will probably ever have again. I guess turning 21 in Europe isn't so bad after all. Thanks Mom, Dad, and Kai for making my birthday the best one ever! Love you!

My Birthday Surprise!

Paris for Valentine's Day

Well folks, I did what every girl dreams of doing, I went to Paris for Valentine's Day (at least an early one.)  It was one of the best weekends I have ever had, the only problem was it was way too short!

I headed to Paris Friday afternoon. This entailed taking an hour and ten minute bus to Pisa and then after that the flight was only an hour and twenty minutes! I quickly realized that traveling in Europe is the easiest thing ever. Kai met me at the airport and we quickly hopped on the metro and headed to the Eiffel Tower. It was unbelievable and I couldn't believe that I was actually seeing it in person! Kai and I were very eager to go up, but the line was about a 3 hour wait, so we figured we would wait until Saturday.

Instead we headed to a restaurant where we decided to order some Bordeaux. Dad, I am starting to learn differences between Wine, I have realized that I love Chianti, but Bordeaux is too heavy for me. Aren't you proud?! I then saw on the menu they had Escargot. I told Kai we were ordering some and he said there was no way he would eat them. I had, had them on a Carnival Cruise when I was in fourth grade and even Carnival made them taste good, so I figured in Paris they had to be amazing. I finally convinced him that we had to order them. The Escargot came covered in butter and pesto, what could be better. When Kai tried one he loved it, and we had officially began our French experience.

We headed to the place we were staying, a room in a couple's apartment that they rent out. It was in Nanterre, an adorable and quaint suburb of Paris. Kai had been there earlier that day and so he knew where the apartment was, or so he thought. We ended up walking around in circles for about an hour, looking for the place while Kai kept saying "this looks familiar" in a very unsure voice. Finally, we were able to get ahold of the man who's place we were staying at, Randall, and he walked us home! We were so far away from it, we could have been walking all night.

Saturday we woke up and headed to the Eiffel tower once again. We got breakfast at a cute little restaurant; an omelette and croissants. Finally, eggs for breakfast!!! The Italians eat them for dinner and I have been dyeing to have them for breakfast. Then we went to go meet our Fat Tire Bike Tour. Lisa Danis told me to do one of these and since Kai and I were short on time we decided it would be a great way to see everything. It was a blast! Our tour guide, Sadie, was very fun and entertaining, and the people were on it were either young couples or students. We got to see and learn about the Eiffel tower, Napoleon's Tomb, The Louvre, Ecole Militaire, Alexander III Bridge, and the most expensive hotel in Europe where the winner of the Tour de France gets to stay! I highly recommend doing a Fat Tire Bike tour if you are ever in Europe, it was so much fun and the perfect way to see the city.

When we finished the bike tour we decided to walk 669 steps up to the second floor of the Eiffel tower! This was harder than I thought because there were some people that looked pretty out of shape inline so I thought it would not be too tough. Well, 669 is a lot of stairs, but we made it! There was an iceskating rink on the Eiffel tower too, and of course beautiful views of the city. We headed to the very top by elevator and when we got there it started pouring rain, which actually made it a really cool view.

By the time we got back down the rain had stopped and the sun came out. We went to go check out the high end shopping. It was ridiculous. Every designer you could possibly think of were all on the same street in Paris. We went to an overpriced dinner near there, where we enjoyed the best french onion soup I have ever had and the worst nicoise salad I have ever had. We made it safely back to our apartment that night without getting lost.


The weekend was very fun and romantic! It was so great seeing Kai and it made me wish we had studied abroad in the same place, but I am headed to London to celebrate my birthday this weekend and get to see him once again!

Cooking, Pisa, Lucca, Wine tasting, and Chocolate Festivals.. I love Italy!

Well the title gives you a quick update about my week here in Italy. It was amazing! I guess I will jump right into it and tell you about the first thing. On Wednesday night my friend Angela and I did a cooking class. One of the great things about Syracuse University in Florence is that they offer all kinds of extra-curricular activities for students to do. So Angela and I thought we would take advantage of it and sign up for a cooking class. We went to the cooking class at 6:00 and started the long process. First I learned to make tiramisu, one of my favorite desserts and is so simple to make! The ingredients are simple just like every Italian dish. We just used eggs, sugar, marscopone cheese, espresso, amaretto, and biscuits. After the simple part was over I learned how to roll pasta. We made ravioli from scratch! This is something I never thought I would do. To be honest, I don't know if I will ever do it again because it is a lot of work. Luckily I didn't get put in charge of kneading the dough because that looked way to difficult. But I got to roll out the pasta, and then we stuffed it with our spinach, ricotta and parmesan mixture, and sliced it. Yes, that sounds easy but it was actually a lot of work. We also made homemade butter sage sauce, tomato sauce, roasted red pepper sauce, angel hair, and linguine! After our hard work of cooking for two hours, we all got to enjoy our creations. My favorite was of course the ravioli and tiramisu, but I tried the other pastas at that sitting. I was so full after! What was so great about the class, was that our instructor taught us a lot about the food that made us appreciate it and made us more knowledgeable with Italian food.

Some fun facts I learned from our cooking instructor..
-The word Salary comes from the word salt because people used to pay each other in salt
-Ricotta is not actually cheese because you have to have at least 30% fat to be considered a cheese and Ricotta is only 5% fat. Riccotta comes from the leftover fat from Pecorino cheese. It is called Riccotta because it means re-cooked! Pecorino is called Pecorino because it comes from sheep's milk and the word for sheep in Italian is pecore.

Angela and Me rolling the dough

Making the Ravioli

Here are mine and Angela's, not perfect but not bad!

The final product!

and of course the Tiramisu

Friday, I was able to go to Pisa and Lucca with my art history class. Pisa was fun because I got to take a picture where I looked like I was holding up the leaning tower of Pisa, but besides that it wasn't too exciting. Lucca on the other hand was amazing. I want to live their someday. Apparently so does Tom Cruise because he is possibly buying a Villa there soon. Lucca is a place I want to go back to and run or bike around the walled town.

Holding up the Leaning tower of Pisa

Jumping for joy in Lucca

On Saturday, I went Wine Tasting in Pazano in Chianti, another place I wouldn't mind living. I went with a student tour program called Florence for Fun. We had two Italian tour guides that spent the day with us by taking us on a two and a half hour hike all over Chianti. This was my favorite part of the day. The weather was perfect and Chianti was gorgeous. It looked very similar to Northern California! After the hike we got to go to the Villa of the wine maker and have a fresh meal with different types of wines. Lorenzo, the man who makes the wine explained to us in Italian what each wine was like, then we had it translated to us by our tour guide. We had three different types of wines with parts of our meals. Then we finished with their dessert wine which was disgusting. After that they told us we had to try grapa because the Italians think it helps people digest their food. So we took it like a shot and it was probably one of the most disgusting things I have ever had in my life. I think if you gave me that and rubbing alcohol, I wouldn't know the difference between the two.

Sampling the Olive Oil.. I bought a bottle to take home

Danielle, Carly, and Me..All from CU

Lorenzo telling us about the Chianti Classico

A fun fact from Lorenzo, the winemaker..
-The most expensive part about producing Italian wine is the cork!

Today, I went to the Chocolate Festival in Florence. It was unbelievable. About 10-15 vendors come and set up huge displays of chocolate in Santa Croce. It was amazing how much chocolate there was! I tried arrancia ciocoloto, ananas ciocolto, truffle di coco, e truffle di pistacchio (Chocolate orange, chocolate pineapple, Coconut truffle, and Pistachio truffle) all which were phenomenal and so different than the types of chocolate that we eat in the states.

So much CHOCOLATE!

Chocolate tools

"I Love You"

This week was a great Italian experience. I learn more and more about the place and culture everyday and grow to love it more and more everyday. On Friday I am off to Paris to see Kai for Valentine's day!