Amalfi Coastinnn with Bus2Alps

Last weekend I discovered my new favorite coast, the Amalfi Coast. I went on a 4 day trip with Bus2Alps to visit Sorrento, Capri, Positano, and Pompei. I had an amazinnnnggg vacation. After all, who doesn't need a 4 day vacation after 3 hard days of school! The trip was from Thursday night to Sunday night and was so convenient because the transportation, hostel, and breakfasts were included, as well as a few activities. Sooo easy and cheap for us starving college students!

A Few Pics...

A Little Experiment. Fantastico!

I just got back from class and wondered what to make for dinner. I wanted eggs, but I had some green beans I wanted to use before I leave for the long weekend. Lightbulb. A dinner omelette. A Domelette! I just put some tomatoes, green beans, and garlic (all from the fresh food daily market behind our street), with oregano and tuscan seasoning in a pan and let them get crisp. They I cooked the eggs with milk and freshly grated parmesan cheese. And... a Domelette! It smelled fantastico! All my roommates thought it was the greatest thing. The chipped plate adds a rustic touch :) Bonissimo!!!

School is Rough...

The market behind our apartment

School is rough.... just kidding!!! I love going to school here! I get to go on fieldtrips everyday for some classes! Yesterday I had my first day of school. In the morning I had Italian Renaissance Architecture. She is British and very enthused. We will go on walking tours every class to museums, churches, and buildings with architectural significance. The only thing I don't like about the class is that I am not allowed to wear shorts, and have to wear a sweater to every class. This is because the churches have a strict dress code and if a kid is not admitted into the church, he/she fails because we aren't allowed to miss a single class. We walked over to the Duomo, the largest church in Italy, and she told us a little bit about it. The church was built in the 1200's to compete with the churches in other cities. It took about 70 years to build because the facade is so intricate.

After class, my roommates and I went to the fresh food market behind our street. The produce selection was amazing. I got green beans, tomatoes, an apple, and lettuce for $2. Yummm, apparently tomatoes are in season, and mine are the best I have ever tasted, really red and juicy. I also got my 30 meal vouchers for Gonzo, the school's restaurant. Conveniently, it is only 2 doors down from us. Super swankyyy.

In the afternoon I had beginning Italian. That was really funny. I was pretty much the only one laughing though. The teacher loves music and always has it on in the background. He only had 60's music, I thought this was hilarious because we are in Italy! I heard "My Girl" and "Ain't no Mountain". My roommate Tracy and friend Luisa are in the class so it was fun practicing "Mi chiamo Katherine" with them. Luisa is from Munich and is only 18. She is just taking a year of art classes here before she applies for college. She is also in my mixed media class which I had today and was extremely boring...

My favorite class is my Michelangelo, Carvaggio, and Bernini class. My teacher is very energetic and young. He knows every single historic detail of Florence. We got an overview today of the history. Apparently, Florence was founded by Julius Caesar (44BCE-100BCE) as a city for retired war generals. Florence, a retired community!!! Back in the day it would have looked like a classic Roman city. The reason Florence is still celebrated for it's architectural genius is because it still has the thumbprint of the original city plan. There are streets that make a semi circle, which are on top of what used to be an ancient ampitheater. Today there is a merry go round where the Roman Forum used to be. Throughout the middle ages, the Florentinians wanted to forget their ancient history. The Renaissance was the time of rebirth right after the plague of 1348. Over 2/3 of the population died, and about 50 years later, Florence was ready to reboot. They covered all the ancient buildings with plaster and started painting with perspective, something that had never been done before. Michelangelo was born in 1475 in Caprese, right after the Renaissance, and began his apprenticeship as a boy in Florence. I live by the garden where he was discovered sculpting by Lorenzo il Magnifico dei Medici. It was all history from there! I can't wait to learn more in this class! We also have numerous walking field trips in this class as well. I have one more Italin Renaissance Art class tomorrow. I hope I have a good teacher!

For dinner I made a chicken parmesan sandwich with my fresh lettuce, juicy tomatoes and grated cheese! mmmm.

My roommate Lindsay has a new descriptive word for the smells on some of the streets of Florence: barnyard. They don't smell bad everywhere but there are some interesting smelling areas.

Thursday I am going to the Amalfi Coast: Capri, Sorrento, Positano, and Pompeii!!!

Cinque Terre-My New Favorite Beach Towns!

The beautiful fifth city of Cinque Terre, Monterrosso

Cats follow me around the world!

Beginning our hike :D




More lovers leaving their locks of love

Isa is my Brazillian roommate


Banana Gelato mmmm

Found Lani's cousin who was visiting from Germany

The beach of Monterrosso, the fifth town, where we hung out on the beach for a few hours

Panini pomodore con tonno. mmmmm cinque terre tuna, only 3.50 euro

beginning our hike! so much fun :D

Today I went to Cinque Terre (Five Lands) with 4 of my roommates. We went on a day tour through Bus2Alps.. They have a lot of cheap trips for students. For 38 Euro We got the 2.5 hour bus ride to the coast of Italy and then a day pass to the train that goes to each of the five towns. We hiked from the first town Riomaggiore to the third town, Corniglia. From there we hiked to the next town. The hike is along the cliff against the water and the view was breath taking. The weather was very warm so we decided to only do 2 of the 5 hikes. Their difficulty increases each hike. After the second town, we got lunch at the Blue Marlin Bar where I got a tuna and tomato panini. It was scrumptious. Then we took the train to Monterrosso, the last of the five towns. That's where the biggest beach is. There are also tons of gift shops, gelato places, and little hotels. For five euro we each rented an umbrella on the beach with a massive beach lounging chair. We stayed on the beach for about 4 hours and went in the water which was extremely blue and I got banana gelato. The weather was perfect, everyone was very happy, and the atmosphere was amazing. I could not have asked for a better way to celebrate the last day of summer! The only thing I did not like was that the beach was very rocky, not sharp rocks, but no sand at all. Around 6 we road the train back to the first station and took the bus back to Florence. The drive through Tuscany was unbelievable!!! When I win the lottery, you can all come stay in my guesthouse!

Florence Illuminated

Kittiez findin duckiez under the Arn River

The little friend who lives directly across our window!









Reflections!!!
I have never seen reflections in water like this before!!! Watching the sunset on the Arn River...

Florentina Pictures!

There are mopeds galore... I have almost gotten run over 100x. They say that street signs are only decorations in Italy and drivers make their own rules




Locks on the Arn River. Lovers put these here to secure and show their love for one another. They do this all over Italy.




Part of an old tower, I think it used to be connected to the wall that used to be around Florence




Remains of the Wall around Florence




More remains of the wall





GELATOOO!!! It was chocolate cake flavor with bits of cake and chocolate chunks!! Grandpa would love it! Only 1.5 euro




Flowers. This is for you mommy and gma!




bakery where we got pizza for 1 euro!!mmmm lots of good bread




The Arn River




I love it here!




Church Parking!




The Statue at La Basilica di Santa Croce




La Basilica di Santa Croce, less than a 5 minute walk from me. I pass it everyday on my way to school. It is in a piazza with cafes, vendors and is where everyone sits and has lunch. There are also concerts all the time, right in front of it.




Via Dei Macci 63




Kaitlin and my window




Our room, I'm on the left




The buggy at the market




Produce



My street!

I love Firenze!

Buon Giorno!
I have been in Florence the past 2 days and I am in loveeee. It is so beautiful I want to cry. I live in 63 Via Dei Macci with my friends from USD Kaitlin Cooper, Katherine Braden, Tracey Poland and then two other girls. One just graduated and is taking a year off while she is deferred to Harvard. Her name is Lindsay and she is soooo much fun. Definitely a wild girl, she reminds me a lot of my sister Emily. The other girl is Isabella, she is Italian and speaks fluent Italian. She showed us the lay of the land and is extremely helpful. Isa lives in Brazil and is taking classes here. Lindsay is from Boston and is only taking cooking and wine tasting classes. I could not be happier!!!

We have a little kitchen with a sink, fridge & freezer, stove and microwave. There are 6 girls, 3 bedrooms, and 3 bathrooms. We even have a baday... awkward. We are the only room in the whole program that has internet!!!! I think it is because we live underneath the dean and just use hers. Our location is amazing! We are also a lot closer to the school than all the other rooms, we live next to numerous cafes, pizzerias, clothing, and tobacco stores. We are less than a five minute walk to the Aarne River where the view is breathtaking. The only bad part is that it is sooooo hot here and since we are near the water, I have been eaten alive by mosquitos. I douse myself in bug spray but it has not helped. Very irritating. We are also close to the most amazing church I will ever see in my entire life, the Duomo. I have not gone on a tour yet but I would like to do that this weekend. The architecture is unbelievable. The piazza near us also has a massive beautiful church that I am in awe everytime I walk by it.

Lindsay and I make references to the Lizzie McGuire Movie at least once a day. My taxi driver's name was even Paolo. She also notes what each street smells like. There are different smells every few feet, whether it's dirt, pizza, coffee, laundry, trash... you name it. So far we have noticed a hamster smell and a fish tank smell on a few streets... I wonder which domestic animal smell we will find next?

My first night, Sep.1, Isabella took us to a pizzeria where I got margherita pizza, it wasn't spectacular... I am trying to find my favorite place- I hear Naples is the best! We also went to the market and bought bug spray and some food. In the future we are going to try and go to the fresh food market that they have during the early day because it is cheap and fresh.

The next day, Kaitlin and I woke up early and ventured around taking thousands of pictures. The funniest thing we saw was a sign that had a cartoon picture of the crucifixion, it was for church parking hehe. Then we had orientation all day but I had a roasted vegetable panini that was amazinggg. At night we went to the market and bought a ton of groceries and we are picking days for each person to make dinner for everyone else. Designated dinner nights will be fun! Then we went to a club called Twenty-One. It was free but was really cool inside with stream lights and cool places to sit. I felt safe because Katherine Braden's boyfriend is also studying in Italy and he and his roommate came with us. That made me feel good because I have first handedly experienced the sleezy Italian reputation. One guy at the club put his hand on my chin and said Ciao Bella. . . I WAS GROSSED OUT. Didn't like it. Invasion of space. I have been getting a lot of attention and I don't know how I feel about it. If it is anyone over the age of 25, I am usually freaked out. anywhoo...

Today we had more orientation and then Kaitlin and I went to the 99 cent store and bought some stuff for our apartment. Some cheap storage stuff for our closet and tupperwear. The store was chincy just like American dollar stores but the stuff we got will do the trick! Then we got gelato. I got chocolate cake with chocolate chunks!!! I am in loveee. I am always going to get the smallest size because it is so thick, I bet it is really fattening. And I plan to try a new flavor every time.... I think I will go fruity soon!!