My mask!

Venice Carnevale!

So yesterday, I took a nice three hour bus ride to VENICE for the infamous Carnevale (that's Carnival in Italian)! I didn't really know what to expect, I heard from some people it's creepy, some people it's beautiful, some people said it was a huge party like Mardi Gras and others said it was a family-friendly festival. So I went in with an open mind and a sweeet mask that I bought in Florence. We got on the bus at 9 AM and arrived in Venice at around 1130-12. The sun was shining and the scenery was absolutely stunning.

After buying 3 euro boxes on vino blanco, all the PC girls (and were there a lot of us there!) took the waterbus over to Burano to see all the painted houses. The ride was long but we really got to see the whole city from the rivers. Fun fact I learned: Venice is a city built entirely on water. It is actually not one land mass but composed of hundreds of mini islands. They are connected by 409 bridges, I think I saw about 30 in my day there!

We had lunch in Burano, margherita and brie pizza, in a small cafe. Since everyone in the city was in San Marco square for the festival it was very quiet and a nice place to enjoy lunch. We then jumped back on the waterbus and attempted to head towards San Marco. Since the map was literally indecipherable we decided to just jump off at any stop and follow the signs to San Marco- apparently you can walk around all of Venice in 45 minutes so we knew we weren't far away. Also, we banked on the fact that everyone in the city was heading towards to festival and worst comes to worst- we just need to follow the masked people. 

Luckily enough, we found some intricately dressed people in almost immediately after found a piazza filled with tourists and locals all heading down side streets! We ended up in the square in no-time!

Rachel, Meg and myself posing with masked locals.

Then we just started people watching. Not everyone was dressed up, but there were some awesome costumes. Not only were there people dressed in elaborate dresses from Victorian times or Zorros running around in capes, the Venetians use this as their Halloween! We saw bunnies, fairies, snails, a ghostbuster, Teletubbies, Shrek & Fiona, fat ladies and other hilariously dressed oddballs. We spent a lot of time wandering and observing and shopping and laughing. It was definitely a good time. 

Around seven we got hungry and found a small restaurant where we were rushed in and out in under a half hour! We then got gelato and shopped in all the Murano glass stores, all wishing we had more money to spend on the beautiful trinkets. 

I just thought this was gorgeous!

We then decided to wander over to the Rialto Bridge since it's famous and beautiful and even though it was getting dark out- how many times are we going to be in Venice. By this time, the whole city was alive. Many more people came out in masks and you could tell the parties were starting all around. Once we crossed the bridge, we heard live music blasting. We followed the sound and found this small piazza with a stage, a live band (playing American music) and dozens of people jammed in dancing and drinking. How could we pass that up? We stayed for a good while, making idiots of ourselves dancing around in our masks. It was so fun! After we left we caught the waterbus back to Tronchetto to meet up with our tour guides and get on the bus. We thought we were going to be really late, but ended up being one of the first ones on the third and last bus (so, the earliest of the latecomers, if you will). We ended up having to wait for AN HOUR AND A HALF after departure time for two girls who were drunk and lost in the city. It was horrendous. I was livid but luckily fell asleep on the ride home. We got back to Florence around 3 AM and didn't get back to sleep until around 430 AM. Needless to say, I slept until 2 PM this afternoon but I'm finally rested enough to do some homework and cleaning!

First Official Weekend in Florence!

So this is officially the first weekend that I'm spending in Florence instead of traveling to another country! I will be heading off to Venice tomorrow for the Carnevale but I am spending most of my time in mia bella citta!
I also had a full week (well, Mon-Weds) of classes this week- no field trips to ridiculous chapels to see ancient frescos :( which was challenging by my new Florence standards, haha. I had an actual assignment due in my Gender Relations class that I actually spent a good chunk of time doing and I had my first Intermediate Italian quiz on Weds (which was veryyy easy, although I mis-conjugated the passato prossimo of "prendere" as "prenduto" instead of "preso," so I don't think I'll be getting 100%). Otherwise, the week itself wasn't very eventful. I did make dinner for myself every night this week, which I was very proud of :)

Nathalie and myself at Astor

Yesterday, Nathalie and I went on our weekly "no-class-thursday" date to the Oil Shoppe and got delicious paninis. Mine was wicked spicy so my nose was running and my eyes were watering but it was so good I couldn't stop. Then we went shopping (at the Italian H&M) and I spent a little more than I had intended too, but got some wonderful, European going-out clothes. I spent the rest of yesterday lounging around the apartment, did some preparations for projects in the future and watched copious amounts of Glee!
Last night, Rach and I crossed the river and went over to Meg and Nat's before we went out. We left around 11 and crossed back over to go to Bacco Wine Bar near Santa Croce. The place was packed but we saw a lot of PC kids there so it was a blast. We then went to Red Garter and got some free popcorn and ended our night at Lochness. Of course, we made a quick stop at the secret bakery before going home and I feasted on two freshly baked, warm and gooey chocolate croissants. 

burgerrsss

Today, Meg, Nat and myself decided to try out "The Diner" near my apartment. It's this small restaurant run by this Austrailian man (or English? I can't remember) that is modeled after a real American diner. It was the best to have that type of comfort food after a night out on the town. I got a burger with caramelized onions and gorgonzola cheese with homefries and I have never been happier.


Afterwards we wandered around and bought cheap masks to wear at Carnevale tomorrow, since they are going to be outrageously overpriced in Venice. I also made my first Italian leather purchase! I got a brown leather over the shoulder bag that is perfect for day trips and the lady was so sweet and gave us discounts since we're American students, only 20 euro! Now, I'm back at the apartment chilling, probably going to take a nap or watch more Glee!.. So many possibilities.. 


Also, really quick- if you haven't signed this petition, I think it's a really good cause to look into-
Here's the email I sent some of you with the info:

So since I'm in Italy I don't get to watch the news or even get updates on Yahoo! (it's italian Yahoo!) here, so today I FINALLY got a chance to sit down and read about the controversy surrounding Planned Parenthood. Congress is voting on a bill to cut all federal funding whatsoever to Planned Parenthood next week, due to the fact that Planned Parenthood is a facility that performs abortions. However, no federal funding is allocated to abortions and in fact, only 3% of all Planned Parenthood's services are abortions. The majority of their services include information to contraception, access to contraception, treatment and information for STDs, cancer screenings, not to mention a safe house for American women of all different backgrounds. So, if Congress cuts all federal funding, THESE services will be jeopardized. I signed the petitions this morning and I strongly encourage you to do the same! I think this is a very pressing and important issue. I know that Planned Parenthood has helped many of my friends and I don't think future generations should be robbed of those opportunities. At the least, read the info over and consider it! Thank you!

Here's the link for the petition to Congress:

http://standwithplannedparenthood.com/

Willkommen to Switzerland!

Sorry this post has taken me so long, I do have classes you know ;)


Anyways! This past weekend, Rachel and I went to Interlaken, Switzerland! To be honest, at first I wasn't very excited about this trip. Since I don't ski, snowboard or generally enjoy any wintery/outdoorsy/snowy activities, I was worried I wasn't going to have enough to do.. but the price was right (only about 150 euros for transportation, the hostel AND breakfast every morning) so I did it anyway. 

Interlaken, Switzerland

We left around 11:30 PM on Thursday night for an overnight trek into the center of the Swiss Alps. I luckily slept for most of the ride, but I woke up around 7 AM as my bus was "little-engine-that-coulding" up the mountainside. We got to Interlaken around 8:30 AM and all rested until about 10:00 when we woke up for breakfast. After breakfast, Rachel and I wandered around the town, down to the center, to the spa to check out treatment prices and we saw people landing from their paragliding adventures. 


We both decided that since everyone and their mother were skiing and snowboarding, we needed to do something extravagant and exhilarating- so we rushed back into town to sign up for paragliding. Luckily, there was a trip about to leave in 15 mins, so we paid right away and waited in the lobby for the instructors to show up. We got suited up in the most ridiculous outfits: these hugeee, bulky red parachute pants that had a gazillion buckles and straps and these big, dirty, hiking boots that made me look like the abominable snowman. We took a 20 minute bus ride up the mountain with our instructors and they told us about living in Switzerland (oddly enough, nothing really about the safety of paragliding.. which I graciously took as it being a very safe activity!). 

look how high I am!

When we got up to the mountain, we made a short walk to this cliff-like hill (literally, so steep it seemed like an immediate drop-off). Our instructors got the parachutes ready while we took ridiculous pictures of each other and I attempted to calm my pre-jump jitters. Finally, it was time to go. Tom, my instructor/guide strapped me to the parachute and told me to focus on the edge of the cliff and just run like I was going to run straight off of it. He counted down from three and I literally was high off of my adrenaline so I just ran. Before I knew it, my feet weren't running on the ground at all and I was airborne. The views were absolutely spectacular!

The view from my point-of-view. That's Rachel below me!

We stayed in the air for about fifteen minutes, since it was just Rachel and I jumping that afternoon. The sun came out for us so we had clear views of all of Interlaken. My instructor seemed to have some thrill-seeking tendencies because he kept catching the wind just in time to spin us. It was a little scary at first, but the I started to love it!


We had a quick landing and I was so happy I had the opportunity to go paragliding! It was so gorgeous and breathtaking and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is considering it!


That night, Rachel and I walked around with two girls we were randomly rooming with from West Virginia, Lauren and Tiffany. We ended up finding a kebab place downtown and got a really cheap, but really delicious dinner there. Then we went home, relaxed a bit and went with our WONDERFUL bus2alps tour guide, Shelby, down to the hostel bar/club. I thought it was going to be this small, sketchy bar in the basement of the hostel but it was completely hopping. I found out that it's the only real "club" in all of Interlaken so all the younger kids and all the people on ski-vacations end up in Balmer's basement on weekend nights. I stayed for a while, socializing with the tour guides and random people we were meeting but turned in kinda early (I guess flying thousands of feet above mountains is a little tiring). 

One of the views from my hike!

The next day, we woke up and decided to hike up one of the mountains we saw while paragliding (mostly because this was a free activity and because it was such a sunny day out!) The hike was pretty intense but it was such a satisfying climb! Every view I saw, I stopped and gawked at the scenery. EVERYTHING WAS BEAUTIFUL and the air was crisp and clean! Even the local river is clean enough to drink from. Interlaken was such a nice break from all the city-living I've been doing, it was nice and it made me feel better (and healthier, so much physical activity!).


After the hike, I went downtown to do some Swiss shopping. I bought some gifts :) and I bought myself an authentic Swiss watch like my grandfather wanted me to. The watch is stunning. It's small, gold, and simple with little diamonds at each number marking. They had to take out FIVE links since my wrist is so small, but it was definitely worth it, the best purchase I've made so far!


That night we went back to the hostel bar with a bunch of PC guys that came from Barcelona to go skiing. I stayed out a bit later, but still ended up going to sleep early since I was tired from all the fresh air! We left around 2 PM on Sunday and I slept most of the way back to Florence! Definitely a wonderful, relaxing weekend. 


Also, everyone check your mail :) You should all be getting something special soon!

ttys

Hey everyone!
I'm about to head to the train station for Switzerland!
I'll update you when I return (or most likely Monday morning since I'll be returning late on Sunday)!
Love you allll, xox

Czech Me Out, Prague!

Hi everyone!
So I'm officially back and rested from my weekend trip to Prague, Czech Republic. I think it's safe to say that this weekend was the best time I've had since I've left the USA, it was an absolute blast! Even though I was only in Prague for a few days, I fell absolutely in love with the city and kinda wish I gave more consideration to studying there. But I'm home in Florence now and I still love Firenze!


So after my slew of weekday classes, we departed for Prague at 9 PM on Thursday night. It just so happened that a lot of people I knew were going on the trip! Rach and I had booked the trip together originally but Meg, Nat and their two roomies also decided to come. And a lot of other girls we knew (including Paige) were along as well. So we departed from Florence around 9 on the bus and drove all night until we reached Prague at 9 AM- yep, 12 wonderful hours. I did sleep but my back and neck were killlling me and I'm pretty sure I lost circulation in my butt for at least a day afterwards. 

 Old Town Square

Anyway we arrived in Prague and it was slightly drizzling, which I was a bit TO'ed about, but luckily after we "czech-ed" in (hahahaha) at the Czech Inn (probably the most luxurious hostel in the world), the sun started to come out. We had a short breakfast and then somehow managed to ignore our exhaustion and go on a 3 hour walking tour? I have to admit, I was dreading it but we had this hilarious, over-enthousiastic, Scottish tour guide who somehow managed to cheer us all about. We toured the Old Square, New Square and the Jewish Quarter and I fell in loveeeee with Prague. 


We had lunch at this little (ironically) Italian Panerie and exchanged some money next door. I didn't know this but the Czech Republic is not on the Euro currency. It still uses Czech crowns which was honestly extremely frustrating because I'm just getting used to the Euro and then I had to figure out another twisted currency. But luckily, my euro conversion skills came in handy- one euro is equal to 25 crowns. So when something cost 100 crowns (which was a common price), it was about 4 euros, which is about 6 dollars. 


The weather was colder than Florence, I'd say it was pretty equivalent to New England weather, so Rach, Nat, Meg and I decided to splurge 250 crowns and buy hilarious Czech hats. We found a random side shop and the Czech store tenders absolutely loved us. They were so excited that we were American (a nice change of pace from the snotty Italians hah) and when I was paying the guy asked me if I was from California. I said no, I was from New York (easier to say then.. no I'm from CT, about 2 hours by train outside of New York but I go to school in Rhode Island blah blah blah) and he said I looked like I was from California because I was so smiley? So random but he gave us all discounts so I was happy :)

We then toured the Jewish Quarter and were left on our own for late lunch/early dinner. Our marvelous tour guide recommended this place called "The Pub" where every table has its own beer tap, so you can pour your own beer at the table! We decided to check it out and ended up getting their famous garlic soup in bread bowls for dinner. 


After that we attempted to ride the trams home but the names of all the stops were literally IMPOSSIBLE to decipher. So, we spent an extra half-hour walking home because we were so clueless and let me tell you, the street names were not much better. We got back to the Czech Inn with just enough time to started getting ready to go out. Our trip was sponsoring a pub crawl that we decided to do (just like everyone else on the tour so there was roughly 7 MILLION of us, ugh so many people). So many people in fact that when we were going down the escalator to the subways, the escalator broke and we were forced to walk down. This sounds okay but this escalator is not like all the American ones we are used to. Imagine this, tall mall escalators take about 20 seconds to descend from top to bottom. This escalator, which is underground in a tight tunnel takes a full TWO AND A HALF MINUTES to descend. When it was running smoothly, it was terrifying but when it stopped it was awful. You know the scene from Titanic when the ship breaks in half as it's sinking and you hear that high-pitch shriek? Yep, that's the exact shriek that echoed through the tunnel when the escalator stopped. Ugh, literally terrifying.


Anyway, we arrived to the first bar pretty early. We found out later that this bar was underneath a church? and was completely made of white stone, only lit by christmas lights and candles. There was an open bar that we had to stand in line for and we all thought the night was going to be a bust. But then more and more people started showing up and the bar line started moving faster and it ended up turning into this huge dance party! We found this group of Czech guys (actually, Austrian.. we found out later) who looked like they were about 16 and one of them was Justin Beiber's twin.. so naturally, we started calling him Justin Beiber and then were loving it. After a good long time of dancing they announced that the pub crawl was moving on.. so we followed the lady with the green umbrella to the next venue.


This was an actual bar, which I was a little sad about because you can't dance as much but oh well. Since there was no open bar we made our way up to order our own drinks. We saw a group of Americans drinking from this HUGE cup with about a dozen neon tall straws and decided we should all go in and split that. So I went up to the bar and waited to get the bartenders attention (it was literally packed so it was taking a while) and this Czech dude started talking to me. For some reason I told him that we were ordering the huge bowl and he said he knew the bartender so he could find out the price for me. He called the bartender over, said something and Czech and the bartender went away. He looked at me and said it was 800 crowns.. which is roughly 32 euros.. about 50 dollars, so I turned to my girls and told them. I took out a hundred crowns and the Czech guy looked at me and was like "No, I already ordered it.. you don't have to pay." Literally, the best 10 words I heard all night. So the huge bowl came over to us, the Czech guy gave him money, I said thank you and I took the bowl over to our table. The best part was, even though Beiber and his crew were following us, this guy completely disappeared and we got a free gallon of long island ice tea. So hilarious. 


We moved on to the next bar which I didn't really enjoy, but they had a private room with bean bag chairs that we took over. We ended up at the last bar around 3 AM and literally exhausted (I hadn't slept since my sleep-from-hell on the bus) so we didn't stay for long. BUT one fun fact was this last club was the club from the movie Eurotrip when they take the absinthe shots and go wild on the dance floor? Yep, that's the club I was at for 20 minutes haha. Needless to say, we all went home and crashed until the next morning when we woke up for breakfast.

Nat, myself, Rachel and Meg at an overlook of Prague

The next day we spent walking around the city once again. We saw the huge medieval castle across the river and climbed up the mountain to see the fake Eiffel Tower. It was fun to get out and see the city even though the weather was a bit chilly. 


We then all went home and took a 3 hour nap, which was extremely over due and needed. When we woke up, we ate a quick dinner and once again got dressed to go out. We went to Lucerna, an 80s/90s dance club that was near New Town Square and since we were all still out of it and didn't want to take out more crowns, we decided to forgo dancing for the most part and just people watch. Let me tell you, Czech people are HILARIOUS to watch. They are all so odd and dress so strangely, it made my night. We ended up leaving the club early, almost got caught by the tram police because we didn't have validated tickets, got McDonald's and went home. We woke up Sunday morning for an 11 AM departure to Florence. We arrived in Florence at midnight and I've been sleeping ever since. This morning our landlord and his wife came in and cleaned our kitchen and our bathroom, they are the best! Now, I'm about to leave for a field trip to the Brancacci Chapel to observe paintings for my Chemistry class? More to come soon, Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm off!

Off to Prague for the weekend, I'll post when I return! <3

Weekend Getaway: Assisi, Perugia, Siena & San Gimingnano

This weekend we had our longest and last pre-scheduled "orientation" trip. Oddly, enough this trip was planned on my official second weekend in Florence which means I have yet to spend a full weekend IN my city! It's okay though, I saw some of the most beautiful countryside I have ever seen. 

countryside in Assisi

On Saturday morning, my roommates and I woke up at the crack of dawn (630 AM) and got to the bus at 745 AM. We traveled for about two hours and finally arrived in the beautiful Italian country town, Assisi. (Unfortunately, I slept for most of the ride over so I couldn't report on the countryside views from the bus). Assisi was stunning. The weather was gorgeous and the small town was just the tourist-escape I had been craving. We saw the tomb of St. Clara and wandered around the town for about an hour. We also saw one of the simplest, yet absolutely breathtaking churches I have ever seen; The Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi. It is actually three churches combined into one massive, beautiful masterpiece. After looking through all my photos, I have decided that the photo I took of the Basilica (aside from the tourists) is probably the best photo I've taken thus far. 

We then, jumped back on the bus and went to Perugia. We had lunch at our hotel and got a very short walking tour of the city center. Unfortunately, we didn't get much free time or much of an extended tour of Perugia, which I was very disappointed about. Our program didn't want us going out during the night so they chose a "four-star" hotel practically off the freeway- thus preventing us from attempting to venture into the city center (which was twenty minutes away). We did get a semi-decent meal for dinner at the hotel (lasagna, chicken, salad!) but Rachel and I were so exhausted that we could hardly shower before passing out in bed. 

SIENA! Bella Citta!

On Sunday, we had another early wakeup at 7 am at the hotel. We ate a quick breakfast and jumped back on the bus for about an hour or so to Siena. I was very excited for Siena because there's a really delicious restaurant on Federal Hill named Siena. I figured if a restaurant that delicious is named after this town, it much be absolutely inspiring. And it was. After our hour-long walking tour with a great tour guide, we had about two hours free time to get lunch and wander. Before I run off into a tangent one WILD thing we saw on our tour was this ridiculous set of relics- the HEAD and the THUMB of St. Catherine. They were preserved in wax, but it was a teeeeny bit gross looking at her actual body parts from the 14th century. In fact, her head was unusually small but the tour guide informed us that it was preserved in its actual size, people were just much smaller then than they are today. 


After the tour, Rachel and I decided to have lunch on the ancient town square, which also doubles as a racetrack (it still does today!) twice a year. Since Sienna has 17 districts, all with a particular animal and coat of arms, horse racing is a perfect way for them to revive the ancient rivalries and compete! I couldn't believe the square doubled as a track. It was completely made from stone and surrounded by ancient buildings. According to the tour guide, thousands of people pack into the center of the square to watch each race and the balcony seats sell for over 700 euros. Since the square is so small, the turns are pretty sharp and dangerous. Our tour guide mentioned that one particular corner is especially risky and the jockeys often fall off their horses. Since the jockeys aren't natives of Siena, the spectators don't really care if they fall off- the horses usually continue on and some even win without their jockey. I couldn't believe how alive this rivalry was. Apparently when a district wins, the have a celebration that goes on for two months in their own district. It was absolutely hilarious and insane! Anyway, as I was saying, Rachel and I had lunch at an outdoor restaurant literally ON the racetrack. I finally had my first pasta dish in Italy! It was tortellini with proscuitto, cream sauce and pinoli nuts. IT WAS DELICIOUS!


After lunch we wandered some more. I bought a purple scarf from a small shop and then Rachel and I splurged (3 euro) to go inside the ornate and towering Duomo of Siena. 

We then retreated back to our wonderful bus and rode another hour to San Gimingnano, the "Manhattan" of Italy (according to our tour guide, because of the skyscrapers but it was the smallest town we visited all trip). It was beautiful though with some amazing countryside views. When we were on the bus we actually passed the town Cortona, where Under the Tuscan Sun (the movie, not my blog!) was filmed in. We also came veryyyy close to passing Volterra, where the movie New Moon was filmed, but we couldn't actually see it from the freeway. 

San Giminignano was beautiful and after our short tour Rachel and I decided to try some of their infamous gelato. We found a small shop with cute tables outside and decided to try theirs! I went out on a limb and ordered chocolate and "panno" which was a creamy, almost pastry-filling taste, but mouthwatering and better than any I've tried in Florence!

View of San Gimingnano from the medieval fortress.

Rachel, Shira, Steph and myself on an overlook in San Gimingnano.

Piazza Michelangelo & Santa Croce Cioccolata Festival

Ciao Tutti!! So I've taken a lot of gorgeous photos since my last post so I will be sprinkling a lot in, yay! 

Since this was my first official week of classes, it was also my first official four-day weekend. On Thursday (my new Saturday, haha) I woke up late and moseyed around the apt for a longg time. Then I decided to be productive and went on a search for some of the bookstores for my classes. I found one bookstore but quickly gave up due to the fact that my photography textbook was actually 2 thousand pounds and was cutting off the circulation in my arm. As I was making my way back to the apt, I ran into Erica and we decided to run to Billa (my fave mercato) and grab some quick things. 

When I finally made my way back, I met Rachel and Ryann and we decided to cross the bridge to go visit Nathalie and Meg on the other side of the river. Their apt was so cute, very Italian, but definitely a hike from the center of the city. It was about five PM when we arrived so we all decided to hike up to the Piazza Michelangelo just in time for the sunset. (Their apt is right at the base of the Piazza's mountain, so the hike wasn't too brutal, except for the massive staircases we had to scale).

We reached the summit right as the sun was lighting up the sky! It was absolutely stunning. We literally all stood up there for a good half-hour and stared out over the city as the sun was setting, just in awe. Then we hiked up to the churches and walked around exploring until the sun had almost completely set, it was amazing! 
So, since the hike up and the exploration around was quite the physical exertion on all of us, we went straight back to Nat and Meg's to make some dinner! I had brought over some chicken and they made up a salad and veggies. We all tried to pitch in and made a delicious feast of our own! We marinated the chicken in olive oil and vinegar, sauteed the potatoes in more olive oil, had a spinach, chickpea and chicken salad and baked rolls with fresh mozzarella and tomatoes. It was sooo yummy. After dinner we treated ourselves to more gelato, since we had gotten so much exercise during the day :)

We decided to all dress up and go out after. We started the night at Ryann's apt drinking from her jug of 6 euro vino blanco and ended up going to Astor right by the Duomo. We had wanted to try the infamous discoteca "Space" but realized it was getting too late and Space was quite the walk to make when you're wearing heels and trying to navigate the cobblestone. Instead we made it our mission to find the Secret Bakery. The Secret Bakery is, contrary to its name a relatively well-known "secret" of Florence. There's a small, back-alley way baker in Florence who, every night, bakes pastries, cannolis, pizza, croissants, etc., to deliver to all the city bakeries early in the morning. But every night, between 1:30 AM and 4:30 AM, they "secretly" open the back door and sell pastries to drunken and/or hungry scavengers for one euro apiece. The trick is you have to find the Secret Bakery and after wandering for a little bit, our noses knew. After smelling the gross smells of the city, our noses perked up to the most amazing (and strong!) bakery scents in the world. We turned the corner and saw the door. It's unlabeled except for a sign that says "Please be quiet." A large crowd started to amass and we all knocked and remained quiet for a good twenty minutes before the frazzled baker finally opened the door. You cannot go inside the bakery, you just tell the man what you want, give him a euro, he closes the door and returns with your freshly baked, warm and yummy goods. I ordered a cream-filled croissant and a chocolate-filled croissant and they were to DIE for. So fresh and mouth-watering, I'm never staying out that late without making a stop at the Secret Bakery again.

Today, Friday (aka Sunday in my new four-day weekend world), I slept in once again, which is probably for the best since I've been developing a cough (Dad, don't worry- I went to the farmacia today and got some medicine). Then Rachel and I decided, around 5 PM, to wander down the street to the Santa Croce Piazza where a chocolate festival was being held! Oh Mama Mia, was there chocolate! The piazza was hopping with around 20-30 different chocolate vendors all with different types of chocolate: cioccolata caulda, chocolate fountains, chocolate waffles, chocolate covered fruits, chocolate sculptures, chocolate blocks, fudge, chocolate balls, everything you could imagine! 

Me: posing with my chocolate covered
strawberry stick and my Euro poofy jacket!

Rachel and I both treated ourselves to chocolate covered fruits (trying to stay healthy here!) and she got a chocolate covered waffle while I just got a small shotglass of melted chocolate. It was so delicious!Now, I'm just back at my apt, relaxing. Steph's boyfriend Chris offered to make us dinner and since my cooking skills aren't quite up to par yet, I decided to jump on that bandwagon tonight. Tomorrow we have an early wake up and departure time (have to be on the bus by 745 A) for our weekend trip to Perugia, Assisi, Siena and San Gimignano! I'll update with pictures and stories when I return!

The longest day everrr..

So I have no new pictures from these past few days of classes so here's a nice one to keep you all entertained.. This is Pino's Panino Shop. You can get a DELICIOUS sandwich here for only three euro and Pino is the nicest, sweetest Italian man you will ever meet! I've been there twice already, actually last night for dinner and have never even been close to being disappointed. You can also get a ciccolata calda (hot chocolate) for sixty cents in the back, so yummy :)


Anyways, I just finished my longest day of classes and I'm exhausted! Yesterday I only had one class: History of Photography, which I really, really liked. My teacher is a native Florentine but she lived in the states for a number of years and is married to an American. She rides a moped (which I thought was awesome!) and had very fashionable clothing that I wanted to buy. When she took attendance she pronounced my name correctly!! This has actually been happening a LOT here, (I've been waiting all my life for people to pronounce Squeglia correctly!) but she asked if my family was originally from Italy. When I told her yes she asked from where. I told her Caserta and her face lit up. She insisted that I make my way down to Caserta and visit the "most beautiful palace she has ever seen." So I definitely need to keep that in the back of my mind :) Her class was pretty boring (we had to go over the syllabus and she wanted to get the technical things out of the way), which she warned us about but I'm really excited to learn more about photography!


Then last night, the roomies, Meg, Nat, Ryann and I went out for an apertivo!.. Which turned into a dance party later on at the Red Garter. It was a blast, we were all together, watching people do karaoke and we were all just singing along and dancing. I didn't stay out too late, since I knew today was my long day, but I was still tired all day. Guess that will be my last Tuesday going out.. haha maybe.. 


So today, I had my first class at noon: Ethics in a World Context. About half the class was composed of PC kids so it was nice to see some familiar faces! My teacher is extremely awkward, with a very dry sense of humor that I found hilarious. We took some funny "morality" tests in the computer lab across the street and got out early. I ran home and made a quick sandwich before my next class at 3: Gender Relations in Italian Society. My roommate Steph and Annie from PC are both in the class so I was happy to know people. The class was held right by the Duomo on Via dell'Oriuolo in this lecture hall that is completely covered in snake skin. Hilarious but wonderful! My teacher was also a native Florentine but a big traveler and she spoke English beautifully. Unfortunately she kept us until 530 but I think her class will quickly become my favorite!
After that class, I had a half hour to kill before going across the hall to my Italian class. So I got a ciccolata calda and started chatting with the girl sitting next to me in the waiting area. Haha, Maietta, if you're reading this she was from Long Island and I said I knew someone from West Islip! Then I went into Italian and once again sat in the room while she spoke Italian and tried my best to comprehend what she was saying. I actually answered a question correctly and she said "Perfetto!" which calmed my nerves even though myself and the two other PC girls, Allison and Alessandra (who were in my Italian 101 at PC) are terrified of her class.


Now, I'm finally home, eating leftover lasagna and relaxing. I'm talking to my bestest friend in the whole, wide world- ANGELA JU! Who I keep referring to as Ju and constantly remind my Jewish roomies that I'm really not trying to be offensive (tehe). Love you, Angie <3 Oh and everyone else, I wrote about a thousand postcards yesterday and once I figure out where to get francobolli (stamps) and where the post office is, I will send them out!


So, more updates tomorrow, even though I am done with classes for the week :) Yep, none on Thursdays or Fridays! I have a lot of mini errands to do, so I'll update you all soon!