Pisa

This morning at 10:00am I went with my fashion marketing class to the Salvatore Ferragamo shoe museum. It was really cool they had receipts from Ginger Rogers and Marilyn Monroe. They also had molds of there feet on display b/c they had custom made shoes. After the museum I went home for a quick lunch and headed to the train station to go on a day trip to Pisa. After an hour and half train ride we were there. Once you get out of the station you have to walk straight for about 15-20 min bare to the left and you will see the leaning tower and the Duomo in front of you. When you get to the actual tower it is funny because there are people all over the place sticking an arm out or a leg trying to get the infamous leaning tower tourist picture. Madison and I tried several times in various locations and finally we got it! I had to stand on top of something and lean over a fence to get the money shot! There isn't that much in Pisa besides the tower so we basically walked around took pictures and left. It was a beautiful day so we lucked out. 

A Monday in Milan

Monday morning Madison and I woke up early and left for the train station, a ten min walk from our apartment. The train ride was about 2 1/2 hours I just slept and read. The train station in Milan is huge and beautiful. The hotel we were staying at was within walking distance from the train station so we made our way to Hotel Napolean. Madison has a family friend Named Elio who lives in Italy and was in Milan for business. He was our tour guide for the day. We went to lunch, went to the main piazza where the duomo was. So big, so many pigeons, so pretty. We went inside of the Duomo, which is a church and walked around inside. We basically saw all the sights. Everyone in Milan is dressed to impress, it is the fashion capital so it makes sense. That night we went out to a very  nice restaurant, it is so nice having someone who speaks Italian with you, it is so  much easier and convenient, I really hope I can learn it eventually. Milan is very different from Florence, it is much bigger and more commercial, I liked it but prefer Florence. I am going back with my fashion marketing class in April so I shall return.

Austerlitz

Currently I am eating a spoonful of Nutella dipped in rice crispy cereal and it is an amazing combination let me tell you. This weekend we stayed in Florence. Thursday night we went back to our new favorite Mexican restaurant Tijuana's for happy hour and mexican food. It was so good but I felt so full afterwards. Once we got back to the apt we convinced everyone to go out b/c at that point not all 8 of us had gone out all together once, so we went to a bar called Lochness which was very nice, it reminded me of the inside of a genie bottle. Saturday day I read a book entitled Austerliz all day. It is for my European Lit class and is 417  pages of boring. It takes me so long to read and when I do make progress I have no idea what I had just read. After reading all day I needed to get outside so Sarah and I ran along the Arno on the bike path. It was so beautiful the sun was setting over the river when we were heading back. Saturday night we had some drinks at the house and then Sarah and I wanted Mojitos so we decided to go to Moyo. Bad idea. The cute Italian bar tenders who "love American girls" gave us shots along with our drinks so sarah and I quickly became very tipsy. We went to the bathroom and I broke the flusher off the wall b/c for some reason I decided to kick it instead of push it, at the time I thought it was a really great idea, so we just ran away. The rest of our roomates met up with us at Moyo and we went to Glamour a night club where we danced for the rest of the evening. When I finally came home I passed out.  We all stayed in on saturday night and rested. Today  I woke up read more Austerlitz went for a run outside. It was so beautiful out today, around 50 degrees. I decided to go sit along the Arno and read yes you got it more austerlitz. Madison and I took a break and headed to the train station to pick up our tickets for Milan, which I am going to tomorrow. Today was the last day of carnival so there were people all over the place with masks, children dressed in costumes throwing confetti, one little girl skipped right up to me and through some in my face, she came out of no where and scared the crap out of me. After we got the tickets we can back and went back to reading(I have to finish for tuesday) I accidentally made 2lbs of rice, shared it with the roomies and now I am back to reading....bahhhhh, when I finish I am going to take a victory lap. 

Uffizi Gallery

Today I was woken up early by some Italian electricians who came to put a censor on our light I guess. Since I was up I went to the gym and pumped it! Later on I went to my Love sex and marriage class. We visited the Uffizi Gallery with our class and saw a lot of famous paintings such as Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" and "La Primavera." It was really cool to get an art history lesson and see the actual painting in front of you rather than a slide. The only bad thing about the class is that there is a group of kids in it that don't give a shit. During the entire lesson they stood in the back in a circle and talked while our teacher told us about each painting. I found it really ignorant of them. They are in Italy looking at very famous historical paintings and are on their blackberrys ...are you serious! Why would you take that class/ come to Italy if you are not interested in learning about the culture. At one point I said something to them because they were pissing me off, and later on a girl came up to me and said thanks for saying something to them, they were getting on my nerves, and it wasn't just today every single class they talk. Know the types of guys who think everything they say is so cool but they are really obnoxious.. that is what they are like BAH sorry about that tangent! Anyways after class I went got a cafe latte grande via porta bought some more books for my lit class and went to Ganzo for dinner. I can't believe tomorrow is already Thursday which means it is the weekend! I have fun day trips planned so I am excited.

Ciao

Ganzo!

Yesterday I made my first big purchase.....a brown adorable leather jacket which I will add to my car tab and pay back my dad for because quote "I'm paying for you to have fun not go shopping" which I knew.. but I wanted it and I plan on sleeping in it, bathing in it, cooking in it, giving birth to my first child in it, Jk... I love it so I don't mind paying for it, worth it! That was about all that happened yesterday. Today Tuesday was my day filled with classes from 9am-8:30pm. Fashion Marketing was good we discussed what a brands Image really means and watched a movie about Victor and Rolf two fashion designers from the Netherlands and how they launched there brand. In Italian we learned about masculine and feminine nouns and that the word Ganzo.. is a slang term for Cool here in florence... I have been using it all day with the word Allorah which means so, Italians use it all the time it is like the work like in english they say it all the time. So I say allorah ganzo.. which isn't correct but I think its funny. After Italian I had a quick lunch break and then was off to my european english class were we discussed the book Periera Declares. After Lit I walked to my Florence cooking class. Today we didn't cook anything because we went on a walking tour of the hidden gems in florence. First we went to a little shop where we had truffle sandwiches, which is a type of mushroom paste. Next we went to a restaurant that served us red wine and all types of spreads on bread. I tried a spinach and sundried tomato, chicken liver patte, cheese, salsa and a salami. The boy that served us was 16 years old and was named Andrew, he didnt speak much english and was trying to talk to us, it was pretty funny, he was trying to impress all the American girls and our teacher was talking to him and making fun of him. Our last stop was Grom, which is a gelato shop. We tried a nutella flavored gelato straight from the mixer. The man who worked there told us how to know your having good gelato. He said if a place has a gelato flavor that is out of season like strawberry than it means it has a lot of preservatives. If the gelato is out on display like in most shops then it is filled with air, good gelato is kept away. After the sample I got a scoop of cafe and a scoop of dark chocolate and it was amazing! Thats all for today.

Ciao

Chocolate!

This weekend I stayed in Florence. Thursday night my roomates and I went to this mexican restaurant for happy hour and it was delishious we plan on going back every thursday. Later that night we went to Twice a night club and danced the night away. Friday night we ate at this Sushi place that was really good and went out to a club called glamour and danced the night away again. Saturday we took the bus to a small town that is about 15min away. There was a chocolate festival going on so naturally we had to go. When we got there it wasn't what we had expected but still fun, when chocolate is involved you will always enjoy yourself. I got hot chocolate that litteraly was melted chocolate in a cup I could only handle a few sips. I also got some other tasty treats and ate them all, it was Valentines day I had to treat myself! When we got back we went to Moyo for apertif I had two mojitos walked home and passed out at 8:30. Two nights of intense dancing till 3am really catches up with you. Today Sunday I woke up went to the gym, walked around the market, went grocery shopping, read and relaxed. This weekend was nice and relaxing!

486 Steps

This morning I woke up early because I wanted to go to the gym before my 12:00 class. At first I didn't want to get out of bed but then I knew I had to get back into my working out routine! I finally got myself to the gym worked out and felt much better about myself. I felt really awkward walking to the gym in my gym clothes because all the Italians were staring at me. Oh well. After I got ready I went to class. During class our teacher gave us all head sets and we went on a walking tour of Florence. There is so much history it is overwhelming. The final stop on our walking tour was the Duomo. We walked up to the top. We walked up 486 steps, very very steep steps to get to the top, but once you got to the top it was worth being completely out of breath. The view from the top was absolutely beautiful, you could see all of florence and the surrounding mountains. After we took in all the sights we headed back down, which was much easier. When we got to the bottom our legs were shaking. Starving and tired I went home made some lunch talked to some friends on skype and just hung out. I just got back from a gelato place called Grom, which is supposed to be the best place in time, b/c it is not touristy. It was excellent, I will definitely go back. Now I am tired and probably going to go to bed soon.

Allorah

I woke up with a mission. I needed to find notebooks! There are no staples or wallmarts here, they do not sell them in grocery stores only in speciality stores. I went back to this one place that a woman at the front desk of my school had mentioned and realized it went out of business. I walked a block and stumbled upon a stationary shop and Finally got some school supplies. Afterwards I went back to Roberto Cavalli to take some more notes for the paper I had to write. When I got home I had some lunch charged m laptop and headed over to the corner cafe where I had a cafe latte and worked on my paper, it was  quite lovely doing my work in a little Italian cafe, once my computer died I headed back to my apartment and finished it in time to go check out this Italian gym that is 5min from my apt. I had a free trial card so I wanted to check it out. I went with my roomate maggie and worked out for half an hour and than took a hip hop class they were offering. The instructor didn't really talk the entire time, everyone just followed along. It was really fun and I plan on going back. After pumpin it at the gym I made myself some dinner showered and just hung out for the rest of the evening.

Trip to Rome

On Friday 2-6-09 my roomates and I got on a train to Roma! While on the train, I was humped by a nasty Italian man so I started off the trip with a bang literally! Once we got off the metro we made our way to the hostel called happy days which was very close to the vatican. We dropped off all of our stuff in our room and hit the ground running. We walked to the the Vatican and went to visit the sistine chapel, there were no lines which was amazing! After we went to the vatican we went back and took a much needed nap. After my nap we went out to dinner at this exclusive Italian restaurant .. we were the only americans in there, it was delish. I had lasagne but instead of pasta it was made with a tortia type bread soo good. We slept woke up and took a bus to the colosseum some people from the hostel had made tin foil weapons and armor so we brought it with us and battled one another inside. We walked around the Roman forum, visited the spanish steps and the Trevi fountain. We walked so much, we walked from one end of the city to the next, and my thighs are throbbing! On saturday night we went out to a club with some of the people from the hostle which was really fun! The others were from, New Zealand, Australia, Ireland, Argentina and Canada. 

COFFEE TO GO

Today I had my first love sex and marriage class. It went well it is packed with students and the teacher is very eccentric/ goes off on a lot of tangents. She said we will be doing a lot of walking around Florence in the class which is great news. During our break I noticed that a girl in my class had a to go coffee cup, and I was pumped I went right away and got a cafe latte in a to go cup and it made my day. After class I went to go get some class text books and ran into some friends from home! After walking around forever we decided to go to Ganzo the restaurant that is run by my school. Surprisingly it was delicious. This is a boring post k bye.

First day of classes

This morning I woke up at 7:15 showered and got ready for my first day of classes! I grabbed a cappuccino and walked in the rain to my first class fashion marketing. The class seems pretty cool we already have a 6 page paper due on the image of high end fashion stores in Florence. We have to go and look at everything about a store from a marketing point of view. The class is going to be really interesting we are going on a trip to milano and going on a tour of the Ferragamo shoe museum. The class was from 9-11:15, Madison and I quickly had to walk to the "SQuala" for our Italian class. After Italian I had an hour break, I went home and inhaled my eggplant parmesan that I made the night before. I took a power nap and work up for my next class European Lit class. This class is going to be a bit intense we are going to read 9 books over the semester and have a lot of discussions. After Euro Lit we went to our Florence food and culture class. The teacher is a bit intimidating she is very proud to be a Tuscan. Her goal is to get us the students to really expand their pallets and distinguish good from bad food here in Florence. We had bread with cheese, toasted chestnut honey drizzled over it with a bit of orange zest, things I would never think to combine but it was really good! Today was a long day.. straight classes from 9am-8pm and now I am very tired and happy to be relaxing! Currently my roomates and I are sitting in our little living room planning our trip to Rome this weekend!

I just want a cup of coffee

Today I made sure I didn't sleep in so I woke up at 10 and ventured through the rain to the grocery store. It is quite difficult to shop in Italian but we all were pretty successful. Once we got home we just hung around because from 1-4 seista is going on and all the stores shut down. We then ventured out in hopes of finding a coffee maker/ coffee. We went to a cafe and I ordered cafe and got an americano Italians don't drink coffee they drink espresso black. They also charge you to sit down about 2E if.. so you can stand up at the bar and sip on your espresso. an Americano is espresso with water added to it. I had to ask for more water and milk in order to get it down. Once I finally finished my cafe I felt like I was drunk and dizzy due to the intense amount of caffeine I had just consumed. Whitney and I tried to find a coffee maker around the city but we had no luck and I ended up buying a cute pair of black boots instead :). Our next plan of action was to get instant coffee so we did and we will see how it turns out tomorrow morning. I might go to this pub called the red garter later tonight to watch the super bowl which should be a good time.