The End

Tonight is my last "real" night in Florence and I will be spending it out with the great friends I've made this semester. It's hard to believe it's over and that I will be going back to the states early Saturday morning but here it comes. I'm really nervous about the reverse culture shock, and if I've changed or the people I really haven't seen in 7 months have changed and moved on without me. For awhile I thought, I'll go back and everything will be the way it was when I left, but 7 months have gone by and things have changed. It'll be interesting to say the least.

BUT I am so excited to see everyone and just be home for Christmas! I get to see snow, my dog, my FAMILY and I cannot wait :).

Yesterday and today have flown by with dinners and shopping and ISU group pictures and I'm realizing I might not be seeing these things for awhile or never again. Crazzzy.

Ciao Florence, you've been good to me :]

HELLO AMERICA!

Thanksgiving in Rome with my Mom!

Well I've become the worst blogger and haven't blogged in half a month...whoops! But I have an excuse, I've been insanely busy with school, travels, and my MOM VISITED! :]
It was so wonderful. I didn't realize how much I missed home and her until she arrived. It really isn't easy to be away from home for so long, especially the people who care about you so I feel really lucky that she was able to come visit me in Italy.
Our trip started arriving at her lovely hotel, the Hotel Burchianti. That place was so charming and the owner's were more than welcoming. Mom's room was absolutely adorable with a single bed, and cute little trinkets here and there. She only got TV in italian but it was funny to watch the simpsons or the news in italian.
We visited everything in Florence, and I mean everything! We had pretty poor weather but I must say we were the best tourists there ever were. We were able to visit all of the great museums like the Uffitzi, the Accademia (where they house the David), Palazzo Vecchio, Baptistery and San Marco. We climbed to the top of the Duomo, and hiked it up to the Piazza Michaelangelo, Piazza Signoria, Piazza Santa Croce. And if it weren't for our umbrellas, this trip wouldn't have been so pleasant. Read my mom's comment because she added in all the details I forgot about that we did. And it's from her point of view! We went to the Boboli Gardens, experienced a wine tasting event, and drank cappucinos. The views were stunning and I was so happy to experience those places with her, it's something really special.

Now, my Mom is one of the best cooks I know. She's cooked for my family our whole life and let me say how excited I was for her to come and show me how to cook (without an oven!). Now being the great Mom she is, she brought me the FAMILY SIZE pack of twizzlers pull n peel. That is motherly love because everyone knows my great obsession with that candy. But really, she is a great cook. We found the centrale market and she was a pro in there. Finding all the ingrediants we needed, the right amount, and within a good amount of time, enough to get a delicious lunch in the place as well. Mind you, it is not easy to find all the ingrediants for some meals (especially me, an inexperienced cook). She made it look easy. Except for the first two night, she cooked all the dinners until we went to Rome and they were all soo delicious! My mouth still waters for that Florentine Chicken. We shared a bottle of wine, and she showed me her ways. I'm not the easiest to teach but I think I picked up a few pointers. Another great thing about my mom is that when we go shopping (a typically very difficult experience) and find something, we really find something, like the best thing. We search and search for items and some days we get nothing and go home in a tiff but then there are those golden days when we find the perfect item and it's grand. Well we had one of those in Italy. On our way back from the Boboli Gardens, I happened to wander into a random leather shop and I was about to surrender when Mom told me to just ask the guy. See I have an issue, my feet are huge! And most shoe places don't sell my size, ok almost all places don't sell my size but Mom was insistent that we ask the man if he had the boots for large feet. I asked him if he had my size (yes I will not actually say the size on here) and he just said "let me look at your feet". Italy has different shoe sizes and I didn't know my italian shoe size but this man was able to just glance at my foot and know. He just knew. Then he pulled out these adorable tan leather boots with a laced up back and put them on my feet. It was like a cinderella moment. They fit and they were great. I was shocked and my Mom just had that look like "I told you so". I loved that man until he told me that it took "2 and a half cows" to make my boots...lovely.

We also did a great day trip to Pisa and Lucca to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and eat some great chocolate.
Well, after 6 days in Florence, it was time for Mom and I to head off to Rome! Roman Holiday during thanksgiving with my Mom, yes it was great. We took the fast train there on wednesday and arrived around night time. Well, Rome is a lot bigger than Florence so we had to take a taxi to our hotel. The taxi driver, not so safe. I know Chicago drivers are crazy but they are crazy in a good way. Rome taxi drivers are just crazy. This guy was speedy! And he dropped us off in the wrong location and I think he even over-charged Mom. Needless to say we didn't take a taxi again. In Rome, we ate a lot of great food, drank a lot of delicious wine, and saw a lot of sights!
Our first big day was at the Spanish Steps, a large garden (I can't remember the name), and went to the Colosseum. Well the Colosseum was quite an experience. On our way there, we had a run in with a LARGE group of protestors heading in the same direction as us. We thought we were in the clear for a bit when they stopped just a few feet from the colosseum and so Mom and I started walking in, when suddenly, the group CHARGED the Colosseum, yes they were sprinting inside it!

I just remember saying "umm...mom..." and she grabbed me and we stood up on the side of the Colosseum to avoid being run over. From there we watched as hundreds broke inside and the armored police followed. As soon as we could, we fled the entrance and across the street. From there we spent the next hour observing the mob chant and cheer and more police arriving, it was intense. Though after some time, it cleared up and they moved on and Mom and I were able to enter the giant Colosseum. It was pretty magnificent. Then we looked around at the ruins and headed back to our hotel. It was thanksgiving and we needed to go out for some dinner. I was able to get some turkey! But with lettuce and tomatoes on top, not so fattening like the thanksgiving meal I'm used to.

But I must say I was very thankful that day. My Mom had come to Italy on Thanksgiving to spend time with me and tour around. She could've stayed home with the family and enjoyed the traditional holiday but I really appreciated her coming to be with me. It was one of the big highlights of my trip overall. My Mom's pretty great.

The next day we went to see Vatican City, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter's Basilica. Those were some beautiful places for sure. It was so grand! Mom also found on the walls of the Basilica "Petrvs" and we spent a good 10 minutes trying to get a picture of her pointing to it without it looking like she was giving the middle finger. It was pretty hilarious.

So many more great moments happened while my Mom was with me for 10 days but I think this blog post would be way too long (not that it already isn't haha). I'm very lucky to have had her come and I know it'll be something we remember for a long time! I mean how many people get to say they spent Thanksgiving in Italy with their Mom. I'm really happy I did!

Love you Mom!

Gusta Pizza!

The very best pizza in Florence.

At times when I miss my family...

I watch this video...

They always put a smile on my face!

Molto Bene!

Scusame but I do believe I'm finally seeing the beauty of Italy.

My professor for the course "Italian American Experience" makes me want to be an Italian. He's so enthusiastic and if you can imagine the combination of Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, and some Puccini, you've got my professor's singing voice. He loves to sing and dance along with the Italian videos we watch and it's hilarious. There's only three of us in the class and to see this guy whose in his mid 50s dance around and sing along with these great Italian singers just makes my day. I've found myself youtubing dozens of italian classics like "mambo italiano" "that's amore" "volare on an evening in roma" "Nessun Dorma" "Fly me to the Moon" "Sara Perche Ti Amo" and many more. I've heard them all before and I know it's cheesy but being in Italy I can connect so much more with each of these songs. They make me feel so much more enthusiastic about the Italian culture.

Definately youtube each of these songs if you don't know what I'm talking about, you'll want to enjoy a bella notte in Roma.

Allora.

Then I'll look into movies I've seen and realize the strong interpretation of Italian culture present. Sure, there's a lot of fiction to the movies but there's also a lot of truth if you catch Italy on a good day. Movies like Roman Holiday, When in Rome, The Lizzie McGuire Movie, Casablanca, Big Night, Under the Tuscan Sun, even New Moon. I've been to a lot of places where these movies were filmed and it's so cool to see those sights and realize, hey I've been there. I just love it.

Sidenote: I'm listening to Nessun Dorma right now...WOW...fantastico!

Then there's the food. I've only had a few legit Italian meals with multiple courses but they've all been so good. My professor always shares stories about his family meals and what it's like at the dinner table. He's so funny and always ends up laughing at something he says in italian and we don't have a clue what he just said but we laugh because his laughter is so contagious.

The class is so great because he is the example of everything he teaches about italian culture. Molto Bene!

Venice!

Ahh Venice, probably my favorite place in all of Italy.

Does that have something to do with the fact that I've lived on a lake every summer of my life since birth...maybe.

Could it have to do with the fact that their only mode of transportation is boats...probably.
Might it be that they have the best pizza in all of Italy...sure.

I think it has to do with cannolis personally. But really, I loved Venice. Even though the weather was not my favorite, I still loved how beautiful Venice was and the gondolas and the boats for cars. Also all of the vines growing over the buildings. And the gondola guys all wear striped shirts with red lined straw hats. It's just great. And a taxi is a wooden boat, how awesome!
We did go the cheap route and therefore had to take a 3 hour bus to get to Venice but along the way we watched "Under the Tuscan Sun" because Casanova was checked out. I've never watched that movie in full, and maybe since I've been to Tuscany I appreciate it more but I really liked that movie. Might be one of my new favorites but again that could be because I'm living in Tuscany.
Once we arrived, we took the town "bus" which is really a large barge type boat to the center of town. I just love being on the water, and all of the buildings surrounding were so great. When we got there we saw a glass blowing demonstration and it was really fast surprisingly. He made a water pitcher and it was so pretty. Then we were on our own for lunch and wandering around. I went down by the water (of course) and snuck onto a few docks to look out at the islands across the bay and the gondolas floating by. Even though it was foggy, it was still a pretty sight, I think that if the sun was out, I would've never left.
Next, we toured around the city, which was really boring because Venice doesn't have anything special in the city, the charm is on the water. So I got bored with that fast. We then had free time again to wander around and get some food before we had to head back. I again went straight to the ledge and took pictures of the city at night. We also got to go on a short gondola ride! Our boat driver was pretty cute and it was more of a gondola taxi. There were about 10 other people on the ride with Kaitlyn and I but it was still cool to get to ride one :). It's so gorgeous at night with all the lights and only the gondolas are streaming by. I can see why a lot of couples would visit Venice. It is very romantic.

Sunny Fall Days

I haven't been a very good blogger lately and I need to get back into the blogging game!

Since fall break, I've been exhausted and it hit me two days ago that I only have about a month left in Florence and overseas! That's crazy. I've been away from home for a little over 5 months, and it has flown by. From the amazing summer I had at Castaway, making some of the best friends, to traveling around Europe. When my Mom comes in two weeks, I will have less than a month left and honestly I'm having mixed emotions. I really miss home and my family and friends but I'm never going to be able to do what I'm doing again. Sure I can come back to Europe but I'll probably never live in Europe again. But I do miss life at home. Well anyway, I've been up to quite a bit in the past few days! We only had two days of classes this week because November 1st was a National Holiday called All Saints Day. The night before was Halloween and myself, Kaitlyn, and Britni decided to dress up in 80s stuff (because we didn't have costumes and really it's easy to put on some running shorts, an off the sleeve shirt, and my converse) and see how Florence celebrated All Hallow's Eve....well they aren't very good at it. The only costumes we really saw were witches and ghosts otherwise everyone was wearing black! Terrible, we should out more than we usually do as American girls. We did get to do some dancing but after that, it was a lame night.

Yesterday, I decided to go out on my own adventure in Florence because I've been feeling pretty down the past few days, homesick and such, and I needed to get out of the apartment. I chose to just keep it really laidback and walk until I reached Piazza Michaelangelo. I definately too the long way but it was a beautiful scenic route. I walked along side streets and the day was a perfect fall day, no clouds, sunshine, good breeze, and the temperature was just right where you could wear jeans and a shirt with no jacket, it was great. I walked along pretty streets until I came upon Piazza Michaelangelo. The view was great but the tourists from Japan were everywhere so I decided to see if I could find a better spot to overlook Florence.
I hiked up a little farther and came upon a cemetary at the top of a hill. It was really unique in that all of the tombs were actually tombs and each person had a picture on them. There was also a legit graveyard cat. It was eery but cool. Then I found the church at the top of the hill and it must not be described in most tourist handbooks because there were not a lot of people there at all. It was really beautiful up there. I found a nice bench and laid down and actually fell asleep. Perfection! When I woke up, the sun was still shining and I had a great view of the river and the sun starting to set in the distance. I began to hike back down the hill and thought how I have to return there on a nice day with a book, it's perfect for that sort of thing.
Later on, the school had e-mailed us about a fundraising concert going on not too far from my apartment. My roommate had heard about it too and the two of us decided to go check it out. The concert was to raise money for photoart to be placed in hospitals, pretty neat. They had a guy in college who was a pretty good opera singer perform with a pianist.

Honestly I wasn't too impressed but hey it was for charity. They did have a lot of great American food at the end, such as CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES AND BROWNIES! Two things I've actually forgotten about because you don't find those anywhere in Italy. They were so good. Jess and I snuck out about half a dozen each and went home to share them with some milk while we watched New Moon. Basically I had a Florence by Day, America by night type of day :].
Today I woke up and got ready to go to the Boboli gardens with Jess and her friend Breanne. It was another perfect fall day and actually hit into the 70s, crazy! It was cold and rainy at the beginning of the week but I guess the weather in Florence is just as bipolar as the weather in South Elgin. Being a student abroad has its perks because we got into the gardens for free :]. And they were beautiful, with the leaves changing and the grass and fresh air, it was the perfect getaway from the smoky air polluted city of Florence. I absolutely loved it. We spent most of the time taking photos, climbing trees, and hanging out. We actually got yelled at when Jess and Breanne were climbing up into a tree and apparantly thats not allowed. The women didn't understand we didn't know italian so while we probably should've been freaked out, we were amused at this woman yelling at us in italian. Luckily we didn't get kicked out and got to take some more fun pictures.

Afterwards, we walked around some streets for a bit and I found the best gelato in all of Florence called Gelateria Lorenzo. Seriously, it was the best gelato I've had, cookies and tiramisu are a great combo!

(Jess and I in front of the church we attended Tuesday Nights)

Then Jess and I went to a coffee date with some of the church group. We met up with Mark and Kate first and soon the whole group showed up and we were pushing tables together. We drank capucinos and ate paninis while talking about Twilight, Harry Potter, Obama, Music, and Football. It was great. I really like that group and Mark is hilarious. We bounce back at each other's humor really easily and it's hilarious. After coffee a few of us, Mark, Mark, Matt, Alison, Jess, and I went to practice some songs for the upcoming church on Tuesday. We had a lot of fun singing some new songs and then Mark and I got into Don't Stop Believing, which was great!

Overall, I had a great afternoon, and tomorrow I'm off to Venice thanks to my parents!

P.S. sorry for the long post but I haven't in awhile!

London

London was my absolute favorite! One, they speak english but with the best accents
Two, the city is so alive and huge! (and breathable unlike smokey Florence)
and Three, they had so many huge beautiful parks so it's not all concrete.
When we arrived, our goal was to find the Hard Rock Cafe because according to Britni, it's the first Hard Rock there ever was, where it all started. Once we found it, the line was out the door so we waited by the bar and ordered some delicious nachos which were really great. Then we got to our table were we were surrounded by Queen and Rolling Stones items. Very cool. Food was so good but I mean you can't go wrong with a good burger :].
Afterwards we went to sleep because we only had one day to explore the very large London and we wanted to see as much as possible.

Woken at the crack of dawn, we had breakfast (which was the best breakfast in my opinion out of all the hostels) and went out. We joined yet another free tour (this free tour thing is in almost every city and they are really great). The guy was super animated and hilarious. We saw Buckingham Palace,the changing of the Guard, where Prince Charles, William, and Harry live, Big Ben, and quite a few other things along the way. I partnered up with a guy from South Africa to take each others pictures. He was a nice talkative guy, on his way to go work in the Sahara. How cool is that! He's never seen snow before and I've never seen the desert before, we were both kind of fascinated with how the other lives. It's so cool meeting different people on these trips.
We ended the tour and then the tour guide took us to lunch at a great spot where we ordered Fish n Chips. Loved the fish n chips. Also met some nice guys who were actually from London but decided to do the tour because they wanted some history on the places they always pass by. They were funny nice guys and told us about their adventures in America.

From our tour guide, we found out how to buy some cheap tickets for the plays in London. I didn't know this, but London has a great theatre district. We wanted to see Lion King but it was sold out so we got to see Dirty Dancing but I'll talk more about that later.
We then headed to catch a flight on the London Eye! It's a huge carousel that holds 25 people and goes for a 30 minute "flight" so you can see all of London. The boardwalk leading up to the London eye was filled with so much amusement. You could sort of compare it to Navy Pier in Chicago. We got our tickets and with it a free ticket to see the 4D experience of the London Eye. I had no idea what 4D was but apparantly it adds the sense of feel. We went in and it was really cool, when their were bubbles, you could feel them on your hand, or the wind. I loved it. Then we waited in line for the real ride and when we got on, wow was it incredible. London's so big and vast and I could see everything I'd done that day from up in the sky. Very cool.
Afterwards we went to see Dirty Dancing! Omgosh was I so excited. The dancers were all absolutely amazing, the music was so good, and the actors were so great. It did the movie justice. And the guy playing Patrick Swayze was so much like him, same with Jennifer Grey. They did an amazing job and I was so enthused the entire time. I'm kind of obsessed with plays now and would love to see more like the Lion King or anything really. Theatres so cool and the actors so talented. I loved it. That ended my incredible time in London and Fall Break and it was an incredible ending.
Someday I'm going back to London, maybe to teach, to visit, or whatever. It's a great city!