My Past Few Weekends!

 Well hello everyone!! Life in Italy has been busy busy busy, but last week was midterms and now I am on break!! I had planned on going to London, Madrid, and Barcelona, but then decided last minute that what I really want to do is stay in Florence/Italy because there is so much I want to do and see here and so that is what I am doing! First: a quick update on my past few weeks. Three weekends ago I went to the Amalfi Coast (Sorrento, Capri, and Positano) with a couple friends. It was stunning!! In the same sort of way that the Cinque Terre were, but different. I LOVED it.

And then last weekend I was in Perugia for the chocolate festival, Verona, and Venice. Perugia seemed like a really cool city, I didn’t get to see much of it because I was only there for a few hours and I was pretty focused on all the chocolate. It was a rainy, yucky, day but chocolate can make just about anything better and I hardly even noticed ☺. Chocolate ravioli...yum....

I didn’t really know what to expect of Verona, but I ended up really really liking it! It is actually one of my top favorite places I have visited so far. It is just adorable. We, of course, saw Romeo and Juliet’s houses (they didn’t actually ever exist, but their families did). Apparently it gives you good luck in your love life if you rub Juliet's boob in a circle three times with your left hand... so now that I've officially felt up a bronze statue, come and find me prince charming!!

And I ate some pretty great food. Verona is known for their polenta, as well as their horse meat stew…so that is exactly what I had. It doesn’t look all that appetizing in the pictures, but both were fantastic.

Then we went to a winery to learn about wine and wine making :) Good thing my taste buds have matured just in time to be studying abroad here and I have acquired a taste for wine!

Venice was a kind of horrid day. Not that I didn’t have a great time, because I did, but the actual day itself was just ugly and wet and FREEZING because I stupidly (but not surprisingly) forgot to pack a coat… so I was prancing around (literally, to keep warm, of course) in boots, tights, jeans, a long sleeve shirt, and a little sleeveless dress (It sounds weird, but I rocked it. I didn’t have much choice. I had to layer on everything I brought, haha).

 Venice, of course, was so super cool. Consisting of over 100 tiny islands, all the canals and little gondolas were so beautiful. I liked it a lot! And took lots of vitamin C when I got home that night to prevent catching pneumonia.

And that has been my past few weekends! I have to go grocery shopping to make dinner, but I will write about this weekend/break later!!

No, it isn't broken!

No, it isn't broken!
Some may have thought that the mafia infiltrated my blog and changed my password, preventing me from writing any further fantastic blog entries; however, this theory would be incorrect. Everything is ok, and I am back in business! I am thoroughly exhausted though because in the middle of the night it was raining so hard, I thought our house was going to get pounded into little pieces, and I was kept up for a couple hours. Ma va bene, I will still write. So update on my past week... I'm not going to go into detail because there is a lot, but I should mention things.

Last Tuesday I went to dinner at Carly's and it was really nice! Her roommates are awesome and its really fun connecting with an old friend. That Thursday I went out to dinner with Marissa, who is on a different program as well but I know her from Davis, and her friends and it was soooo good and also really fun to meet new people! That night after dinner I met up with this guy Aaron who I actually went to Israel with four summers ago, and he is studying abroad in Israel now but was visiting Florence for a few days. So I went to a club with him and his friends who were all really nice. It is so funny how I automatically feel more connected with people who are Jewish. Anyway, then on Friday I just relaxed and recovered from staying out so late Thursday night. Saturday I went to Bologna with my program (API). We went on a guided tour and saw the church as well as the university, which is actually the oldest university in the world! It was really, really cool. And I had the most DELICIOUS tortellini everrr. Then we visited a balsamic vinegar production place, which was totally awesome, I learned a lot, considering I didn't even know that balsamic vinegar is made from grapes. Then on Sunday API took us to the soccer stadium for a Florence vs. Palermo soccer match! We (Fiorentina) lost :( but it was still really fun. I couldn't believe how vulgar the fans are! Soccer is clearly a huge deal... there are tons of cheers. I could only understand some of them, but one of the most popular ones was "vaffanculo Palermo, Palermo!" which means, "fuck off Palermo, Palermo!" That was the cheer. I mean I am definitely not the best judge of sporting events, but I feel like people in the US would be offended by that cheer at one of our games, I don’t know. Haha. Then I just did some homework and stuff the rest of the day. Monday I went with Victoria to Fiesole, which is a really old town high up that looks over Florence. The Etruscans originally settled it and there are some really cool ruins from that time as well as Roman times. It was beautiful! We also went to the archeological museum and church there. It was very cute and quaint. I liked it a lot. And then I went to yoga and made a new friend! Yay! haha. Her name is Christine, she's from California also which is cool cause I haven't met too many kids from California. So that was my weekend :) Very brief update on my life here. But I'm very busy and meeting lots of cool interesting people and learning a ton and thinking a whole lot and eating good food and I'm thrilled! It is totally awesome. I could write lots more but I'm going to post this so that I finally have something new up and I'll write more later! Ciao!!

Behind me is the incredible view of Florence from Fiesole