Living in a Postcard (for the weekend)

Interlaken, Switzerland

The Secret Bakery

Yes. Its just how it sounds-a SECRET bakery...in Florence. As you walk the streets of Florence you will come upon hundreds of cafes, bars, trattorias, and ristorantes that are always stocked with delicious, fresh pastries. There are four bakeries around Florence that make the pastries for these shops (unless pastries are made by private owners) so that they are fully stalked everyday. Every night these four bakeries open at 1:30am-3:30am to the public to sell SUPER fresh baked goods (because they bake throughout the night). None of the bakeries have signs (or even addresses for that matter) but simply say "quiet please",in English, above the basement doors. Depending on what the bakers are cooking that night, they will have a variety of baked cookies, fruit pastries, pizza, bread, and my favorite: cornetta con nutella, marmalada, and crema. (chocolate, creme, and marmalade croissants). BY FAR the best croissant I have ever had. And to make it even better, everything being sold during these hours is only .80 euro cents!

The secret bakeries are sometimes hit and miss. If the baker feels up to selling some extra pastries he'll open the door early or on time at 1:30. If people are too loud outside the door, he'll wait in front of the door (you can see his shadow) until everyone quiets down. OR if he isn't in a good mood, he wont open at all.

This is the time when I'm really starting to figure out the 'ins and outs' of the city and find all of the really good deals.

SO GOOD!

When in Rome

Rome is truly a magnificent city. There are historic buildings and monuments all over that are thousands of years old and that I’ve seen in every history textbook. My friends and I toured the city for three days. Two days we spent viewing all of the sites around the center of the city, and then we dedicated an entire day to Vatican City (did you know it’s a country itself? The smallest country in the world). Rome is much larger than Florence, so we had to get used to getting around by Metro and not just by walking. The first day we took a tour of the city and saw the:
Colosseum
Roman Forum
Pantheon
Piazza Venezia
Circo Massimo
Capitol Hill
Trevi Fountain
Mouth of Truth
Piazza Navona
Spanish Steps
amongst many other sites. It was crazy to actually be in the colosseum and see all of the sites that were featured in the movie, A Roman Holiday. On Saturday we woke up early and went to the Vatican Museum and saw Vatican City, St. Peters Basilica, the Vatican Museum, and Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel. We arrived about an hour before the museum opened and there was already a line that circled the building. Luckily it went fairly fast, but I can only imagine how long the lines must be during the summer when tourist season really hits. The Vatican and the Sistine Chapel were unreal. Michelangelo’s famous dome left me speechless and St. Peters church really deserves its title as the ‘Most Impressive Church on Earth’. I read in my Rick Steve’s travel guide (my traveling Bible) that if one was to look at every artifact in the Vatican Museum for one minute, it would take 12 years to see the whole museum—it’s THAT big. We obviously didn’t look at everything, but we saw a lot at a speedy pace.

We went to a couple Ristorantes and Trattorias to get traditional Roman meals. A very popular meal is veal with mushroom (or funghi) sauce, and let me tell you, its great reputation matches its taste. I also had my first Kebab in Rome, and have found my Mexican food equivalent here in Italy. Cabbage, lettuce, French fries, lamb kebab, and hot sauce all rolled up in a tortilla. Heaven for only 3 euro.

Overall it was a very successful and efficient weekend. I have finally planned my spring break and will be going to Barcelona, Spain and Fez, Morocco (in Africa) at the end of March. My friends and I wanted to go somewhere warm and at the end of March Spain and Africa were the warmest because they are closest to the equator. I cant wait!

Until next time, “caio caio”

Gelato: the Anti-Drug

This is serious. I think I'm addicted to gelato. Now, I'm not an ice cream or 'fro-yo' fanatic back at home (okay, maybe sometimes) but NOTHING compares to gelato. Gelato, much more caloric and creamy than any ordinary ice cream really hits my sweet spot. Every time I go to a gelateria I try to get a new flavor-as of now my favorite flavors are nutellatta and caffe.TOGETHER.


Some people say they gain the freshmen 15. I think gelato is contributing to my Study Abroad 50.

Pisa and Lucca

This past weekend some friends and I went to the local towns of Pisa and Lucca for an easy day trip. We wanted to stay fairly local so that we could continue to stay around Florence and familiarize ourselves with the city. We took Tren Italia to Pisa (about an hour away, depending on the number of stops) and found ourselves at the world-renowned leaning tower. Pisa is a small town with not much to do except visit La Piazza del Duomo. I took a couple pictures in front of the tower and then climbed to the top. From the top there was a crystal clear view of the city. I could see all the way to the Italian Alps to the north and Florence to the south. From Pisa we jumped on another train and went to Lucca. Lucca is another small Tuscan town that is completely surrounded by a huge wall that was used as protection and safety during battles. In Lucca we enjoyed some gelato and espresso before we left for Florence.

Some friends and I also decided to do some of the touristy things in Florence before the REAL tourist season hits. First we toured the Duomo and climbed to the top to see the magnificent painting inside the dome, and then climbed some more to see the most beautiful view of Florence. After the exhausting hike up and down the stars we attended and English mass in the chapel. It was a really great experience. The next day we went to the Museo de Accademia to see Michelangelo’s, David. It was truly a sight to see; much larger than I had ever imagined. Believe it or not we saw Hillary Swank in the back corner of the museum getting a history lesson for a tour guide (I’m guessing she was researching for a movie), but it was fun to see.

So far so good, and I haven’t even finished my second week here. This weekend I am going with 8 other friends to Rome. We are staying in the 5th nicest hostel in the world called The Yellow. I’m really excited to finally see the Vatican City and the Spanish steps. I’ll let you know how it goes!

The BEST Deal in Town

As you might know, things can get quite expensive when comverting from American dollars to Euros. Right now the conversion is about 1.57 euro for 1 US dollar. Now that I am finally familiar with Florence and have ventured beyond all the tourist traps, I have finally found some great deals. Here in Italy there is a meal that comes before dinner called APPERITIVO. This is basically like an appetizer hour before dinner. I found out that many of the local bars and clubs will have a table or full bar of italian appetizers during this time. I found a bar called Moyo that, if you buy a drink (7 euro or more) you get ALL YOU CAN EAT apperitivio until 10pm. Basically you get a drink and FREE DINNER for 7 euro. And I'm not talking about stale meatballs and cold shrimp cocktails. The apperitivio is basically a big buffet with pasta, chicken, breads with dipping, salads, vegetables, and other classic italian dishes. MOLTO BENE!

BY FAR one of my best finds yet!

PICTUREsque

Come se dice...?

Today is the second day of class and the harsh reality of the semester actually starting has arrived. Today I had my first italian class (Intermediate 1) and it was, well, interesting. I have taken two semesters of Italian before, but it has been a year since I started. The class today was a bit overwhelming, but I'm really excited to start picking up the language again and start conversation with locals. There are a lot of english speakers in Florence, but it would be nice to be able to order a paninni or gelatto in Italian.

caio!

Venice and Carnivale

This past weekend could have, quite possibly, been the best weekend of my life. Four friends and I took an incredibly spontaneous trip to Venice this weekend to experience the last days of Carnivale. Carnevale is essentially a Mardi Gras celebration that attracts thousands of people from all over the world to eat, drink, drink some more, and celebrate Fat Tuesday.

After purchasing fairly cheap tickets on the train (including one ‘standing’ seat on the return trip), we still had no idea of where we were going to stay because all the hotels, hostels, and budget hotels had been booked as of AT LEAST a year ago. Our options were to either get lucky by finding a cancellation spot, or staying up all night. Either way was fine. Anxiety built up during our three-hour train ride as we began to realize that staying up for over 48 hours in the heart of Venice while it was raining probably wasn’t the best idea. Right when got off the train we took a boat taxi to the center of Venice--St. Mark’s Square to find a hotel. We were immediately bombarded by hundreds of elaborately dressed tourists and found our way to a hotel that was able to accommodate our group in a two story penthouse sweet for half the price! We definitely got lucked out. After going to all the tourist hot-spots around the area we took some time in the afternoon to sit down for a couple bottles of wine. And by a couple, i mean more than 3 or 4 (sorry mom and dad). We then went to the middle of the square and watched huge spectacle performances and live bands performed while joining in on congo-lines and crazy dance moves. Because the nightlife starts so late and it was only 9:00, we were determined to keep going. We went home and took a nap, then returned to Jardini. Jardini. was a huge warehouse that the city renovated for the weekend and turned into a huge club of over 40 rooms. Each room had its own theme, DJ, and live performing band. It was so much fun to see the locals (of all ages 16-75) have so much fun.

We got up early the next morning and took a private boat to the island of Murano to see the glass factories on the island. We were able to watch a demonstration of how glass is blown and then view a glass museum.

Overall I had a really great time in Venice. No gondola due to the weather, but definitely worth while.

Piazza Scarlatti

Check out my new PAD, yo.

The view From my living room; the Arno River


My side of the room (no, I did not get an option with the floral sheets)


The cucina


I should probably learn to start using this...


Cramped. But it works