So much to see, So little time!

The Tower Bridge, London, England

Top of the morning to ya! Sorry about the late blog post, but after reading this blog you might understand why I wasn’t able to post it until today! Brace yourself…This is a long one!

Last Tuesday Meg and I decided to go out of the EU up into the UK for the weekend. It was always a thought in the back of our minds to go to London, however, it was not a reality until Meg woke me up Tuesday morning yelling, “THERE ARE ONLY TWO AIRLINE TICKETS LEFT!”. Right then and there our minds were made up and we decided to go to London. Meg and I have a friend named who is doing her Graphic Design internship in London for the semester. She is staying with a host family in Kensington, London. The family told her that we could stay with her, which was such a blessing because Kensington is such a nice area and it is in such a good location. We later found out that the neighborhood we were staying in is the same neighborhood that David Beckham, Taylor Swift, and Led Zeppelins lead guitar player, Jimmy Paige, live. Well aware of how expensive the trip was going to cost us, Meg and I packed enough food to last us a century and left for the airport Thursday afternoon.

We arrived in London Thursday night. We decided to take an Uber to the house that we were staying. When the Uber pulled up Meg and I got so excited when we saw the Uber driver driving on the “passenger side” of the car. That is when it really hit us that we had arrived in London. The first day we decided to wake up early so that we could see the entire city at we could. When we were walking to get our bus passes, it was such a relief being able to read street signs without the use of Google Translate. When a big red double decker bus pulled up to bus stop I’m pretty sure Meg and I looked like two toddlers who just arrived at Disney World for the first time.  We were so excited that we ran to the top of the bus and sat on the front row. The bus ride was about 45 minutes to Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery, but Meg and I could care less, we were having the time of our lives. Our first stop was Trafalgar Square (London’s City Hall) and the National Gallery. At first, I was not super excited about the National Gallery, but after spending about 20 minutes in the Gallery I never wanted to leave. Meg and I saw paintings by Van Gogh, Claude Monet, and Michelangelo. Never have I been so fascinated by art and paintings in my life. It was amazing to see paintings that you learned and replicated in grade school right in front of your very eyes. Short on time, Meg and I had to move on to meet Erin at Buckingham Palace.

The Trafalgar Square Monument 

Trafalgar Square View from The National Gallery

When we arrived at Buckingham Palace, I was disappointed to learn that the guards that stand outside

Me, Erin, and Meg in front of Buckingham Palace

the gate are no longer on the outside of the gate, but they are now inside the gate. Meg and I were so disappointed that we could not attempt to make the guards laugh and take pictures with them like typical tourists.  Once we met up with Erin, she was talking about this Afternoon Tea she had the week before at Bea’s of Bloomsbury. Wanting to do all the touristy things, Meg and I asked Erin if she would mind going again and taking us with her. The café that held Afternoon Tea was a small little modern looking teashop with a small loft above the first floor. The entire left sidewall of the café was made of glass, and if you sat against the wall you could sip tea and admire the Saint Paul Cathedral.  When we talked to the lady, she said that there was no way to do Afternoon Tea because we did not have a reservation and there were no open tables upstairs (which is the only place they do Afternoon Tea). It seemed like there was no hope for teatime, until I asked the lady if she would make an exception so that we could sit on the first floor. She said she doubted a table would leave anytime soon but if they did then we could sit and have tea. Right as she said that, I saw a table start to leave. I ran to the table and threw my stuff down. Shocked, the hostess had no choice but to keep her word and serve us Afternoon Tea.  We were very appreciative and I believe that she could see the excitement on our faces. When the food and tea arrived, we realized that we were in for a challenge. Afternoon Tea for three people was comprised of 3 gourmet cupcakes (vanilla with grapefruit frosting, chocolate with peanut butter frosting, and red velvet with cream cheese frosting), 3 pots of tea (we chose vanilla), 6 brownie bites, 3 white chocolate brownie bites, 3 fluffy strawberry marshmallowy things, 3 meringues, 3 scones with berry marmalade and clotted cream (which was like a heavy cream butter) and 9 sandwiches (3 different types). We sat, talked, ate, and drank for about 2 hours until we had finished it all…yes…we finished it all. We justified all that we had eaten with the 10 miles of walking we had completed each day. After tea, we decided to walk off some of the calories by exploring more of the city.

One of the "Paintings" in the
Tate Modern Art Museum 

Later that day we went to the Tate Modern Art Museum, and let me tell you something….If modern art is what is in that museum, I was a modern artist at the age of 2. I kid you not, one piece of “art” that was on display was a canvas painted completely gray, one color, all gray, that’s it... Another piece on display was a bed sheet placed on the ground...Really??? Come on, I do that everyday when I don’t make my bed! Needless to say, I was not impressed, however, what did impress me was the view from the 6^th floor. After exploring the museum for an hour, looking for something to explain to us why this was ranked one of the top five museums in London, I texted my friend Casey and asked him why he recommended it too us. He is currently studying an hour outside of London and comes to explore the city often. He told me that I was not suppose to explore the museum, but that I was suppose to go to the top floor café and look at the view. (Thanks for telling me that after I had spent an hour looking at “art”). When we arrived to the top the view was amazing. It was by far the most impressive part of the entire museum.  The sun was just starting to go down, and the light was hitting the St. Paul Cathedral and the river in a way that made the view even more beautiful. After taking in the view, we decided that the Tate Museum had redeemed itself. After the Tate, we walked around some more and explored. We walked along the Thames River and say the London Eye. We then explored “New York Time Square” of London (Piccadilly Circus) and went to SOHO. Shortly after, we found ourselves in China Town, and little did we know, but it was Chinese New Year. Everyone was out in the streets; it was decorated in Chinese lanterns and arches. There we street performers and giant panda bear costumes. It was really cool to see, especially since we had no intention of going there. At about 8:00pm we decided to make our way home. Not very hungry after Afternoon Tea and not wanting to spend too much money, we decided to make cheeseburgers and fries back at the house. It was the first American food I’ve had since leaving, and it was amazing.

The View from the Top of
The Tate Modern Art Museum 

Fish and Chips! 

The Tower of London
Guard didn't Think I was Funny

The next morning, we accidentally slept in a little to late, however, we were still determined to see everything that was left to see. Erin decided to skip her Stonehenge tour with her program and spend the day with us. Our first stop was Kensington Palace and Hyde Garden. From there we went to the Borough Market. Because it was a Saturday afternoon, the Borough Market was crazy, but it was cool to see London’s take on a market. At the Borough Market, we decided to once again be tourists and have fish and chips for lunch. We all got the special, which was Hake and chips. Although the presentation was questionable, with a little bit of salt and vinegar, the food was amazing! I was a happy tourist, and so were Meg and Erin. Because we were running late on time, we quickly finished and made our way to the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge. The first thing we saw were the Crown Jewels. Seeing them up close was incredible. The size of the diamonds and gems and the amount of gold used was unbelievable.

Tower of London

Kensington Palace

Tower Bridge

My Typical Tourist Picture with Big Ben

After, exploring more of the Tower of London, we decided to go see the iconic Big Ben. The entire weekend, Meg and I had been talking about how all we wanted was a touristy picture of us in a telephone booth with Big Ben in the background, and that is exactly what we got. When we arrived at Big Ben the sun was going down, and the first place we went was the telephone booth. If we had not looked like tourists the entire weekend, we definitely did at the moment. I’m pretty sure that telephone booth because the background for our photo-shoot. We each took a million photos before deciding to get a closer look. After finishing our photo-shoot with Big Ben, we made our way across the street to Westminster Abby. Unfortunately, the church was closed because it was so late, but it was still beautiful to see from the outside. After Westminster Abby, Erin wanted to take us to Harrods to see some of the most expensive and ridiculous items in all of London. Harrods department store was bigger and more expensive than I could have imagined. You have to use a map to get from place to place.  In the toy section of Harrods I found a toy car for 39,000 Pounds…that is 58,500 dollars! We also found an iPhone that was solid gold with diamonds for only $98,000…that’s pocket change right??? After Harrods we went to dinner and had plans to go back out into the city, however, we were so tired that we came home and went straight to sleep. 

The next morning Meg and I did not want to leave. However, we were worried about making our connection Zurich. Meg and I had a 30 minute connection with a passport check from the time our first plane landed to the time our second plane took off. I would not have been worried about missing the connection if I did not have a presentation to give at 12:00am the next day and if our flight weren’t the last flight out for the day. We arrived to the airport 2 hours early. Once we got through security, we looked tried to find out gate number but it said that it was not going to be posted until 1:00pm (our flight boarded at 1:45). We burned sometime in a café and split a London chicken and bacon pie, which was incredible. At 12:45 Meg and I checked the screen again to check which gate we were, at that moment, we found out that our flight had been delayed an hour. Realizing this meant there was no way we could make our connection we ran to the help desk. The lady told us that the only flight we could take had also been delayed, but it left in 15 minutes. The lady quickly printed our tickets and we ran to our gate, getting on just in time. We then sat on the plane for about 45 minutes until the plane took off, causing us to be on the same schedule as before. Once our plane landed we ran through the airport. When we got to passport check, our plan was to look frantic so that they would let us through quickly, and it worked. We then discovered our gate was on the other end of this giant airport. We grabbed our stuff and ran through the airport once again. Luckily, we made it to the airport just in time. Meg and I were so happy that you would think we had just received first place in a marathon. We got on the plane, ate our complementary chocolate and drank our complementary wine with a huge smile on our face. When we finally got back to Florence we could not be happier to be home! Overall, the trip was a huge success!

So, sorry for the extremely long post.  Since it was so long I didn’t read back through it so hopefully the grammar and spelling wasn’t unbearable. So much happened this weekend that I wanted to make sure I got it all down. This weekend I learned quite a few things, as I always do. I learned that you should always pack two pairs of dark blue jeans when studying abroad, because when you get a huge hole at the seam of your only pair, you will have no other jeans for the rest of your trip. I learned the importance of having a lens protector on your DSLR camera, because when you drop a nice lens, it will shatter, and the lens protector will be your only saving grace. I learned that in London, when you think something is inexpensive, multiply it by the conversation rate ($1.52) and you will be shortly proven wrong. Lastly, I learned when traveling, always check to make sure you have a connection that is humanly possible to make, or else you will be running through multiple airports all day. Alrighty then! That’s about all! Next weekend I am staying in Florence so the blog post will not be nearly as long! Miss and love you all! 

Getting lost in Venice

Venice, Italy at 7am in the morning before the crowd

My Daily Cappuccino 

            Good Morning America! I cannot believe it is already the end of week three here in Firenze! More and more everyday I feel like Florence is home. I am starting to understand the locals more, understand where I am going, and I am starting to become a regular at my favorite places. It is nice to have locals see you as a local and not so much as tourist. It is amazing how much differently they treat you when they know they will be seeing you again.  I am starting to go to the same places and do the same things, and even though I am starting to get into a routine, the adventures never get mundane. For example, twice a week I will go to the central market for lunch and sit and have a cappuccino while I do my homework. The lady who I order my drinks from use to be short with me, however now she is very friendly, asks me how my day is and knows my order. Everyday I fall more in love with my life here in Florence and I am excited for the next three months. 

Dinner at Franco's

            This week Meg and I decided to take our six roommates to meet Franco. It had been about 10 days since we had last seen him, but we did not want to come off too strong since we had visited him 2 times in less than 24 hours the first time we met him. When we walked in Franco, was so excited to see us. He asked us where we had been and if we were trying to ignore him. He was offended that we had not come by too see him more often. Apparently in Italy, you could stop by Franco’s everyday and it would not be considered imposing. Italians love casual conversation and spending time getting to know people.  For dinner at Franco’s I had an amazing seafood pasta with calms, mussels, calamari, and shrimp on top of penne pasta with a red sauce. For desert, once again, Franco gave us complementary dessert, which for me of course was tiramisu. After dinner, Franco told Meg and that we need to come by and see him more often. We came back both Thursday morning and Sunday night, and he gave us complimentary tiramisu and cappuccinos each time. I think it is Franco’s goal to make me fat by the end of the semester.

Venice, Itlay

           Thursday, five of the roommates and myself traveled to Venice, Italy for Carnivale. Carnivale is like Marti Gras in America, except a little classier and a lot more extravagant. When we arrived, we took a waterbus (which is a boat that takes people from place to place on the main channel) to the apartment we rented for the weekend in San Polo. San Polo is about a 15-minute walk through Venice from the main plaza, which is in San Marco. The next morning, Meg, Erin and I woke up early in the morning to watch the sunrise and look at the city before it was flooded by thousands of tourists. Once you get of over the strange smell of fish and other things, the city of Venice is beautiful. It is unlike anything I have ever seen before. The buildings appear to be floating on top of these canals. The buildings are all different colors and each have a unique look. I am glad we woke up early to see the city a little because once the sun came up, the streets were filled with tourists. The best was to describe Carnivale, Venice is that it is like Halloween, but the locals spend hundreds of dollars on their costumes. Everyone is wearing hand painted masks with elaborate costumes. The six of us decided that we all needed to find masks before we went to the Plaza San Marco for the festival. Finding a mask was like finding a wedding dress. Each one was different, and everyone wanted one that was completely different from one another.  They cost anywhere from 2 Euro to 80 euro. As each of us found our masks, we all put them on, one by one, until everyone found theirs. Shopping for masks was fun because there were so many store and so many different masks to choose from. When we got to the plaza each of us had a different colored mask. The costumes of the locals were incredible. No one who was dressed up talked and they all had their faces painted black so that all you saw were the colors of their eyes behind the mask. Some of the costumes were comical, where some of them were creepy and disturbing. A lot of times, the men would dress up like women and the women would dress up like men. Especially when it was a bride and groom costume. Because each of us had a different colored mask, we decided that anytime we found someone with a costume that matched the color of our masks we would run in front of them and take a picture with them. Getting a picture with them was extremely difficult, because many times they did not want there picture taken, or 100 other people wanted to take their picture with them so you had to jump in front of them, smile, and get out of the way. All of us had fun finding someone that matched our masks.  Of course, the lady with the costume that matched mine did not want to take her picture with me so I had to run after her for 5 minutes until she would stop. 

Dinner at La Porta D'Acqua

            Before we left, Franco warned Meg and I of the high prices in Florence, especially the prices of food. Meg and I decided to save money by packing food and making PB&J’s for breakfast and lunch each day. Our roommates would make fun of us, but we knew it was just because they were jealous. For dinner Friday night we went to this fancy restaurant called La Porta D’Acqua. Our roommates said it was top ranked on Trip Advisor, and since Meg and I had been saving money on food by making PB&J’s, we decided to spurge and go out. Meg and I split two pasta dishes; Paccheri Pasta With Spider Crab And Tomatoes Confit Sauce and Home made Tagliatelle In Sauce Of Tomato, Eggplant And Smoked Buffalo Mozzarella. The food was outstanding. Our waiter had a very dry sense of humor, however Erin thought he was serious so naturally she became the butt of all his jokes. After a 3 hour dinner, Sal, our waiter gave us two complementary bottles of wine and took away the cover charge. He told us that, "Although we were his loudest group of Americans, we were his favorite group so far". He might say that to everyone, but we will take it. 

Chocolate Everything!

            On Saturday we spent half of the day in Venice, then took at train home mid-day so that we could spend Valentines day in Florence. Right outside of the train station and our apartment in Florence there was a small chocolate festival. After an hour of exploring, we determined that we had seen every type of chocolate. Hot chocolate, chocolate bars, chocolate truffles, chocolate fondue, chocolate covered strawberries, chocolate covered waffles, chocolate in the shape of animals, chocolate cover nuts, fudge, chocolate spreads, any type of chocolate you could think of was there.  Using extreme will power, I walked away with only five Euros in chocolate, unlike some of my roommates who spent about 30 euros.

            Overall, it was amazing to see another part of Italy. Venice was beautiful, but because of all the narrow alleys and winding canals, it is almost impossible not to get lost in the city. However, getting lost in Venice is not the worst thing that could happen to you. You are surrounded by beauty everywhere you look. I would love to revisit Venice in the Spring when it is a little warmer and there is not so many tourists. As always, this week I learned a few things about Italy. I learned that while abroad, Google Translate is your best friend, because when in doubt you can type it out and all the locals will know what you are saying.nI also learned that there are no gyms in Florence, with all the pasta consumption around here I have no idea how they all stay so skinny. Also, in Italy no matter where you go you have to pay cover charge to sit down at a table, it is like you are renting out the table while you eat so you might as well sit there for as long as possible. Meg and I learned that their is no shame in packing PB&J’s when exploring Europe on a college budget. I learned that when exploring Venice, if you did not get lost, you didn’t really explore because getting lost is all part of the journey. Lastly, I learned a fun fact in my marketing class today. On average americans consumer over a billion pounds of peanut butter a year, where one European, on average, consume less than a tablespoon of peanut butter a year...No wonder it cost 6 Euros for a small container of peanut butter here! 

            Well…. That’s about all for this week. Meg and I are still deciding where we are going to go this weekend. It is between Madrid, Spain and London, England. Read next Monday to find out where our adventures take us! Miss everyone and hope all is well in America! P.S Don't take Girl Scout cookies for granted...You don't realize how much you miss them until you are 2,500 miles away from them.

The Coast of Venice

  

Hallo aus der Schweiz!

North Face of the JungFrau Mountain, Switzerland

           Good Morning all! Or should I say, Goodnight all! It is currently 8:00am in Firenze, and it is 2:00am for almost all those who are reading this post. First, I would like to apologize for not posting anything last Wednesday or Sunday. I have decided that because of weekend traveling, I will be posting every Monday morning (Sunday night for all you). That way you can read about all my weekday adventures, as well as my weekend excursions. Shall we begin?

           This Monday was the first day of classes. The first thought that came to mind when I woke up on Monday was, “Wait, we actually have to go to class here?” Sadly, vacation was over. Classes here are a little different than back at Clemson. My schedule is composed of five classes. Unlike most students here, I did not get the “you should only take easy classes, because you’re never going to want to do homework” memo. So while all my roommates are taking Food and Wine Pairing, Wine Marketing, and Cooking in Florence, I am taking Into to Marketing, HR Management, Intro to Psychology, Italian, and (my favorite) The Ages of Hero’s: The Odyssey, Iliad, Aeneid, and Western Literature. Each class is held once a week for two and a half hours a day… At first I was thinking, “That’s GREAT!” because you don’t have to worry about the class but once a week…WRONG! After 3 classes, back to back to back, you are ready to roll over and die. Not to mention the thick Italian accents that make all the teachers sound like vampires that “want to suck your blood”. However, how can I really complain when I am waking up in the beautiful city of Florence, Italy everyday? In the end, it is only 15 classes per class the whole semester; and the work put in during the weeks, is well worth the adventures had on the weekend.

About to ski down from the Top of the Mountain

            This weekend six of my roommates and I decided to take a trip to Interlaken, Switzerland. Let me tell you, you do not know cold until two layers of pants, a long sleeve tank top, a sweater, a North Face, and a Barbour jacket, gloves, a scarf, two pairs of socks, boots and a hat still isn’t enough to keep you warm. I mean it was -10˚C. We got on the bus at 7pm Thursday and arrived to our adorable hostel in Interlaken around 4am Friday. Lauren and I decided that we wanted to be the first out on the slopes Friday morning, so we woke up at 7am and rushed to get our gear. Three hours of sleep isn’t sleep, it’s a nap, but that didn’t stop us from skiing some of the most beautiful slopes in the world. The entire day of skiing we were surrounded by magnificent snow covered mountains. Although I had not been skiing in about 4 years, poor Lauren had not skied since she was 10. I told her we would take it easy and only ski down the blues and greens. However, little did we know, there are no such thing as blues and greens in the Swiss Alps, only red and blacks with a few blues to help you reach the ski lifts. On the first run, I taught Lauren about pizzas and carving, however, her only method to skiing was flying down the slope full speed and praying she didn’t crash at the bottom, which in most cases she did. One slope her ski feel off at the top and after 10 minutes of me standing at the bottom of the slope watching her struggle to put her ski back on, she decided to walk down the entire slope. She was a trooper though, considering on the first run we took the chair lift all the way to the top of the mountain…Oops. Skiing with Lauren was the highlight of my trip, not only because I was able to laugh with her every time she flew down the mountain and crashed, but also because I got to see some of the most beautiful views of Switzerland I would not have been able to see if I did not ski.

Meg and I at the Top of the Fraumunster Church

       The next day, the roommates and I decided to take a trip to Zurich, which is like the New York City of Switzerland. It was colder, and a lot more developed than I imagined. In Zurich my roommates and I saw to largest clock tower in the world, climbed the beautiful Fraumunster church that looked over the entire city, and I tried all different types of Swiss foods, including Swiss chocolate and pretzels! After the day trip was over, the trip advisor told us to meet her at the Starbucks near the train station, well…little did we know, there are five Starbucks’ near the train station. We decided to leave an hour early to find the Starbucks to ensure we would not be late, however, after visiting every Starbucks in Zurich, we finally found the Starbucks 30 minutes late as the bus was pulling out... After visiting Zurich I realized that I am more interested in site seeing and adventure part of traveling than I am the shopping and tourism part. Zurich was beautiful, but I'm not sure I will be going back soon, at least not when it is -11˚C outside. 

Panoramic view from the Top of the Fraumunster Church

            Overall the trip to Switzerland was a major success. As always, I learned a few things this week: never take 5 more than two, two and a half hour classes a day, never make your meeting location in a big city “The Starbucks by the train station”, when going to Switzerland remember that the minimum wage is 22 franks, so EVERYTHING is expensive, expect to pay 20$ for a cheeseburger with fries, Swiss chocolate is as amazing as everyone says, there is no such thing as a bunny hill in the Swiss Alps, there is no such thing as too many layers in Switzerland, and lastly, the Swiss Alps are home to some of the most beautiful views in the world. 

Well that’s about all for this week. Look for my next post next Monday. Have a great week and a wonderful Valentines Day!  Love and miss you all!

Seven of the Eight Roommates Take on Interlaken!

First Week in Florence

Arno River, Florence Italy 

Benvenuto! I have decided to share all of my adventures and experiences across the pond with all of you in a blog! Warning, if you read this blog there is a chance that the things I say are spelt wrong, contain incorrect grammar, or are extremely boring. Now that you have been properly warned, you may continue reading at your own risk…

Waiting for a taxi with all our bags

            If you are still reading, and want to read about my trip across the big pound, then ciao!  So far I have been across the pond for five days, and within those five days I have realized that I am completely in love with Firenze. If the thought of it taking 24 hours to travel to home doesn’t make you want to stay, then the surreal beauty of the city surely will. The first thing I learned while traveling to Florence is NEVER over pack. I had packed over 140lbs of stuff in two gigantic duffel bags, one carry on, and a backpack filled to the maximum capacity. I was luging so much stuff thought the airport that I knew that everyone that was staring was judging me and though I was a typical American white girl, which at that moment, I could not disagree. Between two of my roommates and I we had to have two taxis, because no taxi driver could fit all our stuff. After arriving into the city and checking in, I learned that we would have to hull our luggage up three flights of steps in order to get into our apartment. If I have ever regretted over packing, at was at the moment I had to carry a 50lb suitcase on my back up 100 steps. I decided to leave one suitcase and come back for it, forcing me to take two trips through the city looking like an absolute tourist. Finally, after trekking 100 steps with over 140lbs of stuff, I walked into our amazing apartment, which come to find out, is the same apartment that the cast of Jersey Shore stayed in…You can form your own opinion about that one.

Gusta Pizza, Our first meal!

            On our first night in Italy, the roommates and I decided to get our first taste of Italian pizza. We set off to find a place called Gusta Pizza, which is typically a 5 minute walk through the city, however for us, it became a 30 min lost wander through the city. It was worth it, because the pizza was amazing and the wine…..well its Italian wine, I’m sure you can imagine how amazing it is to a girl that thinks barefoot is good wine. The next day after orientation, we decided to go to a panini shop called Nobile Bistro. I had an amazing Panini with prosciutto, brie, and pesto with a fresh shot of espresso on the side. However, Meg and Erin decided to try a “Italian favorite” called Lampredotto, which we later discovered is considered peasant food and is the Italian word for cow stomach. Needless to say Meg finished the other half of my Panini after forcing down about four painful bites of her own sandwich.

Nobile Bistro, Panini Time!

Meg and Erins Cow Stomach
Panini            

Looking over the Arno River with Mega

        Later that night Megan and I decided to go to the center fresh market. This turned out to be the best adventure I have had thus far. After an hour of wandering the streets in pouring rain, Meg and I discovered that the fresh market, which we later found out is 10 minutes away for our apartment, closes at 2:00pm. At that point it was about 8:00pm and we were completely drenched because we had not brought an umbrella or rain jacket. However, this adventure was not miserable or dreadful, because a night “lost” in the streets of Firenze with one of your best friends can be the time of your life. I mean, we are in Florence, Italy! How can you get upset?! While wandering a waiter standing at the front door of a small restaurant asked us if we were hungry. Meg and I decided that we probably should eat, considering the only thing Meg had eaten all day was cow stomach and half of my panini. The waiter sat us down at a table next to the manager, Franco, who was finishing his meal. He looked at us, completely drenched, brought us a towel, and started to ask us where we were from. He spoke perfect English and even sang the Eagles fight song with Megan. Our idea of a one-hour meal quickly turned into a two and a half hour conversation with Franco over amazing Italian food. Franco brought us complementary champagne; we then ordered the house wine. Meg and I decided to split the gnocchi with pesto, and the ricotta and spinach stuffed ravioli with truffle sauce. We then finished our meal with homemade tiramisu and complementary cappuccinos and lemoncello, thanks to our new “Italian dad”, Franco. Franco informed us that he had a daughter who was studying abroad in France and he knew the worry our parents probably had about us studying abroad. He also answered all of our questions about Italy and Italian customs. We learned that when in Italy, there is no such thing as a to-go box, you eat it all or leave it behind because the food is not considered “fresh” the next day. We learned that when you sit down to drink cappuccino or eat a pastry, you have to pay about 6 euro, but if you drink and eat while standing at the bar it is about 1.40 euro. We learned that you never should buy all your household items from the dollar store, all your packaged foods and the supermarket, and all your fresh foods from the fresh market. We learned that you are never to buy your food in bulk, and that it is Italian custom to go the fresh market everyday to buy your grocery’s. I asked Franco how Italians stay so thin while eating pasta everyday. He told me that pasta won’t make you fat, it all depends on how fresh the pasta is and the ingredients that are in the pasta. He said that it is custom for Italians to wake up and drink a cappuccino, then around 1:00pm they eat a pasta dish for lunch, and around 9:00pm for dinner they eat a dish filled with protein, such as steak or pork, and throughout the day drink about 4-6 shots of espresso. Meg and I decided to live like Italians and adopt their methods of eating, which not eating breakfast has been very difficult so far.  After the meal, Franco asked Meg and I to meet him and his wife for cappuccinos at 10:00am the next morning. We were skeptical at first that it could be a trap and Meg and I might become the new stars of the movie Taken, however we decided to go. The next morning, once again Meg and I became lost and arrived at Franco’s around 11:00am. Franco gave us complementary cappuccinos and chocolate cake, as well as a hard time for arriving so late when we live 10 minutes away. We met his wife and his American friend and learned more about the Italian culture.  So far our conversations with Franco have been one of the best parts of the trip. Other than finding one of the five secrete bakeries, where we got fresh chocolate croissants and chocolate filled donuts out of the back door of a bakery at 3:00am for only 1 euro.

            So far I have learned never to over pack, I have explored the streets of Italy, I have had some of the best food and wine of my live, I have made friends with some locals, I have learned some of the do’s and don’t’s of the Italian culture, I have drank a bottle of wine a day, I have made new friends with the best roommates I could have asked for, I have learned my way around some of the streets of Florence, I have watched an Italian sunset over the Arno river, and I have fallen completely in love with one of the best cities in Italy. I am excited to see what the next 13 weeks hold!   

            Well…That’s about it. Sorry this blog was so long, I am going to try to post every Wednesday and Sunday so that they are shorter and more enjoyable to read. Hope you this post wasn’t to boring and unbearable. Miss you all! Ciao!