Don't Forget to Look Up!!

At the Diner with our fresh-squeezed orange juice :)

Ideal meal.

The view from the top of the Duomo!

We made it to the top!

Fancy and Ramsay

Juliet's balcony

Yes...this is a real dog. I almost stole it.

In the Verona Colliseum.

Garda Lake!

On the Boat!

The massive water fall!

The smaller waterfall.

With our Alabama friends!

The Hills are Alive!

With my friend Olivia!

 

 Wednesday night we went back to the Art Bar and got our favorite fruit cocktails! Caroline Allen and her friend Annie ended up being there at the same time and I loved getting to catch up with them! On Thursday night we decided to celebrate another end to our school week by going to another highly recommended restaurant called La Giostra (we love a good excuse to celebrate)! We all got their famous pear pasta that was to die for. The whole time we were admiring this gorgeous blonde, “perfect” American couple with their precious baby. That of course started conversation about our ideal futures, which is always a fun topic! 

We started Friday morning off with another DELICIOUS meal (surprised?) at an American restaurant called the Diner. I had an omelet, fresh squeezed orange juice and a massive bowl of fruit aka my ideal meal. The Italian man next to us was appalled that they put whipped cream and chocolate chips on his pancakes and he sent them back. What in the world?! After the Diner we did some shopping at Zara (I love that store too much) and the markets. Later that day we climbed the Duomo, which was so cool! We were so glad we waited until the end of our trip because we could see everywhere we’ve been throughout Florence! That night we went to a restaurant on our street called Il Golpe, where we had waiters (who named themselves Fancy and Ramsay for some reason…Italian humor haha) who loved kidding around with us American girls! After dinner we went back to La Carriara, our favorite gelato place and the gelato man was so happy to see us again. Maybe since we’ve given him so much business in the past few weeks, he will give us free gelato on the last night we are here? That’s wishful thinking! Nothing is free here! Can’t wait for those free public bathrooms and free water at restaurants when I get home :)

ML, Katie and I left very early Saturday morning for the Alps trip through the school. The trip began with a little tour of a town called Verona, which is about 45 minutes away from Venice. It is known for having was is supposedly Juliet’s balcony from “Romeo and Juliet” and a coliseum that looks like a miniature version of the Coliseum in Rome. Our next stop was Garda Lake, which is a huge, gorgeous, aqua blue, fresh water lake. I have never seen a lake so blue in my life! Some of us took a boat ride which was so relaxing and peaceful! The tour guide was only speaking Italian, so ML decided she would act like she knew what he was saying and so she convinced some of us that he was talking about giant whale sized fish that live in the lake. Most of us realized very quickly that she was kidding, except for our gullible friend, James. It was hysterical (sorry for the small details…I just don’t want to forget them!). Needless to say, we could have cared less about learning anything about the lake. We just loved feeling the breeze against our face and admiring the water! That night we had dinner at the hotel and sat with some very sweet girls from Alabama named Elizabeth, Rachel and Patricia. Yay for new southern friends!!

The next day we went hiking through the Alps of Italy! As we were walking along the trails and looking down to make sure we didn’t trip, Katie said “don’t forget to look up” at the snow capped mountains, perfectly blue sky, and thousands of spruce trees all around us. That was exactly what I needed to hear so that I wouldn’t miss the extraordinary views, but also so I wouldn’t forget to “look up” and stay hopeful on Fathers day. After about an hour, we made it to our first stop, which was a massive waterfall!! It was amazing! We walked under it and all around it to get multiple views. There is something about the combination of mountains and water that I just absolutely love! We walked for another hour or so and sat by another gorgeous waterfall that was smaller, but very quaint and beautiful. Our last stop was a huge open area of rolling hills where we had the perfect view of the snow-capped mountains! We all felt like we were in the Sound of Music! Katie, ML and I talked about how this weekend just reminded us of how big and powerful God truly is. I feel so blessed to have seen more of His spectacular creation! What a weekend.

This week we are planning on doing our favorite things one last time, eating a lot of gelato, and just soaking it all in!!

"McDonalds, Mcdonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut"

Early morning on the Tyrrhenian sea (ML and Katie got up to watch the sunrise on Sunday morning)

Elba Island!

San Gimignano!

View from the top of the Tower!

Katie and I on the top of the tower!

Boboli Gardens!

Outside/Back of Pitti Palace

Baby Dancing!

On the beach :)

Ran into Eliza (my friend from FOCUS camp) at Art bar!

Hello family and friends! So sorry I’ve been slacking off on this thing. As I sit here stuffed to the brim, I will do my best to remember most of what I’ve been up to in the past week! Last Sunday ML, Southie, Katie and I went to San Gimignano, which is a cute small town in the countryside of Italy. It is known as the “town of towers” because it is made up of…you guessed it…a lot of towers! We were pretty tired when we got there, but were rejuvenated when we climbed up to the top of the main tower and saw the incredible view of the countryside. We could have stayed up there for hours! After we climbed the tower, we enjoyed a Bellini at a cute bar!

The school week began and we did our best to power through our classes. Fast forward to Wednesday when Mary Scott Neil, Katie and I went to see the famous statue of David in the Academia Museum. No words can describe how incredible it was. Michelangelo carved this statue of David out of one massive piece of marble, which is so hard for me to wrap my head around. Never in my life have I seen a statue with such amazing detail. While we stared at it for 30 minutes, we could see the veins in his arms, the obvious dirt on his feet, his fingernails and every other small part of a living person’s body. We read that David’s sling over his shoulder (that is practically hidden), his relaxed stance, his head turned to the side, and the look in his eyes, represent his innocence, humbleness and wisdom (from the Lord). Absolutely amazing. After seeing the David, Katie and I ventured over to Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens. On our way we discovered a new obsession…nutella croissants!! If it seems like we are eating our way through Italy, you are thinking correctly :) When we made it to Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens, we walked through the beautiful gardens and just enjoyed the peace and quiet. Such a great change from the hustle and bustle of the city that we are used to here in Florence. 

This past weekend ML, Southie, Katie and I we went to Elba Island, which is right off the coast of Italy in the Tyrrhenian Sea! We stayed at the greatest hotel called Le Acacie and were the only Americans there! We loved a break from all the tourists in Florence. Yes I guess you could say that we are tourists ourselves, but we are definitely not the ones who walk at a rate of .05 miles per hour, in lines of 50 people with earphones in our ears haha. I do blame them for being late to class on many occasions :) When we got to Le Acacie, we realized quickly that this hotel is very kid friendly and there were many activities for kids, one of which, was baby dancing!! After our four course Italian meal, Mary Louise introduced me to Kahlua and Crème (new favorite drink) and then all four of us watched three college-aged Italians (I’m guessing this is there summer job) leading all the kids in dances to Italian children’s songs. We couldn’t figure out if we were watching the Wiggles or if we were in Disney world. It was absolutely hysterical and extremely entertaining. Our favorite dance was the Mcdonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut song, which was the only one in English haha. If it didn’t take hours to upload videos on this blog, I would provide you all with some quality entertainment. On Saturday morning we spent the whole day (all 7 hours!) lying on the beautiful beach right next to our hotel. Once again, the combination of water and mountains was breathtaking. The Tyrrhenian Sea is a beautiful dark blue, but it is perfectly clear when you get in. We all read our books, listened to music and basked in the sun, and it was exactly what we needed. I read a whole Nicholas Sparks book, which is a piece of cake for some people, but a huge accomplishment for me, haha. That night we had so much fun talking to our Italian waiters who a) didn’t understand why American girls were at their hotel and b) absolutely loved us…and I will say that the love was mutual! We later realized that our waiter, Paolo was placed at our table because he is from England and he is the only one who can speak really good English! During dinner, the children’s program counselors (also known as the baby dancing instructors) came up to each table to tell us the programs offered that weekend...and that is when one of the guy instructors invited us to go to the Elba discoteca at 1am when he got off work ahhhh! I could not help but bust out laughing, which was not the best response to a nice guy who wanted us to experience a good time on the island… haha whoopsie. We declined the offer, but were later very flattered that he asked us. That night (you guessed it) we watched some more baby dancing and it was better than ever! On Sunday, we were able to soak in some more rays at the pool and swim a little bit before we headed back to Florence. It was the perfect weekend of relaxation and rejuvenation. We seriously debated whether we were going to go back to Elba this weekend, but decided that we needed to stick to our originally plan of hiking in the Alps :)

Last night we went to another restaurant called Za Za's that was another great recommendation from other friends who have studied in Florence. We then headed to the Art Bar where we ran into some clemson girls. One of them is a friend who went to Focus camp with me four years ago!! It was so much fun to reconnect with her! I am so thankful for the lifelong friendships and connections I have through FOCUS.

Today, we went to class and did a little shopping at the School of Leather (a real leather market) and the central market! We did our usual Tuesday night routine of dinner at Gusta Pizza and tonight we had even more fun talking to Alle (the cute Italian bus boy) :) We then went to our favorite gelato place called La Carriarra. We LOVE the cookie’s flavor and are trying to figure out how to bring tubs of it home with us!! I guess we will keep dreaming…

Tomorrow we are planning on using one of our excused absences from photography class and sleeping in. Cannot wait.

I can't believe that we have only a week and half left. Time has flown by. I could not be more thankful for all the laughs, all the moments that have taken my breath way, all the challenges, and the friendships that have been made and strengthened day in and day out.

I will do my best to be better about updating this in the next few days :) 

How are Italians so skinny??

This past week was great! I feel like I have my feet on the ground here in Florence and it’s a good feeling. Classes started Monday and thankfully we haven’t learned anything too difficult yet, because I have had an attention span the size of a peanut (summer + being stuck in a classroom for 2 ½ hours in an incredible Italian city does NOT equal focus…but oh well!). I have digital photography in the mornings, a lunch break and then Italian in the afternoon. On Tuesday in photography, our class went out into the city to take pictures and Katie and I somehow ended up in a clothing store called Zara! This is my thinking…technically we were doing what we were supposed to do because we managed to take mental PICTURES of clothes that we wanted to try on later haha.Yay for shopping during class :) I have a great Italian class (of ten people) and I somehow got the easy teacher, which is such a blessing since foreign language doesn’t come easy to me. I will say that my Italian class has definitely made me miss the small classes that I had at Saint Marys!

Tuesday night our apartment went to a pizza place that everyone has been raving about called Gusta Pizza, which is on the other side of the Ponte Vecchio Bridge. On our way to Gusta we got to see the sunset over the Arno River, which was absolutely beautiful. When we made it to Gusta, we immediately made friends with the cute bus boy, Ale. Yep…as embarrassing as it is to say, we were those giddy American girls who were constantly trying to think of another question to ask him haha. When we got our pizza, I had to consciously tell myself to slow down because it was SO GOOD. Truly the best pizza I’ve ever had! You can probably guess what we did after Gusta…gelato time! We went to a gelateria called La Carriarra and it was hands down the best gelato I’ve had. We all loved the cookies flavor :) Lets just say that it was delicious night! The next morning, I asked my digital photography teacher how Italians are so skinny because it just baffles my mind. He said in his Italian accent, “you have to have balance” and I thought to myself “I don’t think I will be having a lot of balance the next few weeks! Sorry bout it!”

On Wednesday night, Katie, Southie and I went to a casual bar called the Art Bar, which was another great recommendation from other friends who have studied abroad in Florence! We all got the fruit cocktail that had a beautiful display of fruit all around it!!! My kind of drink! We decided that we might have to have “art bar Wednesdays”!

On Thursday night our apartment decided that we needed to celebrate finishing our first week of classes with a nice dinner! We went to a restaurant called Acqua al 2 and we got the blueberry steaks (which the restaurant is known for) and it was a) the best steak I’ve ever had and b) a great change from all the pasta and pizza we’ve had! After we went to a bar called Lions Fountain which is obviously targeted towards American college students as it has American college t-shirts on the ceiling. UNC did make it on the ceiling, but it’s a UNC marching band shirt…so we need to somehow get them a Carolina basketball t-shirt to replace it! It was karaoke night and Mary Louise and Katie were the brave ones and got up there and sang, “I wanna dance with somebody”! That song never gets old!

On Friday we slept in and then headed to the Uffizi Museum around lunchtime. The Uffizzi is huge and it is basically filled with sculptures and many paintings of Christ. The most powerful paintings to me were the paintings of the “Adoration of baby Jesus”, the crucifixion of Jesus, and one particular painting of Jesus being put in the tomb. They all gave me chills! That night, Southie, Mary Louise, Katie and I (Meagan and Jenna have been in Rome this weekend) got some Gusta pizza to go (can you tell we are addicted?) and sat on a platform that extends off of a bridge over the Arno River. We had the most gorgeous view of the Ponte Vecchio! It was the life! After, we just decided we HAD to ride the carousel in the Piazza Republica haha! Our thinking is that it doesn't matter what other people think of us because we aren't going to see them ever again. Hey, sometimes you just have to relive your childhood :)

Today (Saturday) we went on a bike tour of Chianti, which is in the countryside of Tuscany!! We first took a tour of the Chianti castle and learned how the wine and olive oil is made there and we of course got to try both! We climbed all the way to the top of the castle and saw the gorgeous view of all of Chianti! We then hopped on our bikes and rode all around Chianti and it was absolutely breathtaking. The rolling hills, red poppy flowers, grape vineyards and little yellow houses were incredible. It was so peaceful as we rode and took in the view. We had a delicious lunch at a family owned restaurant and then got back on our bikes, but this time we decided to tackle a hill that we didn’t have to go up (we could have ridden up in the van) and it was a killer haha! The rest of the way was easy and very relaxing! The bike tour was the perfect way to get a taste of the quaint Tuscan countryside! Tomorrow we are going to see a little more of it and head to San Gimignano for the day! That’s all for now!!

The sunset as we walked parallel to the arno river!

Gusta Pizza!

Fruit cocktail at the Art Bar!

Aqua al 2 where we got the blueberry steak!

Lions Fountain!

We ran into Caroline Allen and Annie Brown at Lions Fountain YAY!

Fun night on the Arno River (the Ponte Vecchio bridge is in the background, all lit up!)

SO FUN.

The view out of the Chianti castle!

Wine tasting :)

Here we go!

Had to make a stop to take in the view!

Incredible view.

After we made it up the massive hill!

Making the most of every day!

Gondala ride!

I LOVE the little canals!

Beautiful grand canal of Venice!

Cinque Terre!

The view from our last hike to Monterosso!

We made it to the beach of Monterosso after 1 and 1/2 hour hike!!

Last Wednesday Katie and I moved into our apartment in Florence and it feels so good to have a permanent home for the next few days! I am living with Katie Stockton, Mary Louise, Mary Southgate and two girls named Jenna and Meagan! All six of us realized that we do have four weeks ahead of us but they are going to fly bye, so we decided to jump on the train on Saturday and head to Venice for the day! In the ticket line at the train, we met a group of college kids from Penn State and two of them, Lauren and Chris, decided to come to Venice with us! Venice is such a cool little town on the water! I’ve never been to any place like it before! We walked all over the town and stopped to take pictures and take in the views of the water, colorful houses and gondalas! We saw a stand of fresh cut of fruit that we couldn’t resist since we haven’t had fruit in days ahh! Let me tell ya….it hit the spot! We went to a restaurant that is right next to the grand canal so we had a beautiful view of the water! Funny moment: Lauren, our new friend from Penn State and a Long Island New Yorker, out of nowhere whips out her box wine for the whole table…hilarious. The waiters quickly informed her that that kind of wine is solely used for cooking in Italy haha! They LOVED making fun of her for that! After eating a delicious margherita pizza (of course) we jumped on a gondela! The gondalier quickly realized that we didn’t care about the history of random buildings because A) we wouldn’t stop taking pictures and B) we were so curious about his life and kept asking him questions! He was probably annoyed with us curious southern girls! He said that It takes 4 years of training to become a gondalier…woah!!

Today (Sunday) we headed to Cinque Terre with the Bus2Alps tour group for the day! We were so excited to put on shorts and running shoes since we've actually dressed nicely the past week! My running shoes have never felt so good! Cinque Terre is a group of five towns on the coast of Italy right by the Tyrrhenian sea. It was amazing! Unfortunately we couldn’t hike through all five towns because there was a mudslide in October and three of the trails were blocked off. We walked from town 1 to town 2 then took the train to town 3 and got the best pesto spaghetti I’ve ever had! Pesto originated in Cinque Terre…yummy!! We then hiked from towns 4 to 5 which took 1 and ½ hours. The hike was all up hill for the first 40 minutes, but it was worth the incredible views of the beautiful aqua sea and colorful towns! With a sense of achievement and sore legs, we made it to the beach of Monterroso (the last town)! We grabbed a strawberry daiquiri, sat on a bench and enjoyed watching hysterial Italian and American beach bums including a man who was dancing by himself in the water…hilarious. I loooove people watching! We all agreed on the way back that it could not have been a better weekend!!

Italians obviously don't know what deodorant is...

In St. Peter's Square

We were so close to the pope as he made his procession!

Top of St. Peter's Basilica!

Katie and I spent the day at the Vatican and surprisingly enough, so many things fell into place! We got up early and hopped onto the metro or "bus" for the first time on the trip and successfully made it to the Vatican! In the security line a lady told us that the Pope was going to have his procession this morning…we couldn’t believe it! We somehow got a very close seat in front of St. Peter’s Basilica where the procession would take place! The Pope came out and rode around the crowd then was lifted up on stage. He read his sermon in Italian and thankfully someone read scripture in English! It all was so surreal!! After the procession/service we went on a guided tour through the Vatican Museum, the Sistine chapel (Michelangelo spent 11 years painting the ceiling and one of the walls…woah.) and St. Peter’s Basilica (the largest church in the world apparently)! Katie and I were given great advice from our friend Hollister to climb everything we can so up we went to the top of St. Peter’s Basilica! After many very narrow winding staircases, we made it to the top! It was so worth the dizziness! We could see all of Rome and most of the monuments from the top! On our way down we noticed a little pudgy foreign girl who was determined to go as fast as possible down the stairs and before we knew it we heard CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK and she had fallen flat on her face down 6 stairs. Her parents came and quickly picked her up and scolded her in some crazy language we didn’t know. At that moment Katie and I were very thankful that we have very compassionate and loving parents…unlike those crazies!! We traveled back onto the metro bus where we confirmed the fact that Italians don’t know what deodorant is, as Katie had an Italian man’s armpit in her face! Disgusting. We got a bite to eat at restaurant near the train station and ended up sitting with a lady named Stephanie who lived in Australia (originally from St. Louis) and who was traveling by herself. I don't think I could ever travel by myself like that. Side note: Katie and I have LOVED traveling together :) We then got to the train station and we somehow made it on our train after a minor panic attack when we couldn’t find our train and we forgot to get our ticket punched. By the grace of God we made it to Florence and met Mary Southgate at our hotel! We walked around Florence grabbed some gelatto and now we are off to bed. Katie and I feel like these past few days have been perfect and we have gotten our feet wet a little bit! Not to be to sentimental or anything but we just feel like God has made it clear to us that he has been with us every step of the way as we have made our way through this country. He has shown himself to us in people and timing, as he put WONDERFUL, loving people in our lives these past few days, he brought us to the Vatican at the perfect time to see the Pope and he got us on that train. Those are just a few of the many ways he has shown himself to us :) I am looking forward to seeing all of our UNC friends tomorrow and permanently setting in our apartment tomorrow!!