AMORE

One of my friend’s, Lindsey, made an extraordinary slideshow of our experience in Florence. Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxhKS9xwQwo

I thought I’d write down a few things that I did not want to forget about my impressions of the culture life here in Italy…the first list describes things that I miss from home. The second list describes things I am really going to miss about Florence! Here goes!

Things I miss about home:

-not using 4 keys to get into my house

-not wondering how to flush the toilet

-not Thinking the sink is automatic then realizing there’s a pedal to turn it on

-not Being cat-called anytime of the day while walking down the street, whether it’s 10am and I’m swearing a sweatshirt or it’s midnight and I’m dressed up to go out

-being able to communicate with everyone

-the smells outside, like blooming flowers in the spring, not gross water from the Arno 

-being able to walk on the sidewalks with ppl understanding to “bear right”

-regular sized sidewalks

-not dodging the crazy drivers down the tiny streets

-being able to drive my car

-water being free

-ice cubes coming in your water

-my home, my own room

-watching tv in English (with my mom especially!)

-it being so easy to find something at a store…here there are barely any big supermarkets, like i need a TARGET! There r too many small different stores we have to go to find what we need (ex. Toiletries, medicine, house supplies)

-there not being “tourist season” where prices are raised at a certain time of year and no huge masses of people everywhere you walk

-being able to call someone when you are out to ask them where they are instead of wandering around for a good amount of time

-last but not least, my family and friends!!! i’ve kept in good contact with most of them, but I can’t wait to reunite :)

Things I’ll miss about Florence:

-being able to order a glass of wine with a nice dinner

-marinas homecooked dinners

-Everything being walking distance away

-gelato

-pappa al pomodoro

-Marina’s zucchini

-pesto lasagna

-gnocci from osteria santo spirito, actually any dish from osteria santo spirito

-fresh bruschetta

-blood oranges

-fresh mozzarella on a panini

-living so close to all of my friends

-how we all do everything together and everyone’s always invited

-the nightlife

-not worrying about drinking and driving (nvr an issue bc we walk everywhere)

-crossing the beautiful Arno each morning on the way to the BI, looking at the ponte vecchio with the sunrise behind it

-Traveling weekly, literally exploring the world and experiencing new things and new places everyday

-chiara and Alessandro!!!

-being able to drink wine in class…for free

-no such thing as open containers

-it being socially acceptable to have a glass of wine or two at lunch in the middle of the day

-not tipping

-no tax

-shopping being so easily accessible

-and most of all, seeing all 25 of my friends in the program every single day! they are like my family, I really hope we all meet up frequently in the summer and back at JMU :)

So I have been thinking about much I have enjoyed my semester abroad and how I want to help students who are either interested in studying abroad or who are already planning on studying abroad and need some advice and help.  I just want to give back to the JMU Office of International Programs and my peers at JMU by spreading the word to study abroad! There is this program called Global Dukes through the JMU Office of International Programs that works to promote their programs, which is exactly what I want to do! There are different positions I can apply for, such as Social Media Advisor, Study Abroad Student Mentor, Marketing/Promotions Coordinator or International Events Specialist.  I am thinking about applying for either the Marketing/Promotions Coordinator or the International Events Specialist, because those two job descriptions seem to be closest to what I want help out with.  I have quite the lengthy application to fill out talking about my experience studying abroad, so I think it will be a great way to reflect back on my experience in Florence.  I am also really excited because I am not involved in any extracurricular programs at JMU, so I really hope I get in! Wish me luck :)

This weekend was truly a vacation.  I have never had a weekend quite like the one I experienced in Amalfi.  I was in paradise all weekend long with a new family.

I had organized about 16 people from our JMU group to sign up for the Amalfi Coast weekend trip through a tour group called Euroadventures.  Euroadventures had a promotion for 215 Euro that included transportation and accommodation.  Because I got a group together, Euroadventures knocked 20 Euro off of everyone’s package fee! 

We left the bus station around dinnertime Thursday evening.  We had about a 6-hour bus ride, so Thursday night was pretty uneventful.  We met our two tour guides—Bruno and Jessica.  Bruno is a 67 year old American and now Italian who was extremely active and humorous.  He knew everything about where we were traveling and took very good care of us.  Jessica is only 25 years old and was Bruno’s right-hand-woman.  She was really sweet and showed us a good time.

We arrived in Sorrento at about 2am.  The bus ride was windy towards the end because the roads are literally on the edge of cliffs overlooking the ocean. We were exhausted when we arrived at our “hotel.”  We actually stayed in bungalows, like we were camping! It was a lot of fun.  We stayed in groups of about 3-5 people and had two rooms, a small kitchen, and a private bathroom.  Unfortunately, the bungalow I got assigned ended up being one of the worst ones, like there was barely any warm water and it felt tiny.  I visited some of the other bungalows and they were huge! They included almost a full kitchen with a table and a huge bedroom or two.  I am jealous I didn’t get assigned one of the nicer rooms but it was fine because we weren’t in our rooms much anyway. 

We woke up early Friday morning to make our way to the island of Capri!!!! We walked to the port where we caught a big boat that took us to Capri.  Bruno, our tour guide, showed us the main piazzas on our way to the port.  Sorrento was very beachy, small, and beautiful.  The boat ride was about 20 minutes and the scenery was incredible.  I sat next to Molli and Alex and we could not stop talking about how lucky we were.  We could not believe that it was just one weekend in the middle of our semester, in March, that we were taking a beach vacation to the Amalfi Coast.  We were so happy.  We were also talking about how amazing our group is and we are so happy everyone is so close because it makes this experience all that more enjoyable.  We knew it was going to be an amazing weekend and it had just barely begun.

 

(Me, Jes, and Alex on the boat arriving in Capri)

When we arrived in Capri, we walked to the shore where we ordered sandwiches to put in our backpacks to eat for lunch later.  A few of us bought Peroni beers and sat by the water and sipped on them as we were waiting for the group to gather back up after ordering a variety of sandwiches.  Peroni by far is my favorite Italian beer.  Then, instead of hiking towards the Blue Grotto, Bruno organized a boat ride to take us! It was only 5 Euro each so that was not a problem.  We enjoyed the 10-minute boat ride by finishing our beers and feeling the cool wind in our hair.  Again, the views were spectacular.

(Carly, Jes, and I enjoying our Peroni beers…my new favorite Italian beer!)

When we arrived at the Blue Grotto, we first walked up the cliffs to find a spot to sit in the sun for a while.  For the next 2 hours, we simply sun bathed, ate our sandwiches, jumped off the cliffs into the freezing bright blue water, and some of us even went inside the Blue Grotto!  The Blue Grotto is one of the 7 natural wonders of the world!  I took a small boat inside with Molli and Jes Weatherly.  Another boat of our friends Staci, Alex, and Kate went in right next to us.  We had to duck our heads to get under the opening of the cave.  Once we were under, all we saw was a dark cave.  Then, the boatman told us to turn around and look back at the entrance of the cave.  Then we could not believe our eyes.  The water beneath us was bright turquoise blue.  It was this beautiful color due to the reflection of the sun on the water at this particular time of day.  There was also coral lining the water of the cave that was bright neon orange.  It looked amazing.  Pictures absolutely do not do its justice.  But here are a few anyway…the colors literally were what you see below, if not brighter. 

Then the boatmen asked us if we wanted to jump in the water inside the Blue Grotto! We did not believe him at first because apparently it is not allowed to get in the water inside the Blue Grotto. But, one by one we each jumped in! The water was so cold and I was so shocked by the cold and the beauty of it all that I was literally breathless when I came up out of the water for air.  I could not believe what I was experiencing. 

After everyone got their turn to jump in the beautiful water of the Blue Grotto, we made our way out and back up the cliffs of Capri.  We continued to tan and relax with our friends until our tour guide, Bruno, led us to our next destination.  We took an incredibly small and squished bus to the top of Capri.  The roads were extremely windy so we were literally falling all over eachother because there were limited seats.  Once we got off the bus, some people went to hike while the rest of the group, including myself, made our way down the cliff and saw some beautiful views.  We thought the descend was going to be easy, but it was actually incredibly stiff and the path and steps felt never-ending! Finally when we arrived at the end by the port at the bottom of the island, our legs were shaking because we descended down so many steps.  I had no idea going down steps could hurt so badly!

(Lindsey and I on the cliffs in Capri)

Once we got back down to the port, we had to wait for Bruno and the other hikers.  So, naturally, we grabbed another beer and enjoyed it by the water.  We soon took the big boat back to Sorrento.  When we got back to Sorrento, we hung out in our bungalows and relaxed for a bit before a fun night out at the bars.  We all left as a group at 8:30pm and Bruno took us to an area where there were good restaurants.  From there, we split up into groups of about 6 or so people and ate dinner.

I went to dinner at a seafood restaurant with Alex, Liz, Bekah, Amy and Staci.  Everyone was mostly pretty tired during the dinner, but Alex and I were sipping on a half-liter of wine and were having a ball.  Alex and I split a garlic white wine shrimp appetizer and I ordered the best homemade thick spaghetti with clams that I think I have ever had.  I also got to have a few bites of Liz’s shrimp and lemon risotto…so delicious.  Sorrento is known for their lemons, so that dish and their limoncello tasted so fresh!

After dinner, we met up Jessica, Allison, Jes and Lauren Davis at an English pub.  We had a couple of drinks there and met some more Italian study abroad students.  After the English pub we went across the street to a small dance club place and we danced our butts off for the next hour or so.  We had a lot of fun.  Unfortunately, we decided we should probably head home because we were getting up kinda early the next morning to head to Pompeii.

(Jes, Bekah and I at the English Pub…I’m wearing my new white jeans and blazer I bought last week at Zara! Love them!)

Saturday morning we caught an early train to the city of Pompeii! We walked around Pompeii with Bruno for about an hour, hour and half.  It was nice not having a long guided tour with those stupid head sets that we get all the time.  Instead, Bruno just let us walk around and he pointed out the things that he thought was most interesting about the ruins.  For example, the ashes that came from the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius had preserved the bodies of several of the people who lived there.  There was one body of a 17-year-old woman who was pregnant and you could clearly see her pregnant stomach and the despair and sadness on her face.  It was so sad.

(The 17-year-old pregnant women covered in ashes)

(Molli and I in Pompeii)

The remains of the city reminded me of the Roman Forum that I saw with Matt just a few weeks ago, and that I am going to see again this weekend! After Pompeii, we got a slushy-type dessert that was lemon-flavored…sooooo yummy! You haven’t tasted lemons until you try them in the Amalfi coast, that’s for sure! Then we got back on the train and made our way to Naples! Naples is a dirty area, so we weren’t going to stay for long.  We solely went there to try the pizza…pizza was originated in Naples!  We went to a pizza shop was called Da Michele where Julia Roberts filmed a scene from the popular film titled Eat, Pray, Love. The pizza was to die for…even better than Gusta Pizza.  I watched them make the dough, toss the dough, spread the sauce, sprinkle the cheese and sit in the oven all for my own personal pizza. 

We all got our pizzas to go so we could eat them outside together.  We did not have any forks or knives, so we literally were eating our pizza like scavengers.  There were about 8 of us sitting on the curb in the middle of the street destroying our delicious pizza.  We honestly did not think anything of it…until, people started stopping by us and taking our pictures! We thought it was so weird.  One guy even took a picture of us and printed it out on a piece of paper and gave it to us!  So finally, we asked what was going on.  The local Neapolitan said, “you guys have changed the way we eat pizza” and another guy said, “You have captured the meaning of Neapolitan pizza.” Hahaha we were the talk of the town that afternoon.

(This is a copy of the picture someone took of us in Naples eating our pizza haha)

After the best pizza ever, we made our way back to Sorrento.  We hung out in our rooms for about 2-3 hours just goofing around and having a blast.  Same thing as in Venice—we just hung out in one room and could not stop laughing at the most random things.  (Note to myself: I told them a really funny story about something that happened on the bus ride up to the top of Capri…hahahaha Frankie’s double reaction made us LOL nonstop) Anyway, after hanging out in my room for a while, we boiled up some pasta.  Bruno, our tour guide, had kindly cooked two different types of sauces, cut up a salad, and bought us some bread.  So, all we had to do was bring him our already cooked pasta and he put his delicious spicy and sweet sauce on our pasta.  We all brought our plates up to Liz’s huge bungalow room where she had a big kitchen and a table for us to sit at.  We also bought our own cheap wine from a local market to enjoy with our pasta.  It was nice having a delicious home cooked meal together and we got to save some money! After dinner, we all moved to Liz’s room that she was sharing with Staci, Kate, Amy, and Emily…so it was a huge room.  We all found a space to sit and just sat around, drank wine, talked and laughed for the next couple of hours.  Frankie did his hilarious dance for the group and we all were loosing it.  Too funny…

(Frankie breaking it down for us all)

Then we finally made our way back to bed because we were going to wake up early the next morning and we were going to loose one hour of sleep to set the time change ahead one hour. (Finally spring is officially here!)

On Sunday morning, we checked out of our bungalows around 8am and took an extremely windy bus ride Positino, the heart of the Amalfi Coast.  This bus ride was similar to the one in Capri, but a lot longer so many people felt sick.  Finally we arrived in Positano and walked down for about 10 minutes to the beach!!!! The beach is my favorite place in the world, so to be able to beach at one of the most beautiful beaches in the world just made me so happy.  The entire city of Positano and the entire Amalfi coast is on cliffs of mountains.  The scenery is to die for.  We spent the next few hours just lying in the warm sun.  We were so lucky with the weather we had the entire weekend.  Actually, we are so lucky with the weather we get every single time we travel!

(most amazing view i’ve ever seen of Positano)

(Jessica, Amy, Bekah and I tanning on the beach of Positano)

The afternoon was so relaxing. I did a little bit of shopping and had a really nice lunch with Lauren, Liz and Frankie.  Frankie and I split the Amalfi sandwich and a shrimp with fresh tomato salad.  It was to die for.  I am seriously spoiled with the food I have here in Italy…

Around 2:30pm we took the windy bus ride back to Sorrento.  We quickly changed out of our bathings suits and into cozy clothes for the 6-hour bus ride back home for Florence.  We didn’t get home until about 11pm Sunday night, but I slept a good amount on the bus so it was okay.

Overall, my weekend in the Amalfi coast was so relaxing and absolutely beautiful.  It was nice going with Euroadventures, too because they really took care of us.  The trip would have been stressful to plan ourselves because we traveled to so many different islands or cities each day.  It was also really nice that almost everyone from the JMU group went with us.  We had so much fun.  It may have been one of my best weekends ever this semester. I hope I can go back to Amalfi one day, maybe with my future fiancé or husband on our honeymoon! We were too lucky to be going at only 20 years old…it was incredible.  

Venice was AMAZING! Literally everything you see in movies about Venice was exactly what it was like…and it was so amazing sharing the weekend in Venice with my entire JMU Semester in Florence Spring 2012 group. There were about 25 of us and we all stayed in the same hotel, so needless to say, it was crazy fun.

We left first thing Friday morning.  We arrived at the train station in Venice around 11am and then had to take a water taxi ride for about 30 minutes to get to our hotel.  Venice is made of 117 islands all connected by small and big bridges. The streets are literally canals! Every street/canal looked the same and it was very easy to get lost. The streets were so narrow that they barely felt like streets.  After the water taxi ride we checked into our hotel room.  I roomed with Liz, Amy and Bekah.  We were good roomies and we had a lot of fun.  Bekah was sick throughout the weekend, though, so that was sad.  But shes recovering before Amalfi this weekend!!

We had about one hour for lunch before our scheduled tour.  So, we got inexpensive wraps and sandwiches at a self-service bar and ate on a dock overlooking the main big canal.  It was beautiful outside so it was really enjoyable.  After lunch, we got gelato and enjoyed it in a sunny palazzo just sitting and chatting.  Then it was time for the tour! The tour guide was actually really boring, so that kind of sucked.  She took us for a 2 1/2 hour tour of San Marco’s Basilica right in San Marco Piazza (one of the main piazzas in Venice and right by our hotel).  Then we went inside Doge’s Palace which was right next to the Basilica and close to the water & main canal. 

(Piazza San Marco and the Basilica)

After the tour, a few of us wanted to walk around and explore Venice more. We went to a shopping area because silly Liz forgot to pack underwear hahahaha so we searched for some inexpensive underwear for a while. The boys, Frankie and Joe, were not that excited about it. So, we finally stopped window shopping and underwear shopping and stopped at a bar for a glass of wine.  Liz, myself, Sydney, Frankie, and Kate Bianco enjoyed a glass of red wine outside. It was a little chilly outside because it was sunset but the warm red wine, I think it was Cabernet Sauvignon, made us nice and comfortable.  It was really nice sitting and chatting with some people that I don’t usually hang out with.

(beautiful view over the main bridge in Venice)

After our mid-afternoon glass of wine, we went back to the hotel to get dressed up for dinner. There were about 12 of us who were looking for a good place to eat.  We split up though because everybody wanted different things.  I went with Joe, Jessica, Bekah, Alex, and Samantha to a casual trattoria. All day, I had been talking about how I was excited to try the seafood in Venice, and how I would absolutely love if I could order a creamy salmon pasta dish…and that is exactly what I got! It was amazing. Everyone else enjoyed their dinners too.

After dinner, just me, Joe, Carly and Bekah wanted to explore Venice a bit more to find a place to buy some inexpensive wine. The rest of the girls went back to the hotel to get a drink at the bar in the hotel.  We found a really cool wine bar, something that I had never seen before. This wine bar was owned by a popular restaurant that makes their own wine. In the wine bar, there are about 5 different types of wine in huge barrels.  You can buy one “bottle of wine” for as cheap at 3.50 Euro!!!!!!!! So, of course, we each bought a bottle.  A bottle was actually the wine in a liter water bottle.  The restaurant recycles these water bottles by cleaning them out and putting their wine in them to sell. So we were very excited about this find.  I tried a white wine called Tocai that was delicious.

We brought our liter bottles of wine back to the hotel to hang out and drink with the rest of the group.  For the next couple of hours, we just hung out in the lobby/bar area of the hotel and played games like Never Have I Ever and Truth or Dare for a few hours. We had so much fun and could not stop laughing.  It was so much fun with us all staying in the same hotel together.  

(everyone hanging out in the hotel Friday night with Sarah and I being really goofy in the background haha)

The next morning, Saturday morning, we had another tour scheduled with the same boring tour guide…but this time, the tour was more interesting because it was a walking tour of the main city center of Venice. We saw Marco Polo’s house, another palace, popular restaurants, and beautiful docks.  At one point, we were in the garden of a palace when we could see three workers of the palace struggling to move a huge heavy tree. When we were just about to leave the palace, our teacher, Mark Facknitz, offered to help.  Within a matter of 3 minutes, the tree was completely moved to where it was supposed to be! Mark Facknitz was surprisingly strong! It was hilarious because we were clapping and cheering…some of us even sang the JMU fight song hahaha, we are so embarrassing. 

 (Alex and I on a dock during our tour)

After the tour, we split up for lunch. Alex, Liz, and I wanted a nicer lunch so we walked to a seafood restaurant.  We got to sit outside in the beautiful sun.  Liz and I split two seafood dishes.  We ordered a fish ravioli with shrimp in a white lemon sauce and another dish with spaghetti and a mix of shellfish in a marinara sauce.  It was a bit pricey for a lunch, but we thoroughly enjoyed it. On our way back from the hotel, we were joking about how easy it must be to get lost in Venice.  Then, of course, while walking back, we got lost. We weren’t too lost though, because we recognized the area we were in, we just did not know what street off of the piazza to take.  So, we literally tried every street and they kept leading us to dead ends into the canal. We could see the bridge we needed to take, but could not get there! After trying almost all of the roads, we finally made it to the bridge we needed to get to.  We were laughing so much about the craziness of the layout of the city and how it felt like a maze the whole time. 

After lunch, we went back to the hotel to nap. I napped for about an hour until my friends who weren’t napping in the room next to me, Jessica and Lauren’s room, woke me up.  They woke me up because they were laughing loudly and clearly having a lot of fun in the other room. So, I woke up and went to go hang out with them.  There were about 8 people all giggling, laughing, and joking around in their room.  We were having so much fun just being real goofy.  Like I said before, I loved having everyone in the group stay in the same hotel.  It was like one big party.  We were all snuggling in one small bed together, taking stupid pictures of ourselves, laughing about random crap, etc.  At one point, Liz was in her towel in the corner of the room trying not to get her towel taken off of her by Lauren, it was hilarious. I love my study abroad family…as corny as it sounds, its true.  Everyone in the group is close and we all have so much fun together.

After joking around for about an hour, we decided we should probably leave the hotel and do something, we were in Venice… So, we decided to go on a gondola ride!!!!!!!!!!! It was 80 Euro to ride one, and the boat took a maximum of 6 people, so we only had to pay about 13 euro per person! I went with Jessica, Lauren, Kate, Amy, and Alex.  It was so relaxing.  The gondola ride was about 35 minutes.  The rower took us through all the small canals around the city.  The water was nice and still so we just put on some relaxing music in the background from Lauren’s iPod and enjoyed the ride.  The weather was perfect because the sun was setting and it wasn’t windy, just comfortable…definitely my favorite moment in all of Venice. 

 

(Me on the gondola ride!!!!!)

After the gondola ride, we went shopping! Venice is known for its glass made on the island of Murano, so it’s called Murano glass. There were so many different things made out of glass: bracelets, necklaces, earrings, wine stoppers, vases, watches, menorahs, Christmas ornaments, picture frames, etc.  I wanted to buy everything…but I was good and just bought a couple pieces of jewelry for my friends back at home, and for me, of course haha :)

After shopping it was dinnertime! We saw a perfect dinner place on our tour earlier that day, so we went there.  We went with a big group, about 12 of us. We sat at one big table and all ordered a 4-course meal deal for only 14 euro! It included a small plate of pasta, a medium plate of meat, a side vegetable, and dessert.  We all loved our meal and had a lot of fun. I think it was the first time since 4 Liones in Florence where I actually ordered more than 2 courses at a meal! It is very common in Italy to order all 4 courses, but for us study abroad students we just don’t have the money or the room in our bellies for all that food!

After dinner, it was time to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day in Venice! Italy actually doesn’t celebrate Saint Patty’s Day, but we found an Irish pub to celebrate it at.  We started drinking in the hotel again with our liter bottles of wine. We were having so much fun.  We went to the pub around 11:30.  Literally almost the entire group went…like 20 of us! It was so much fun.  A few of us got shamrocks painted on our faces! It was so fun being out with everyone all at once…quite the bonding moment for everyone. Towards the end of the night I got to call Matt because I figured out the pub had WiFi and I hadn’t had WiFi all weekend because the hotel didn’t have it.  So I was very excited to talk to him, but it was so hard to hear him L Then it was time to go home.  For some reason, when I was walking with Alex home, we decided to SPRINT home…like bolt the entire way home.  Honestly, I have no idea why she wanted to run, maybe we were cold or she had to use the bathroom, but all I remember is how we could not stop running.  All the streets in Venice look the same, especially at night, so thank goodness our other friends helped direct us in the right way hahaha.  BEST NIGHT EVER. And that is an understatement. <3 my SA familia!!! Saturday in general was one of my favorite days in Italy by far. 

(Jes and I with the shamrocks on our faces!)

(Alex Jes and I at the Irish pub…you can see the liter of wine that Alex is holding that we got from that wine bar haha)

(To recap: my best 3 moments in Italy with my Study Abroad group have been lunch in Sienna, the wine tasting with Frescobaldi, and now my entire Saturday in Venice shopping for glass, going on the gondola ride, hanging out in the hotel, and celebrating Saint Patty’s day)

The next morning, we got up early to go to the Peggy Guggenheim museum.  The museum depicted a lot of really cool modern art, which I really liked.  It was so nice to see different art besides ones with Virgin Mary and baby Jesus in literally every single picture.  So I enjoyed the modern art for a change.

 After the museum we sat down for lunch in the sun.  12 of us grabbed lunch at a pizzeria on the way back to the hotel.  We had a wonderful last meal in Venice.  After lunch, we got gelato, as always, and sat in one of the main piazzas in the sun for about an hour.  I had some of the best caramel gelato on a waffle cone. I wasn’t planning on getting any, but then when I tried one lick of Jes’s, I had to get it. haha. 

(another amazing picture of the city on water <3)

Before we knew it, it was time to go back to the hotel to get our luggage and make our way home.  We went on another water taxi, where I napped on Amy’s shoulder for the entire ride because I was so tired.  Then we took another fast train back to Florence.  When we arrived in Florence, a few of us decided to join Amy and Liz on their usual Sunday evening Chinese food dinner.  It was quite the experience having Chinese food in Italy.  Honestly, it was not that good and I probably won’t go back again haha. But we did have fun sharing all of our dishes on the lazy Susan and reflecting about our amazing weekend.  Our “quick” dinner easily turned into 2-hour dinner.

That was my amazing weekend in Venice. We have been so lucky with the weather we’ve been having for all of my trips.  This Thursday evening we are going to the Amalfi Coast! There are about 16 of us going with a tour group called Euroadventures.  The weather is supposed to be sunny and mid 60s all weekend which is perfect for laying on the beach. This is the one trip I have been most excited for, so I hope it all works out! The only thing I am not looking forward to is the 7-hour bus ride to the coast, which is apparently extremely windy and nauseating.  Oh well, I’m sure it will be worth it once we arrive. I am so lucky that I get to travel every weekend!!! I am also so lucky that I still have money in my bank account! Hopefully I will still have some in my account when I go home, but we will have to see about that…

Wow this week certainly flew by! Matt came to visit last Saturday morning….FINALLY!!! It was such an amazing week.  He pretty much got to experience a typical week of mine in Florence.  We ate at all of my favorite restaurants and sat and hung out in the same Piazzas that I usually do with my friends.  It was perfect.  :)

So, I picked him up from the airport Saturday morning.  I was so nervous and excited to see him because it had been 2 whole months since I had seen him last—about 55 days! Now this is going to be cheesy, but I never want to forget this moment…when I saw him walk through the doors, I ran over to him and hugged him.  Of course, I was crying because I was so happy.  He lifted me up in the air and we didn’t let go for like two minutes.  We couldn’t stop kissing and hugging.  It was the best feeling ever.  After our gushy reunion, I wiped off my tears and we made our way back to my home stay.  We walked with his luggage along the river and to my apartment.  I could tell he already like Florence.  He said he had noticed a lot of differences already. 

We couldn’t check into our hotel yet, so we dropped the luggage off in my room.  I gave him a quick tour of my room and then we started walking around outside to find lunch or a snack for him because he was starving after the long flight.  We walked to Santo Spirito where he got a piece of pizza at Forno and we just sat outside the market and he ate.  He loved it, of course…who wouldn’t love Italian pizza!!  Then, we started walking to Piazzale di Michelangelo.  I wanted to show him the amazing view of the city while the weather was perfect and sunny.  We climbed to the top and we sat down and enjoyed the breathtaking view. 

Then, after relaxing together for a bit, we walked across the Arno river to Santa Croce.  We stopped for lunch where I had some of the best creamy penne pesto of my life at a restaurant that I had never been to by Moyo Bar.  After catching up some more at lunch, we walked to the Santa Croce Piazza where Matt saw the outside of the basilica and immediately we decided we wanted to tour it.  We were going to come back another day and tour it, though.  Now, it was time to walk around and show him more of the main piazzas.  We walked through Piazza Signora where there was a fresh olive oil festival! We bought some pesto for his family back at home and some olive oil for the two of us to have as a snack at the hotel for late at night.  We also walked to the famous San Lorenzo leather market!  Matt bought himself a new authentic Italian leather wallet! It was a good price, too.  So that was his gift to himself.

After a few hours of walking around, I could tell Matt was exhausted, so we checked into the hotel and napped to be ready for a fun Saturday night out in Firenze.  The hotel was really nice!  It was very private and old fashioned, which was perfect for being in Florence where everything is old, anyway.  But it was clean, big and comfortable—all we could ask for.  So, after the nap we freshened up and got ready for a nice dinner.  I took him to Osteria Santo Spirito.  He ordered my favorite olive oil, garlic, and chili pepper spaghetti dish.  It is so simple yet so perfectly flavorful.  They give you so much for just 7 euro, too!  After enjoying some house white wine for me and a beer for Matt, we made our way to Friends Bar.  We sat and drank a couple of drinks just the two of us.  It was really relaxing…man do I wish the drinking age wasn’t 21 when I go back to the US…  Anyway, then we met up with Bekah at Lion’s Fountain across the river.  Bekah’s best friend from home, and who happens to go to Virginia Tech just like Matt, was also visiting this week for their Spring Break!  Her name is Rathi, but we call her Rat. Here, Matt got to see what an Irish pub in Florence was like.  There were so many American students, as always, so we decided to make our way to Moyo Bar (my favorite)!  The four of us walked to Moyo, drinks still in hand (it’s also so interesting and so cool how there is no such thing as open containers in Italy)!  At Moyo we found a table.  Matt was so observant at Moyo and I could tell he was really enjoying sitting, chilling, and checking out a new place with me.  I am so glad he liked it.  We had so much fun at the 3 bars.  Around 2 am we made our way back to the hotel.  We stopped along the river and looked at the Ponte Vecchio at night and chatted for a few minutes.  It was so amazing to be experiencing this with Matt…I was on cloud nine all night… <3

On Sunday, we slept in just a bit.  We went to grab lunch at Gusta Pizza (my favorite pizza restaurant right across the street from my school).  I got my favorite—buffalo mozzarella and cherry tomatoes while Matt enjoyed the simply delicious marinara pizza…the sauce is to die for.  After lunch, we went to Pitti Palace, which is right by our hotel, to walk through the Boboli gardens.  It was a gorgeous day to walk around a park, so we decided the pay the 8 Euros to get in.  We simply walked around the huge gardens for 2 hours.  It was a beautifully sunny day, so it was perfect!

After the Boboli Gardens, we walked to see the outside of the Duomo!  We walked all the way around the church and Matt got some good pictures.  Then, we walked farther into the city and while looking for the San Marco Piazza, we found a piazza that I had never been to called S.S. Annuziata.  Luckily, there was an art fair in the piazza so we walked around and saw the artists hard at work while selling their pieces.  I bought my mom a nice present here, I can’t wait to give it to her ;) Then, we found San Marco and went into the San Marco Basilica.  While walking around inside the Basilica, I was telling Matt that several of the churches and basilicas that I’ve seen in Italy often have bodies of famous religious figures saved and covered in wax and displayed.  I was telling him that I thought it was rather creepy and gross…  Then, he points up and says, “like this guy?” Right in front of us was another religious figure covered in wax lying down in some tomb that was lit up, so it was easy to see his face.  It was so funny and so creepy at the same time.  We felt like it was about time to leave…haha

So, we walked back to the hotel to get ready for another nice dinner.  I took him to Dante’s so we could get some free wine ;) If you tell the waiter at this restaurant that you are a student, then they give you free wine!  So, I ordered a glass and Matt ordered another beer.  He’s not a wine fan…bummer.  He was trying it, though!  I ordered the best vegetable soup with rice…it was so flavorful (lots of rings and circles in it like my dad would say hehe…I miss your matzo ball soup, dad!)  Matt enjoyed ravioli while I got what I always get—spaghetti and clams in a white garlic and olive oil sauce.  Nom nom nom…  After dinner, we went back to Friends bar because it was so close and hung out just us two, again.  It was an early night for us because I had to be up early for class the next morning. 

Monday morning I went to my usual classes—Italian, Dante, and then the general meeting.  In our general meeting, the director of the program and professor of two of my classes (Dante and the IDLS Internship), Alessandro Gentili, shared some sad news.  He told us that he has to take care of his poor spine and back problems, so he is not going to be working for the rest of the semester. :((( He is by far my favorite teacher and I am really going to miss him. He said he would still be stopping by once a week, but it won’t be the same… So, the architecture teacher is now teaching the Dante class and Mark Facknitz, an American professor who came from JMU, is leading the internship class.  I hope Alessandro recovers quickly because I already miss him!

After class, Matt and I had planned to meet outside of my school.  I had told him 1pm, but I was a little early.  After waiting until about 1:05, I checked my phone and noticed he had just woken up and asked me to meet him at the hotel.  I did not respond because I figure I would just see him in the room…but, when I arrived at the hotel, he wasn’t there.  I asked the secretary if he had just left and she said he did.  That means the ONLY place we could have bumped into each other without seeing one another was on the elevator up to the hotel, and, of course, that is exactly what happened.  So I quickly walked back to my school and he was standing there…haha it shows how not being able to communicate can be a pain in the ass sometimes.  Oh well.  Then we grabbed Gusto Panino for lunch and ate it on the steps of Santo Spirito in the sun.  It was really nice.  After lunch, I brought him to Caffe Ricchi where all of my friends were sitting down eating lunch and he met 8 of the girls.  It must have been incredibly overwhelming at first because they all knew a lot about him but he only knew a little bit about each of them.  But I was really happy to see all my girl friends in the same room as me and my boyfriend:) It made me very happy.

After lunch, we went to the Orsanmichele museum, which is a statue museum.  We went with Amy, Bekah, and Rat.  On Mondays the admission fee is waived so that was incentive to go.  After seeing some famous statues by Michelangelo and Brunelleschi, we went to the top of the museum where there is a pretty view of Florence.  Where aren’t there amazing views of this gorgeous city?!  Amy taught Matt (and myself) a lot about the architecture of the main buildings, and it kind of made me wish I took Architecture instead of Modern Renaissance Art…oh well.  After the museum we walked around the main piazzas again because Rat had not seen any of them yet.  Then we went to the Duomo again and bought GROM GELATO <3 My favorite place to get gelato so far.  They have a delicious flavor called Crème de la Grom which is simply vanilla cream with biscotti and chocolate chip pieces in it…it’s heavenly.  Then the girls had to go to their Architecture class so Matt and I decided to tour the inside of the Baptistery!

The Baptistery was incredible.  The ceilng was the most unique and extravagant part because it was gold with several stories from the Bible.  The detail on the images on the ceiling was just amazing.  Matt said seeing the inside of the Baptistery was one of his favorite things we saw while in Florence! 

After the Baptistry I had to run to school to do a bit of preparation before tutoring the next morning.  We got kicked out of the library at 5pm because that is when they close…way too early if you ask me.  We had NO idea that it was going to be POURING rain when we left…and we had no hoods, no umbrella, no rain jacket—nothing.  So we had no choice but to run.  So we quickly ran to my home stay.  It would have been so annoying if I was alone, but because I was with Matt, I could not stop laughing.   We tried to quickly dry off before dinner with Marina.  Marina was kind enough to make dinner for Matt and I two nights and Bekah and Rat the other two nights.  The first night she served Matt and I home made meat lasagna with my favorite zucchini, garlic, and olive oil recipe ever.  It was so special being able to have Matt understand why I am obsessed with her dinners.

After the delicious dinner, we went to La Dolce Vita where Matt and I ordered a few cocktails.  We sat outside where it was covered and there were heat lamps and listened to the rain.  After a couple of drinks and some more catching up, we met up with Rat and Bekah at a local’s bar called Volume.  I wanted to take Matt to all different kinds of bars so he could see all the different kinds of nightlife Italia has to offer.  He said he enjoyed every place we went to because they were all chill where we could just sit down and talk with a couple of yummy drinks.  We weren’t at Volume for long because we were all tired.  So, after about 45 minutes, we all headed home.

The next day, Tuesday, I had to wake up early again to go tutor at the middle school.  Later that morning, Matt and I met up with Bekah, Rat, Staci and Lauren to climb the Duomo! We climbed all 463 steps to get to the very top.  It was another amazing view. I really enjoyed it with Matt.  After climbing the Duomo, just Matt and I went to L’Accademia to see the real David! Honestly, it is exactly like the replica in Piazza Vecchio, but it was still cool to see the actual one.  My favorite part of the museum was seeing the unfinished statues.  These were statues by Michelangelo that had like half the body coming out of a block of stone.  It was really neat to see the process of sculpture being done. 

After L’Accademia, we made our way back to the hotel and stopped at a few painters.  Matt was interested in buying each of his parents a nice painting of the Ponte Vecchio.  So, that is just what he did.  Each painter that we bought them from was so personable and so proud of their work.  One artist even took a picture of his painting to remember it and then he showed us his passport ID to prove that it was him who actually painted it.  We also saw them working on other paintings.  They were not trying hard to advertise their work like some sellers do; they knew they would sell themselves.  Matt and I picked out two really nice paintings and I can’t wait to see where his mom and dad place them in their houses. 

Before we knew it, it was time for dinner! We made a reservation at one of my favorite restaurants, 4 Liones, so Matt could try the famous pear pasta! (My favorite restaurant now is by far Osteria Santo Spirito) For some reason I order an entire half-liter, or mezzo litro, of their house red wine, and I enjoyed it all by myself because Matt isn’t a fan of wine.  Oh well! Haha so we had a nice looong dinner.  After dinner, we met up with my friends at an American pub called Red Garter…see I was taking him to different places every night! We met up with a bunch of my girl friends.  We had so much fun.  After hanging out at Red Garter we went right next-door to a bar called Kikuya to try some Dragoon beer that was like 10% alcohol or something high like that.  It was quite the night to say the least.  It was by far my favorite Tuesday night in Florence ;)

Wednesday was our lazy day.  I went to my one Art History class and then hung out in the hotel for the rest of the early after noon.  We had stayed up late the night before and we were getting tired from all the walking around during the day.  So, because we had already seen so much of Florence already, we let ourselves sleep in a bunch and take a lazy day.  So we got a super late lunch at Osteria Santo Spirito where we split the olive oil, garlic and chili pepper spaghetti dish.  It was delicious, as always!  A few hours later we had another delicious home cooked dinner with Marina.  She cooked rotini pasta in a red sauce with chopped onions and served it with green beans, garlic bread, and beans.  I am so lucky to have Marina as my host mom :) After dinner we met up with some of my friends at Shots Bar for a little bit before they all went to dance at Club 21….Matt and I decided we wanted to chill at the hotel for the rest of the night and watch some Friends.

Thursday I took Matt to Gusta Osteria for lunch, another quaint traditional Italian cuisine restaurants.  After lunch it was time to get our stuff all packed up for Rome! We checked out of the hotel and left our luggage at our home stay.  Our train didn’t leave until 5pm, so we spent the afternoon in Santa Croce.  We went inside the church and we were there for about 2 hours! It was a huge church and it was definitely one of my favorite ones (inside and out) that I have seen in Florence.  It had the tombs of Michelangelo and Galileo and the cenotaph (which is an empty tomb) of Dante Alighieri! On the way back from the church, we stopped at my favorite Panini shop called Due Fratelli (Two Brothers) to get my favorite salami and butter sandwich that all my friends make fun of me for getting.  I know it sounds weird, salami and a slab of butter, but it goes so well with the bread…and its only 2.50 Euro!  Matt enjoyed his prosciutto crudo and pesto Panini.

(This one is Michelangelo’s tomb)

(Matt and I in front of Santa Croce)

Before we knew it, it was time to get on our train to ROME!  It was a quick hour and half train ride.  We arrived at Roma Termini around 6pm and easily found our way to our hotel called Hotel Esposizione right on a main street called Via Nazionale in the city center of Rome.  We booked another wonderful hotel! We dropped our stuff off and immediately wanted to explore! We walked to the Colloseum because it was only like a 10-minute walk.  It was cool to see it at night all lit up! We were starving, so we walked along one of the smaller side streets by the Colosseum and found a restaurant that made it’s own fresh pasta.  I ordered amazing pesto linguine and Matt ordered Bruschetta (which is by far our favorite appetizer, especially here in Italia!) and gnocchi!  It was funny, he could not pronounce gnocchi the Italian way, so the waiter made fun of him and asked if he really wanted some Gucci? Haha it was funny.  After our late dinner we made our way back to the hotel to get a good night’s sleep to be up early for a busy day on Friday.

Friday morning in Rome started with the Colosseum! We paid a bit extra to get an audio tour so that we could have the full experience while we were there because we knew Matt would probably never be back here again.  The Colosseum was amazing! We could not believe the history of this place.  Gladiators fought here in 80 AD!!!! It was so interesting seeing this old historic amphitheatre in the middle of a city that was now modernized.  Touring the inside of the Colosseum was definitely one of Matt and I’s favorite parts of Rome.  After that, we walked to the Arch of Constantine and then around the Palatine Hill and Roman Forum.  This was also really cool because there were remains one of the oldest and history cities in the world right underneath our feet.  There were still columns from temples and the bases of houses on the land! After about 2 hours there, we were starving and ready for lunch.  After lunch, where I ordered spaghetti with clams and wine and Matt ordered olive oil and garlic spaghetti, we walked towards Piazza Venezia.  We noticed that the piazzas in Rome were a lot busier than the piazzas in Florence.  In general, everything about Rome was too busy—there were tourists everywhere.  It made me appreciate living in a smaller city like Florence. 

(The Roman Forum)

Then we saw the Panthenon!  It was free to go inside (finally!) so we went in and walked around.  The coolest part of the Panethenon, in my opinion, was that the dome was opened at the top! After all of the different domes of churches and basilicas that I have been inside, I had never seen one that was open.  It was also very cool that this pretty big and ancient building was just in the middle of a modernized piazza. Then we walked to the Trevi fountain!  I was really looking forward to see it.  Unfortunately, when we got there, it was just a huge mass of people in front of it.   Matt and I were looking forward to sitting down for a bit and looking at the fountain, but with all the tourists, we only hung out there for a little bit.  We decided we were going to try to go back at night when there would be less people around.  The fountain was huge and still really cool to see. 

After the Trevi fountain we walked to the famous Spanish Steps! Again, there was a mass of people there, but it was okay because we could just find a spot to sit on the steps and people watch.  It was relaxing and fun.  After being overwhelmed by all the people, we went back to the hotel to freshen up for a nice fancy dinner.  We searched on TripAdvisor for best restaurants in Rome.  We walked only about 10 minutes to a fancy restaurant called Santa Christina al Quirinale. Here, I had one of my favorite meals since I have arrived in Italy. It was my favorite because of the food itself and being with Matt.  The chef made her own bread and gave us a delicious warm basket with olive oil.  Then we ordered two pasta dishes—Matt ordered homemade beef lasagna and I ordered their most popular dish.  This dish was short pasta (like small Rigatoni) with baked zucchini crumbles on top in a light cream sauce.  I pretty much died because it was so amazing.  Of course, I enjoyed it with a nice glass of their house white wine.  I just can’t get enough of the white wine here in Italy :) After, we split a piece of home made flourless chocolate cake (I know, dad, your favorite…I was thinking of you!) You always know a meal is damn good when you order dessert!  It was a really special dinner…Thanks Matt!

The second and last full day in Italy, Saturday, started with taking the metro to Vatican City to see Saint Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican Museums.  There was a huuuuge line in Piazza di San Pietro of all the tourists wanting to go inside the basilica.  It was fine, though because the line went fast and we could enjoy the sun and looking around the piazza while we waited.  We entered the biggest Christian church in the entire world…it was insane! There was so much to look at.  Walking slowly around the whole basilica took about an hour and 15 minutes!  After walking through the basilica, we stopped for lunch.  There were people everywhere trying to convince us to come to their restaurants…they are way too pushy! I did not even want to look at a menu if they talked to me first before I even saw them.  So, we ate a restaurant on a small side street where they make their own pasta.  As you can probably tell, I am a huge fan of restaurants with homemade pasta.  I do not like the places that beg you to eat there because it is annoying and not authentic Italian cuisine.  So we had an amazing lunch.  We split bruschetta and Matt ordered sausage pizza and I had eggplant linguine in a red sauce…it was beyond unbelievable.  I am going to try to take my friends back there when we go together with the JMU program at the end of the month. 

Then we walked to the huge Vatican museums.  I got in for a discount for showing my student card…woot woot!  We bought another audio tour because we wanted to get the full experience of the museum.   Soon we had realized that this place was humongous and we tried to be more selective about what we stopped and listened to.  My favorite part of the museum was the Sistine Chapel.  Here we saw Michelangelo’s famous last judgment scene and his fresco of God and man reaching each other’s fingers.  It was so amazing to see in person.  After about 2 ½ hours of walking around the museum, we were museum-ed out. 

We started walked to our next destination, which was a castle called Castel Sant’Angelo.  On our way, we finally found something we had been looking forever since the first morning when we arrived in Rome.  We saw a big tube of olive oil and rosemary Pringles…and we really wanted to try them because Matt found Paprika Pringles in Florence and loved them. Haha…anyway, we didn’t want to carry around a huge tube of them, so we were looking for a small snack size of them, but we could not find one in the flavor we wanted.  Finally we did after stopping about 20 other kiosks/vendors.  And the funniest part is they were not even as good as we thought they were going to be…hahaha.  Oh well it was hilarious.  So, we walked around Castel Sant’Angelo and climbed all the way to the top terrace where we saw a beautiful view of the entire city! We also finally got to see the river.  It was all so breathtaking.  This was another one of my favorite moments here in Rome with Matt :)

After the castle, we crossed the river to Piazza Navona.  This is a huge piazza where there are a bunch of restaurants with outdoor seating, street performers, and artists.  We stopped for a bit and watched one very odd street performance of a man who tied his arms up with chains and clothing and he broke himself out by dislocating his shoulder a few times…. gross but weirdly entertaining.  Then we walked through Campo dei Fiori, which during the day is a fresh market in a small piazza, but we got there when they were cleaning up the fresh market, so we did not see much at all.  Then, we went back to the hotel to freshen up for one last fancy dinner together.

We went to That’s Amore for dinner, which was right by the Trevi Fountain.  We got wine and beer, as usual, a bread and grilled vegetable appetizer, and I ordered spaghetti and clams again while Matt enjoyed penne pasta in a spicy red sauce…yummy.  After dinner we stopped and got the best caramel and Stracciatella gelato and ate it by the Trevi fountain at night.  Sitting by the Trevi fountain at night was so much more enjoyable and romantic than during the busy afternoon.  Matt and I loved just sitting by the fountain and sharing some delicious dessert together and talking.  It was a perfect way to spend our last night in Italy together.  On our way back home, we did the cheesy tourist move and each threw a coin into the fountain to make a wish :)

Then, early Sunday morning, Matt and I went to the train station where we had to say goodbye again.  This time it was not so hard saying bye because I knew I was going to see him in just one month! (Actually exactly one month from today, March 13, I will be flying home…it’s so bittersweet!) I knew if we just did two months that we can easily do just one more, especially because I knew I had a lot of fun things planned for this month, like Venice, Amalfi Coast, and Rome again.  It was so special being able to share my new life in Italy with my boyfriend.  The week was perfect and I miss him again already.  We are so damn lucky that he could afford to travel here.  I am so thankful that his parents bought his plane ticket for Christmas and that he had enough money from working over the summer and winter break to spend on the hotels and food here in Italy.  It was truly an unforgettable week!!!!

Yesterday was hands down my favorite afternoon that I have had since I arrived in Europe 2 months ago.  It was really close to my afternoon in Siena in January, but yesterday takes the cake.  At 1pm, our entire study abroad group went to visit two wine estates.  (Actually, Lindsey could not make it because she really hurt herself the night before in a soccer game and had to go to the ER…we went to go visit her today at her home stay and she’s on bed rest for the next 7 days…poor thing…) Our wine professor, Diletta Frescobaldi, took us to two of her family’s wine estates—the Castles of Nappoziano and Pomino.  They are estates in the heart of Tuscany.  The name Frescobaldi is very well known here in Italy, and the family is very wealthy due to their business of Frescobaldi wines.  So, we were privileged enough to be able to have a private tour of these two estates given by our wine teacher and a fellow Frescobaldi.  The weather was perfect—65 degrees, bright and sunny.  The view while riding in the bus was phenomenal, literally what you would picture out of a movie… Unfortunately, the ride was rough for me because the roads were so small and windy that I had a horrible headache.  But, once we got off the bus and arrived at the first winery, Castello de Pomino, my headache went away and I soaked up the sun.  The view was amazing and our professor gave a wonderful tour.  She is so tiny and cute with an adorable thick Italian accent.  She is incredibly knowledgeable about the estate and was so happy and proud to share it with us.  Below is a picture of her explaining a wine in the wooden barrel that was being aged.  She explained and showed us where the wines are fermented, pressed, crushed, and aged.  It was really cool being able to smell the grapes and the aged wine as we were walking through the rooms of the castle.  It was so special to be behind the scenes of one of the most well-known and prestigious winery estates in all of Italy.   

After we toured Pominio for about 45 minutes, we got back on the bus to the Castle of Nappoziano.  It was a quick drive.  This estate was also beautiful.  The views were unbelieveable, so, naturally, we took a bunch of pictures.  Professor Frescobaldi took us to the basement of this castle and took us to a room with piles and piles of bottled wines in it.  She told us that each women born into the Frescobaldi family gets 100 bottles of their best wine while the men in the family get 500 bottles each.  So, she showed us her personal stash of 90 bottles because she had already opened 10 of them.  It was so neat to see her name and her birthday and the massive amount of bottles saved just for her.  There were 100 bottles being saved for her 4 year old cousin, Max and even really old bottles from the late 1800s!  After we explored that room, we went back upstairs to one of the many living rooms in the castle.  In the living room there were pictures of the family with Bill and Hilary Clinton and Catherine Zeta Jones!  It really shows how famous the Frescobaldi family is…

Now my very favorite part of the day began.  We walked into the dining room that was set up for a wine tasting for all 25 of us.  There were two waitresses waiting to serve us our three different types of wine.  We sat at one big circular table so we could all see each other.  We tried two red wines; one was Chianti and one was Chianti Rufina.  We also tried one white wine that was a Chardonnay.  Of course, they were all DELICOUS.  We were also served bread, homemade olive oil, and cheese.  We understood that the bread and cheese were supposed to be served as complimentary to the pairing, but of course we all were scarfing down the food as if it was a meal.  It was all so fresh we just could not stop! We were asking each other to pass the baskets of bread and the plates of cheese while others were asking for salt and pepper to add to the olive oil.  It was such a fancy tasting, yet we just wanted to eat everything in front of us even though it wasn’t much at all…haha.  If you ask me, the olive oil was too good to add any salt or pepper to it! Our professor told us about each of the wines and how to taste the sharper cheese with the red wines and the softer cheese with the Chardonnay.  It was such a special experience.  I really loved it.  The funniest part was that our friend, Amy, who is Asian and the definition of a lightweight, was feeling the tiny bit of wine that she tasted just half way through the tasting.  It was her 24^th birthday yesterday, too! At one point, she said loudly over the table to our professor, “Excuse me, how much alcohol percentage is in this wine??” hahaha it was so out of character for sweet cute little Amy. It was just so funny that she felt tipsy literally after drinking a half a glass of wine.  What a way to celebrate your 24^th birthday, huh?!

After the pleasant wine tasting in the beautifully elegant dining room, our professor took us to a Frescobaldi shop where we all bought some wine and olive oil to take home back to the States.  I bought my dad a wonderful birthday present, if I do say so myself!  I was able to buy the red wine called Chianti Rufina that I really enjoyed at the tasting just 15 minutes ago.  It was so fruity with the perfect amount of sweetness.  I also bought a Chardonnay that we had tried in class.  50 euros later, I left the shop with some great gifts for my family and Matt’s family back at home :)

It was already 6pm and time to head back to Florence.  The estates were beautiful and we are so lucky that we have such a good group of students to experience this with.  Everyone is so close and friendly.  It was so nice sharing this afternoon with such wonderful people.  JMU in Florence really knows how to do it big.