When in Florence!

So I've talked about the wine and how beautiful the city is, but now I'm going to talk about the food even though I'm almost positive there aren't words to describe it. Last night we took a cooking class across the Ponte Vecchio (which is obviously gorgeous). Here's a picture of my roommates and I on the bridge.

 After crossing the bridge we headed to our cooking class at "In Tavola" where we made Eggplant Caprese (Caprese di Melanzane), White Meat Ragu (Ragu' Bianco), Tomato and Garlic Pasta Sauce (Sugo all'Aglione) and Tiramisu! Here's a few pictures of us cooking and the amazing food we made and ate of course!

Not only did I finally have real Italian Food I have my very first gelato experience today! I went to Bellamia and got mandorla (almond) and latte menta (fresh milk and peppermint) on via dello Statuto, 2 and I'm pretty sure I will never eat regular ice cream again. Check out their website and if you ever make it here GO! It's also like the cutest place ever and no one speaks English. http://www.bellamiagelateria.it/en/? Fun fact about gelato via my roommate is that good gealto is displayed in small shallow bins not the one's that are stacked super high with crazy colors. The smaller the amount on display the better, also if the cover it with some sort of lid its made from natural ingredients and doesn't contain tons of preservatives! And a huge thanks to my roommates who I have been stealing pictures from :)

Home Sweet Home!

After two flights, a three hour layover in the Munich airport, and some serious jetlag I'm here! Florence is absolutely gorgeous, every street, every building, every word is art in itself. I've been walking around for two days and I can't help, but look at everything. I had my very first glass of wine in a little cafe down the street from our hotel and it was life changing. We stayed in a beautiful hotel and of course I decided to charge my camera battery and totally left in my room  so no picture i took from my first day and night out, but we did have an incredible dinner on a roof top garden overlooking the duomo and I borrowed some pictures! The rest of the night was spent exploring the city!

Today we moved into our home for the next four months and it is so much more than I ever expected! A fully furnished three bedroom, three bathroom apartment in Florence with a kitchen so beautiful I could cry. The view from my bedroom window you can see below! It makes walking up three flights of stairs totally worth it!

And this is what a 3 Euro of wine looks like ;)

4 months, 2 seasons, 1 suitcase?

So here’s where I’ll start, my name is Liz and I’m a junior dietetics major living my dream of taking off and living in Europe. My adventure starts Sunday with my flight to the city of Florence. Before I embark on the journey of a lifetime, I have a few things left to do in Jersey. Today’s venture is packing, four months of clothes in a suitcase, a carry on, and a purse the size of a carry on that will definitely not be allowed on the plane. The struggle is real. But aside from all the technical stuff this is my blog inspired by Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love. If you haven’t read the book or seen the movie, you’re missing out. This will follow my adventures in Italy filled with eating Italian food, praying I don’t get robbed blind by gypsies, and of course myself. This blog will not be filled with grammatical correctness, or storytelling worthy of publishing, but it will be filled with my story which hopefully is one worth sharing and keeps you reading.

"Wherever you go, go with all your heart."

Confucius