Cioccolato!

So in my cooking class this week our concentration was chocolate! I know I literally died! So we started class with none other than a chocolate tasting. We started out with white chocolate then went from milk chocolate, to milk chocolate with hazelnuts, to 70% cacao, and then 85% cacao. Yum! If you're looking for some cheap fantastic chocolate my teacher says Lindt is some of the best inexpensive mass produced chocolate you can find. Also these pictures are really crappy, but believe me everything was amazing!

So what did we make? Ravioli di cacao al brie e pere (chocolate ravioli with pear and brie), Pollo con funghi porcini, mele verdi e cioccolato (chicken with mushrooms, green apples, and chocolate), and Torta Caprese al mango e sorbetto limone (chocolate cake with mangoes and lemon sorbet). 

According to an Italian study every three days a small amount of dark chocolate (around 20g) can provide you with some cardiovascular health benefits! Some of these benefits include antioxidants, lowered blood pressure, and more! The darker the chocolate the better!

So enjoy! In moderation of course!

This One's for Carrie!

So most of you know about my Carrie Bradshaw and Sex and the City obsession so this week I got to do something very Carrie. My very first museum in Florence was the Salvatore Ferragamo museum!

 If you don't know Salvatore Ferragamo he's definitely worth some research, but here's a brief recap. He's an incredibly famous shoemaker and made tons of shoes for Hollywood's greatest. He made shoes for anyone who was anyone including Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland, and many more!

The red one's of top are none other than Marilyn Monroe's!

Short and sweet, but a little something for everyone's inner Carrie Bradshaw. And for anyone who loved Drew Barrymore in Ever After, you can thank the Ferragamo brand for those lovely Cinderella Slippers!

And yes I did wear my rainbow flip flops to the museum!

Living Like a Local

So this was our first weekend in a while that we stayed solely in Florence, and we definitely made the most of it! I had my first yoga class Thursday afternoon and Thursday night we spent seeing the city nightlife and did some quality wandering. We found an awesome Spanish bar, a secret bakery, and spent way too much time on the famous boar statue and hanging out on the Ponte Vecchio. Legend says that if you put a coin into the boar's mouth and it falls out you'll return to Florence, and if you rub its nose you'll have good luck!

The original Il Porcellino statue lies in the Uffizi, but the replicate is just as fun! After a million pictures with the Boar we wondered around until we found a secret bakery, not the secret bakery, but at 2am it was exactly what we needed. After a nutella filled croissant we called it a night. Friday afternoon I went for a run over the Ponte Vecchio and found an amazing super market on my way back, basically the Italian version of Wegmans. Friday afternoon the apartment booked our fall break. In just one month I'll find myself in Spain, Ireland, and England and I'm literally jumping up and down about it! Saturday afternoon my roommate and I check out a local hangout on the Arno River. A huge concrete slab in the middle of the river where locals catch some rays and enjoy sights of the river. After a mellow afternoon a group of us went sunset paddle boarding as part of a promo event for Jimmy Lewis, a Hawaiian paddle board company. Paddle boarding was followed up by apretivo, two bottles of wine, and sneaking into a bounce house on the walk home.

Another perfect weekend in paradise!

Buon Compleanno!

I've spent the last two days cooking a ton in class. We made ..... and learned a TON about olive oil which I will bore you with in another post because today something much more important is going on, its the birthday of two very important people! Wishing both my Mom and Aunt Annette an amazing birthday and many more to come! 7 years ago both of them took a dream trip to Italy for their birthdays and my Mom sent me a post card from their travels. I found this before I left and felt like now was the perfect time to show her!

"I hope you get to Italy by your 50th B'day"

The Rome snow globe she brought me back fell off my shelf and broke the day I decided I was studying abroad in Italy, coincidence? Anyways, thank you both for all the amazing things you do and I wish I was home to celebrate! See you both soon and sending tons of love and best wishes your way! And thanks for letting me live my dream and see Italy before my 50th! Love and miss you both!

A day in Pompeii!

Sorry for the cheesy title, but I honestly couldn't resist! So our final day in Amalfi we visited Pompeii, and I've only wanted to see Pompeii for like ever, and there was no way I was passing up this opportunity. We pack up our stuff and left our hotel (definitely more of a hostel, and definitely gross) for an hour bus ride to Pompeii!

I'm sure you all know the story of how Mt. Vesuvius erupted destroying the city of Pompeii while preserving it at the same time. Pompeii is home to remarkable ruins and also the fattest German Shepard I've ever seen.

The first think that took me by surprise was the size of Pompeii the streets of the city were endless and it was home to around 20,000 people at the time of the explosion (one of many things I learned from the worst tour guide ever). Another surprising bit of info? Mt. Vesuvius is still totally active!

Our tour guide (even though she spent a good chunk of time on her phone) showed us a lot of really cool stuff on our tour he including the sauna, houses, the food market, and a brothel. Yup a brothel, in the picture below you can see an ancient carving of a penis on the building!

I also got the chance to take a Abbey Road picture on an ancient crosswalk in Pompeii. They used raised stones as crosswalks to the people of Pompeii wouldn't get their feet wet while crossing the street! They also added bits on white marble in the road to act as reflectors as night.

If you ever get the chance to see Pompeii you'll definitely need more than just an afternoon to see it. After our tour we decided to check out the amphitheater!

After grabbing a quick bite to eat we said goodbye to Pompeii and headed home to Florence!

Amalfi Coast!

This weekend I spent with my roommates exploring the Amalfi Coast! We left Thursday night around 7pm to check out Capri, Positano, and my dream, Pompeii. A roughly seven hour bus ride sounds long, but when you're driving through the rolling hills of Tuscany, vineyards, and fields of sunflowers the ride itself is breathtaking. We arrived to our hotel and got a quick few hours of sleep before waking up and heading to Capri. The boat ride to Capri was a little rough and while I though it was awesome a few people in our tour group spent the ride with their faces in a plastic bag rather than looking out the window like myself. This also meant the water was too rough to check out the famous Blue Grotto, which just means I'll have to go back another time (no complaints). We started in Capri with a boat tour around the island and checking out the Marina Grande.

After an insane boat tour we climbed to Anacapri (the top of Capri) and enjoyed some Granita, this insanely good orange juice drink with optional vodka, which after the hike up the hill didn't seem so optional. Here's my roommates and I enjoying our drinks and spectacular view! Capri without Granita wouldn't be Capri at all! We also stopped for some lemonchello and chocolate tasting in a sandal shop. Not only did this store handmake beautiful sandals, but they handmade them for Jackie O!

After some exploring in Anacapri we took a chairlift to the very top of Mt. Solaro where I ran into some AXiDs from Elon!

After enjoying some amazing fresh calamari and a day of exploring Capri we headed back down the mountain in a topless taxi! (definitely not what your thinking, it was just a convertible)

We spent the rest of the night at a beer garden in Sorento heading home early to rest of for a day in Positano! Day two was a lot more relaxed than Capri. We spent the day in Positano, a beautiful beach village located along amazing winding cliffs. After spending a few hours on the beach we took a quick boat ride for some cliff jumping and cave swimming. Here's a picture of my roommate Laura and I enjoying the view!

Cliff jumping was definitely the biggest rush ever This might be kind of hard to see, but here's me jumping off a cliff into the Mediterranean. Had some second thoughts at the top, but so glad I went through with it!

How do you end two days of non stop adventure? Me, my roommate, and our other friend decided sneaking into a swanky hotel's outdoor bar with some live music was a good way to end things. We soon discovered it was a hotel for older couples and things got a little awkward when the bartender asked us what room we were staying in. Thankfully he let us stay and enjoy the music until closing! e Hope you enjoyed the obnoxious amount of pictures and I'll save Pompeii for my next post!

Cinque Terre!

If you haven't been to Cinque Terre or even heard of it add it to your list of places to go, its unreal. After being in Florence for two weeks I was in need for some serious open space and that's exactly what I got this weekend!

Cinque Terre or "the five lands" is a collection of five villages on the coast of Italy. We saw two of the five and each one is prettier than the next. Out first stop was Manarola, where we had a short hike around the village on the Manarolino Trail which I seriously recommend for anyone who's a little outdoorsy. Despite the overcast day we had it was perfect! Prepare yourself for way too many pictures on this one:

After the hike we spent about an hour exploring the small fishing town and took a short train ride to the next village Monterosso, again really amazing!

After Monterosso, we took a boat ride to Porto Venere. Where i stocked up on some pesto, an awesome castle, and visited a  pirate church!

Sorry for the obnoxious amount of pictures, but for some places words just don't do any justice.

Pisa, Versilia, and Lucca!

So I've been MIA for a few day, but that's because I had an incredible weekend. This was our first excursion weekend through API and it couldn't have gone better. We left early Saturday morning and arrived in Pisa and saw the leaning tower of course and not to hate on Pisa, but besides the tower that's about all there really was to see in Pisa, but we had a blast taking pictures of the tower. You can tell we took pictures from the wrong side of the tower, because lets face it in all of my pictures its really not leaning...

After a quick trip to Pisa we hit the beach in Versilia a quaint little beach town filled with beach bars, not of which actually have strawberry daiquiris (trust me we went to EVERY bar). After Versilia we spent the night in Lucca an even cuter city where we had an amazing million course dinner and spent sometime in the city center having Mojitos and talking to a vespa gang that tours the country on vintage scooters. Not only were they awesome, but they managed to get one of the scooters into the bar we were having drinks at!

There's also an adorable carousel in the center of the city, which we may or may not have jumped on (for future reference it costs a euro to ride, due to the language barrier we definitely thought it was free.)

No Class Wednesdays!

So its Wednesday, most people look forward to Wednesday as the halfway point between them and the weekend, but for me Wednesdays are a little bit different in the best way. First I love Wednesday because I don't have class, and did I mention I don't have a class Friday either? My roommate and I both don't have class Wednesday making it the perfect day for a Florentine adventure. We started the day with a run to the Piazzale Michelangelo for breathtaking views of the city and parts of the countryside scattered along the outskirts, as usual amazing! The red Ferrari at the top wasn't a bad sight either. However, I skipped a very important part of my story. On our way to the Piazzale we walked past a paper store and on a whim decided to go inside. This wasn't just any paper store, this was a marble paper store, a famous and beautiful paper that finds its origins in Florence of course!

The owner was so friendly and we talked with him for a little about our studies and that we were on our way for a jog and what not and watched a demo of the paper making process for a little. Pretty cool right? Then he asked if we had a few minutes and because we didn't have class of course we did. She we spent the next 15 minutes making marble paper with a master in the heart of the city. 

Literally the coolest thing to ever happen! And after our run he told us to come back and we did only to find the paper we made sealed with our names on it. Another must do in Florence or any other city home to one of their many stores ( http://www.ilpapirofirenze.it/ )

First Day of School!

So after all this talk about drinking, eating, a failed attempt at running, and how beautiful it is here you might be asking yourself, isn't she here for school? So here you go this is my first and hopefully not the last post about class. So what challenging Italian course did I have today? Pairing food and wine! Now back home everyone knows the first day of class is reserved for a cute outfit and a quick run through of the syllabus, pretty great right? Well Italy has managed to beat us once again. First day of class I had some amazing pasta "Cucina Povera" style or poor people cuisine. Which was honestly the best thing ever (yes I know I say this about everything, but its true!). They use bread crumbs instead of grated cheese which gives the pasta an awesome texture and is helpful for those of us who struggle in the diary department. Even better I had a glass of Rose to go with it. Sounds amazing, but during a normal class we'll have three courses paired with three glasses of wine. Another note on the Italian culture besides the fact that neon running shoes are totally taboo is that they literally grocery shop everyday, even sometimes twice a day for bread. And someone threw grapes at me today, I have no idea what it means, but it happened! No pictures today, but I'll let that image of the grape throwing guy linger in your minds a litter longer.

Getting Lost Italian style!

So after my last post raving about all the wonderful food here (had pizza for the first time too, also amazing) I thought I tell you about my attempt to run it off a few days ago! I set out for a run around 12pm here and my quick run over the Ponte Vecchio took me around two and half hours, but even getting lost in Florence is beautiful. Another note on the Italian culture wearing bright colored running shoes is definitely not cool, like at all. The amount of comments and horrified looks I got from my neon pink Nikes both in English and Italian was an adventure in itself. We ate out first dinner out as an apartment this week too! Here we are at Da Pinocchio (http://www.dapinocchio.com/) enjoying some Italian cuisine and a nice bottle of Prosecco of course!

Another adventure? We found a couple really awesome Irish bars and I even found my letters!

A few of my roommates and I at Lion's Fountain in Florence!

Its kind of hard to see but you'll see some Alpha Xi love right next to the Harp picture!