Chocolate, masks, and fortified cities!

Ciao everyone!

It's been a busy past two weeks and there's lots to catch up on! I haven't done any big traveling in the past two weeks, but have gone to some nearby places for some fun adventures! Besides it was carnivale season, so there was always something going on.

The week of February 10-19, Florence held it's annual Chocolate Festival in Piazza della Repubblica. This outdoor sweet showcase brings vendors from all over Florence together for any chocolate lover's dream. There are probably about 20-30 different tents sent up all over the piazza each with enticing sweets just calling out for you to buy. You can find just about anything either dipped, covered, or made of (milk, dark, or white) chocolate. Top picks? Chocolate covered strawberries, chocolate drizzled funnel cakes, chocolate macaroons, waffle cones filled with melted chocolate, shoes/tools/toys made of pure chocolate, truffles (including pistachio flavored), Baccios (staple of Italian candy and absolutely delicious), and hot chocolate made with your choice of either dark, milk, or white chocolate. Is you mouth watering yet? Needless to say my roommates and I visited the festival more than once... a day :) Unfortunately they are gone now, but since they are all local vendors I hope to go find my favorites around town.

The same weekend of the chocolate festival, my roommates and I ventured up to Venice for the Venice  Carnival! Before I say anything else, let me say that Venice has always been my favorite Italian city and the one I've wanted to visit the most. The first time I was in Europe a few years ago, I didn't get the chance to go so I was a little disappointed. Since being here in Florence and falling in love with this city, I thought that Venice had been knocked off it's first place pedestal. Well, let the record stand that even though I love Florence, Venice will always be my favorite Italian city. I can officially say this  regardless of the fact that I only spent about 5-6 hours in the crowded city and had to push my way through to huge crowds of people. There have been few times when I've been in such crowded, almost claustrophobic conditions, but this one is definitely up there on the list. But even though I was fighting my way through the city every minute was completely worth it!

The day started pretty early when the train left at 8:30am. This was my first time on the train system and I was afraid of getting confused and/or lost. Oddly enough, even though the most of Italy runs backwards/crazy, the train system is reliable and easy to navigate. The train my roommates and I booked had one stop in Bologna, but we made it Venice around 1pm. We stopped to get a bite to eat before venturing into the city center, and then the fun began. First things first, we needed masks since we were at Carnivale! We went into 2 or 3 three shops then found one that looked good and the masks were original... so we thought. Turns out they are hand painted and "made in Italy" like the official looking seal on the back says, but they aren't traditional plaster masks. Oh well! I still love my light blue mask with feathers (halloween costume?!). After getting the right gear for the day, we headed out in search of the main square, San Marco. Little did we know, Venice is an absolute labyrinth of streets. Sure there were signs on just about every block pointing in the right direction, but the streets were so narrow, they twisted sharply (or ended nowhere), and were congested with people. It ended up taking about two hours to find San Marco, but it was this two hour period of basically getting lost in Venice that reminded me why I loved this city. Every curving street led to a brightly colored building or canal with gondolas that afforded a picture perfect scene. The view from canals was even more grand. Something about the whole city-- the buildings, the water, the bridges, the people, the weather, everything!-- just felt perfectly Italian just like I had always pictured. To think that one day this city might sink to the bottom of the water is a shame. I hope that I will be able to visit before then because I did not get enough of it. The day ended too quickly and before I knew it it was time to head back to the station, but not before seeing some of the most extraordinary and elaborate costumes I've ever seen! People were dressed in full traditional costumes from the 1800-1900s and then there were also really crazy modern costumes (Cruella deVil and 101 Dalmations!). I got some pictures, but I'll post those later to facebook. Here are a few pictures of the day:

This past weekend was pretty low key, except for on Sunday. I had a photo assignment that didn't have to be taken in Florence. So I decided I would spontaneously (by spontaneously I mean check the schedule the night before and plan accordingly to not spend more than 10 euro on a ticket) jump on a train to a near by city. I ended up in San Gimignano, a small Tuscan city that is still fortified by it's wall and towers. It was absolutely beautiful! The city is atop a hill so you have a nice panoramic view to the country side. In the summer it's surrounded by sunflowers, but even though they weren't in bloom the view was wonderful! I was only there for a couple of hours with my roommates who tagged along for the photo adventure. We had packed a picnic, so we found a nice spot to eat, took some photos, bought postcards and gelato, then headed back home. It was a nice end to the weekend. Here are a few photos (more on facebook later):

This week has been pretty calm and filled with school/homework. Midterms are a week and a half away and then it's spring break! Can you believe this is week 5 in Italy?! It's crazy how fast time is flying by. Next thing I know it will be May and I can't even begin to think about leaving. Every day that I'm here I feel more and more at home. If I leave for the weekend or even a day trip, I never feel like I'm home unless I get a glance at the Duomo. This massive structure with all it's impressive architecture and facade, once a foreign place seen only in pictures, has come to represent home to me.

Until next time, ciao!


PS- For those of you wondering I had one of my internship interviews on Monday and it went really well (it was in English so that helped)! I still have one more (in Italian) tomorrow afternoon. Once that is over, I'll let you know all the details and what happens!

Ciao Amici!

I cannot believe that it's been 3 weeks that I've been in Firenze and I have yet to write a single thing about it! Seems like it was just yesterday when the cab driver dropped off my friend Sarah Beth and I at the end of our street.  He pointed and said, "This your street, apartment that way." Somehow we found the building and made it up the five flights of stairs with all our luggage to find our cozy little apartment for next four months.

So far Firenze has been everything I expected and more! I would love to tell you all in detail everything that has happened, but that would take another 3 weeks to write. So I will give you the best shortened version of Firenze thus far. 

The first week has become of blur of orientation meetings, sight seeing, grocery shopping, getting lost, and total awe at the city I now call home. My six roommates and I adventured around town allowing ourselves to act like typical tourists with cameras strapped around our necks. Everything from the Duomo to the little old man walking down the street who just looked Italian needed a picture. After getting over that initial awestruck feeling of living in such an beautiful place, things started settling down. Classes started at the end of January and a normal routine fell into place. However, I don't think that walking on the Ponte Vechio to class or waiting for a friend on the steps of the Duomo everyday could ever be classified as normal. Incredible yes. Definitely not normal because that implies average, and thus far this experience has been anything but that. 

My classes are absolutely wonderful! I didn't know what to expect from them, but I love them. I am taking:

Digital Graphic Illustration

Printmaking Beginner

Landscape and Architecture Photography

Italian Beginner I

By far my favorite class is my photo class. It involves two of my favorite things set amongst the gorgeous backdrop of Florence. What more could I ask for? I also really like my teacher. He's everything I would've expected of an Italian professor. He's completely passionate about the subject (he spent an hour and a half the first class explaining what "photography" was) and every other thing that he sprouts is from some French/Italian/British author/poet/photographer/artist quote that somehow relates back to photography. I've only been to two classes (that last five hours each!), but have learned so much. My other classes are also really fun. I've never done any kind of printmaking, but have found that I really like it. Here's a quick photo of my current project:

My Italian class is... well it's going! I don't know if I will ever call myself fluent, but I'm starting to (sort of) get it. I do know the the definite and infinitive article for a lot of words (un cappuccino per favore!). On the plus side, I at least look Italian-- I've been asked for directions by a few tourists who thought I was a native! Soon I will also be starting an internship. I have an interview next week, and hopefully will start the week after that. I will let you all know how that goes. 

In other news (and part of the reason I haven't updated much) I've been traveling a lot on weekends :) I've gone all over Florence to see a lot of the main attractions (Duomo, Santa Croce, Ponte Vecchio, Pizzale Michelangelo), but I've also gone on two out of town trips. The first weekend here I went to Verona and the town of Sirmione on the coast of Lake Garda. Although a little chilly and overcast, it was still a nice trip. I really liked walking around Verona and getting some history of the city, other than the fact that it was Juliet's hometown. However, I will admit I was really excited about visiting the famous balcony and leaving a letter for Juliet, just like the movie (Letters to Juliet). It was sad to know you can't leave her a letter at the wall, but you can buy a lock for 5 euro from the gift shop to lock on the gate and then walk across the street to actually write a letter. Needless to say I did walk across the street to visit Juliet's Club and write a letter, but I saved my 5 euro. Later in the day we traveled to Sirmione, which is a really small town. It was mostly deserted and very quiet, but you could tell by the abundant number of hotels in area that in the summer it must be very busy. The best part about the town was the real Medieval castle with moat and gate! We didn't get to go inside, but it was still beautiful from the outside. The weekend was cold, but the worst part was on the trip home. We passed through a real blizzard. I have never seen so much snow in my life. Trees' branches were hanging low with about a foot of snow and at least another 3-4 feet of snow on the ground in addition to the still falling snow. The best part though? We really did just drive through the blizzard and I never had to step out of the bus into the cold :) But I did get a few pics:

This past weekend, I went to Prague in the Czech Republic! And though I didn't have to step off the bus the previous weekend, I did have to brave the 7 degree (F) weather to walk through the city in Prague. Needless to say I looked like a marshmallow all weekend because of the multiple layers I needed to keep warm. Regardless of the fact that it was the coldest weekend I have ever endured, Prague was absolutely gorgeous! It really is  one of my favorite cities I have ever visited. The architecture and history behind the city is mesmerizing. You can find just about every style of architecture within the city limits often making the streets look like something out of a fairy tale book. I didn't get do much while in Prague, mainly because of the cold, but I did visit Old Town, New Town, and the Jewish Quarter on the first day there. The Old Town square is one of the best I have seen in Europe so far. There's a gothic church (Our Lady Before Tyn) amongst a multiple pastel colored buildings. Even covered in a foot of snow, I still loved it. While in the Old Town I also saw the famous astronomical clock. Later that day I also went to the Holocaust Museum in the Jewish Quarter which was incredible. That was the closest I've ever been to anything connected with the Holocaust and it was crazy to be so close to it. One of my favorite parts of the museum was the memorial they had for the victims of Prague. It was an exhibition that consisted of 4-6 rooms. The rooms were all empty and had white walls, but on the walls were some 80,000+ handwritten names of Holocaust victims. I was completely blown away by the magnitude of it all. My roommates and I ended the day at a traditional Czech restaurant were we tried goulash with bread and potato pancakes. We really went all out on this meal, check out the receipt:

Well maybe not all out considering it was in Czech, not American dollars ($1 US dollar= $18 Czech). 

The second day in Prague was spent mainly sight seeing in the morning. I went to the Charles Bridge, John Lennon Wall, Kafka Museum, and Rudolfinum (home of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra). In the afternoon I went on a three our tour of the Prague Castle. Does anyone know the difference between a palace and a castle? I didn't until last weekend. A palace is just a single building for a royal family, where as a castle is a fortified city that can sustain itself if attacked. So yes that is why it took three hours to tour, because we walked around the entire castle grounds. Even though it was long, it was worth it. I learned so much and got some awesome views overlooking the city of Prague.  

Overall Prague was amazing! I am determined to visit again, preferably when the weather does not drop into single digits and flowers are in bloom. Pictures are coming soon to facebook, so check them out of you want to see what Prague is all about. Also a new blog post should be coming sometime soon about the Chocolate Festival in Firenze and the Venice Carnivale. 

Arrivederci!

Ready for Take Off

In less than 24 I'll be boarding my flight to Philadelphia which will then lead me overseas for four months. Shouldn't I be freaking out about now?! Oh wait, I kind of am! AAAHHHHHH!!!!

Thankfully I have finished packing, so that's one thing less to worry about. Let me tell you that packing for four months was very, very difficult and the start this adventure. At first I began by throwing every article of clothing I owned in the "going" pile. When I realized this wasn't going to work, my friend Jessica came over and forced me take out about 75% of the things I thought were essential ("No, Angie you really don't need 20 pairs of shoes and 28 dresses!"). Finally, after going back and forth about what to leave and take, I actually put everything in my suitcase and miraculously it all fit! And just so you know how difficult it was to narrow down, let me show how my room/suitcases started out :

But in the end, I managed to make it work:

So with that done, it's been a matter of preparing myself mentally to leave tomorrow. Even though I'm leaving in about 12 hours, it still hasn't really hit yet. The packing was a wake up call, but it still doesn't feel real. I will be honest though and say I have had butterflies (or possibly Hungarian Horntail dragons) flying around my stomach. I can't decide whether they're from nerves or excitement, but I'm hoping it's the latter. My Italian skills are still seriously lacking, so that's causing some anxiety. Hopefully, once I'm there it will pick up. I know that the language is only of the challenges I'm about to face in the coming months, but I am looking forward to it all. I am not expecting to come back a whole new person, but I do hope to experience everything I possibly can. My mission is go everywhere and try everything I can, in hopes that I will learn something out of it and be able to bring it back with me. I know it won't be easy, but nothing worthwhile ever is.

So here I go, head first, into my adventure abroad! Ciao! 

Two Weeks Notice

So here we are two weeks out from departure date. This first post makes everything seem more real. I am actually going to have to pack my things up in two suitcases. I am actually boarding a plane in two weeks. I am actually going across the Atlantic. I am actually going to live in a country where I don't know the language or anyone. I really must be crazy. If this hadn't been done before, it might have made for a good book or movie deal. Too bad Diane Lane's character in Under the Tuscan Sun beat me to it.

But since it has been done before, and millions of times at that, I will survive. I will somehow manage to squeeze the essential 20 pairs of shoes I need along with my entire closet into two suitcases. I will board a plane and land safely in Florence. I will begin a new adventure abroad.

Up until this week I had been pretty calm about everything. I wasn't worried about anything in particular.  Then suddenly it hit me like a ton of bricks-- everything to do before I leave! Priority number one now became how will I fit everything in my suitcase (refer to 20 essential pairs of shoes above)? I've travelled internationally before, before never longer than a month. Now I'll be away for five months during which I be attending school, working as an intern, and traveling around Europe on long weekends. That's too much clothes to even consider. This dilemma is sure to cause me more stress in the next couple of weeks once I actually start putting things in a suitcase, instead of just thinking about things to put in a suitcase.

So next on list of things to do before I leave? Cram the Italian language into my brain in the next two weeks. Still working on that one... anyone know any short cuts for this?

As for everything else I need to, it's all little (but important stuff) like exchange currency, make copies of important documents, research places to visit, and other miscellaneous things that are taking up about 8 pages of notebook paper. It will all get done in time, right?

One of the things that really needed to get done before I left was my Italian visa. Thankfully that came in just before Christmas, so that was a nice early gift! I also received my Italian cell phone number yesterday which was exciting. However, I am still waiting to hear where I will be living and with whom. Hopefully that piece of information will arrive shortly.

For now I will sit here and patiently (or not so patiently) wait until the 24th arrives and I board my plane.  I'm going to miss everyone so much, but am very excited about the opportunities that await. I'd love to hear from everyone while I am away, so facebook me, email me, skype me, or snail mail me with any and all updates you may have! Also if you would like to receive a post card, I'd love to send you one! Leave a comment with you address or message me via facebook.

Until next time, arrivederci!