my last day studying at FUA!! it was bittersweet, i really enjoyed my time in my italian and wine classes. we started out the morning with a stop at Vecchio Forno on the way to italian class, i got my favorite, the pane au chocolat! YUMMM. i will miss that pastry shop! we took our italian final and said goodbye to our teacher. after the final we got our certificates for completing the FUA summer program. we grabbed lunch at SandwiChic, i got my favorite, the prosciutto, mozzarella, and balsamic sandwich. yummy. after class we packed up our belongings in the apartment. we had tickets to climb to the top of the Duomo that afternoon, so after packing we headed over to the Duomo to get in line for our reservation. the dome is the highest building to climb in Florence. it was a long way up, but we made it! the views were gorgeous. after spending so much time in Florence we were able to see our apartment, the train station, and other landmarks we had frequented. it was so cool! we climbed back down and then treated ourselves to iced coffee from the shop near our apartment. then we made our way to our last final! we had our wines final. the wines final was short answers, essays, and a wine tasting. i really have learned so much from that class. i will miss it! after class we went back to the apartment. i gathered my things, said goodbye, called a cab, and made my way towards the river to the hotel to meet my mom and brother. they traveled to Florence so that we could do some sightseeing before we all head back to the states! we had a gorgeous hotel room right on the Arno river. we went to dinner at a restaurant near the hotel. i had the gnocchi, house red wine, and shared a meat and cheese plate with my family. i caught them up on my adventures so far in italy. after dinner i showed them around Florence and took them to my favorite gelato shop, leonardo's! i got blueberry... of course. that night my brother and i went out to a plaza near the hotel and drank a bottle of champaign and listened to musicians perform in the plaza. such a sad time saying goodbye to my friends and classes, but a sweet time getting to show my family around my favorite city!
ciao! britney
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on wednesday we had to give presentations in each of our classes! we woke up tired and behind schedule so we didn't have time to grab breakfast before we went to italian class. i got a mars bar from the vending machine outside of our classroom (the candy bars/chocolate here is so good!) as my breakfast. we did presentations in our italian class about ourselves, we just had to prove that we could understand and speak some basic italian. i was nervous to present, i don't feel very confident with my italian skills! after presentations we reviewed for our final that would be the next day in class. after class we got lunch at SandwiChic, i ordered the mushroom and truffle sandwich - it was very rich with mushrooms but, so good! that afternoon a couple of my roommates and myself went to Ponte Vecchio to look at jewelry. we all wanted to get a souvenir piece of jewelry to remember our experience by. after looking through all of the display cases and falling in love with different pieces we went back towards the apartment to get ready for our afternoon classes. we stopped at a shop near our apartment for iced coffees. in our afternoon class we had to give presentations as well, my wines class presentation was with a group. we discussed the Carmignano wine region of Tuscany. i discussed the aspect of food and wine pairings for the wines of Carmignano. after all of the groups presented we did a review for the final. after class we went back to the apartment and decided to go back to Ponte Vecchio to get the treasures we fell in love with that afternoon. we did some more wandering around the streets of Florence and popped in some shops while we made our way towards the area we wanted to get dinner at. our first dinner option had no tables available, but we still looked around the restaurant because it was also a flower shop! we were sad we couldn't stay to have dinner there, but there was another restaurant up the street that we had also been eyeing... they had room for us so we ended up eating there. it was called simBIOsa and it was the probably my most favorite meal in italy so far. i ordered the pappardelle with wild boar ragu (wild boar is a popular meat in Italy, so i really wanted to try it!), a glass of red wine, and we shared a plate of cheese and meats. it was a very slow and late italian meal, it was so delicious and so worth it. we walked down the street and got gelato at leonardo's after dinner, i got the blueberry and coconut... so good!!! we had a great day.
ciao! britney tuesday we got breakfast from Vecchio Forno on the way to italian class, i got a nutella brioche. it was our last day of learning in italian class! wednesday is presentations and thursday is finals for both of my classes. after italian class we grabbed lunch at SandwiChic, of course. and then went back to the apartment to finish our homework and prepare for our presentations. we left the apartment a little early so that we could get gelato before our afternoon class. we went to leonardos, near our apartment (the best gelato we've found!) were i got blueberry and kiwi banana - so very delicious. we went to wines class where we had food pairing day! we tasted Ceccante Maremma Toscana and a sweet wine, Granello. we paired the wines with a fennel salami, pecorino, and almond biscotti. i definitely did not care for the sweet wine, much too sweet! after class we went to the Duomo ticket office to purchase tickets to tour the church and the bell tower on Friday (the soonest date available, attractions and restaurants fill up fast!). i went back to the apartment to get ready to go to dinner while a couple of my roommates went to the uffizi gallery, we met outside the museum to go to dinner together. while waiting outside uffizi we ran into our professor who is here with our program. we asked him to join us for dinner and he took us to his favorite spot near his apartment. it was a great little local restaurant where we ordered lasagna, bruschetta, salad, and wine. the food was great and the red wine was delicious. after dinner our professor recommended a gelato shop not too far from the restaurant. i got nutella and caffe - their gelato was good, but we definitely prefer leonardo's the most. after gelato we walked back to the apartment to study for our italian presentation for wednesday morning. i can't say my italian is very great...
ciao! britney our last monday of study abroad! the time has flown by, unfortunately. i started my day with the pane au chocolat at Vecchio Forno for breakfast before italian class. we finished the movie we started in italian on thursday, such a cute movie. for lunch we went to SandwiChic where i got the most popular sandwich, salami, mozzarella, and pepper spread - it was so good! that shop never fails. we were so tired after class that we got our sandwich and went back to the apartment, ate, did homework, and napped until our afternoon class. in wines class we tasted a morellino di scansano and a sauvignon blanc. after class we made a reservation to a restaurant across the Arno river - an area we hadn't explored much at all. we walked to the restaurant and found our table. i ordered the house red wine, bruschetta, and a spaghetti with tomatoes and basil. it was all so good! they even served bread and olive paste - so so so good. they offered half portions of most main course dishes, which is a miracle and a rarity here. i hope to take my family here when they join me in Florence later this week! it was an all around great experience. after dinner we walked to a lookout point at piazza michaelangelo, which was a major uphill hike. but seeing the sunset over Florence was breathtakingly beautiful. i'm so glad we made the trip up there. after we watched the scenery and took pictures we made our way back down the hill. we found a gelato spot where i ordered watermelon gelato. i love watermelon. this gelato was so refreshing and tasted just like fresh watermelon. i was really curious because i hadn't seen watermelon offered at any other gelato shop we had tried. after getting gelato we walked back to the apartment where it was already pretty late at night. it's so sad that our time here is coming to an end!!!
ciao! britney on sunday we went to Rome! we took a direct train to rome, which made the ride about an hour and a half with no stops. we left arrived at the main train station in Rome and realized it was far different than the cities we had visited thus far, the station was packed with people and filled with aggressive peddlers (Rome is definitely the place to keep close tabs on your belongings!). we made it out of the station and went straight to McDonalds (haha) only to use the bathroom, but my roommate ordered french fries (she was utilizing the italian she had learned in class, haha) and seriously they were by far the best McDonalds french fries i've ever had. Rome takes a lot of time! it's much more spread out than Florence so we knew the landmarks we wanted to see and went straight to our first spot, the colosseum. we struggled finding a legit tour of the colosseum without waiting in the actual colosseum ticket line for hours upon hours to get inside - so, we got hooked by a guy across the street from the colosseum that had a badge and seemed slightly legit but we were still a little unconvinced... it seemed unorganized but there were several others signing up for this tour so we paid and then left to grab lunch before our 12:30pm tour. we went to a restaurant overlooking the coliseum. i ordered a bacon, tomato, mozzarella, and pecorino cheese pizza - it was good but not the best pizza i've had in italy. we enjoyed our meal until it was time to go back to the meeting place of our colosseum tour. once we arrived there were even more people waiting for the tour, so that made us feel much better about the tour we had selected (it was the cheapest price we had found!). we had a guided tour in the colosseum with time to roam inside by ourselves and then we met outside the exit to continue the tour through the palatine hill and roman forum. i loved seeing the colosseum in real life after studying it in art history classes, the structure is just so much bigger when you're in person. and to imagine all that went into constructing it and what all took place inside its walls is crazy to think about. we met up with the tour group to walk over to palatine hill, on the way we stopped by the arch of constantine which is another awesome construction to see in person - the detail is gorgeous. another thing i had not realized was so big was palatine hill, that structures and buildings that make what is said to be the beginning of rome was ginormous. our tour guide for this portion of the tour was really knowledgable and made the history telling exciting and intriguing. i enjoyed hearing about palatine hill. we then finished off our tour overlooking the roman forum which is composed of many different ancient structures. it makes for gorgeous scenery and an array of history lessons. it is so cool to walk through such an expansive area of ancient history. after completing our tour our next stop was to cool down with water and gelato. Rome is no joke, it was hot and sunny! we walked toward the Trevi fountain (our next landmark to see) and found a gelato shop along the way. i got nutella gelato and we sat on the steps outside relaxing and taking a break from the hot sun. after gelato we walked to the Trevi fountain. we didn't realize it was sunk into the ground.. you have to walk down steps to get your coin toss pictures and feel the mist of the fountain! that's not quite how movies make it out to be! it was packed, but we found a spot to take pictures, toss our coins into the fountain, and make our wishes. after Trevi we walked to the spanish steps, another picture perfect roman landmark. there were so many steps!!!! and not quite what we expected, the Lizzie McGuire movie and When in Rome altered our expectations, not in a bad way though! after getting pictures on the steps we walked up. all. of. the. steps. woah. and wandered our way towards whatever place caught our eye for dinner. we ended up at a restaurant with a gladiator theme, haha. i got a rosso spritz, which was very refreshing, and spaghetti with tomato sauce and basil. it was a surprisingly good meal for stumbling upon it. after dinner we had to catch our train back to Florence. we booked tickets at a different station in Rome, which turned out to be a much nicer and less crowded train station than the main one in Rome. we took a taxi to the station and got on our direct train back to Santa Maria Novella! we had to get some italian homework done and study for our Monday quiz! overall Rome was a great experience, and it quite the place to jam pack so many sights in so little time (we clocked in 31 flights of stairs!). i can't wait to go back to Rome in a couple of days!
ciao! britney we slept in saturday morning and went to Bologna for the afternoon and evening. it was a a super short train ride to get there, giving us plenty of time to walk around the city. we had no agenda or sites we had to see which made for a day of strolling around the beautiful streets. Bologna was so clean and well kept, the architecture was phenomenal and consistent throughout the city center. we went into some shops and then stopped at a sit down gelateria for a snack before we walked around more and got dinner. we ordered fancy gelato creations, my roommate and i both ordered gin gelsos which were blackberry gelato, gin, and lime juice... we thought they would be refreshing... but we were slightly wrong... they were almost straight gin, so that made for a really strong drink, but we finished them! after getting our gelato treats we walked around the town some more. there was a festival being set up, which was kinda cool to see, it was called la repubblica (something of that sort) and looked maybe like a film festival? after walked through more shops and covering more ground in Bologna we settled on a cute pasta shop for dinner. the front half of the shop was a counter to order freshly made pastas and the back half was the dining room where you could order the fresh pasta meals. i ordered wine and tortellini and it was soooooo good! i love how everything to eat here is just so fresh, it makes a tremendous amount of difference in taste and quality. i'm going to miss that aspect of italy so much when i have to leave! after dinner we walked back to the trainstation and stopped at a super small gelato shop on the way. i ordered raspberry red wine, omg so dang good. we ate our gelato and caught the train back to Florence! i'm loving the ease of traveling here in italy, it's so convenient and inexpensive.
ciao! britney on friday we woke up early to catch the train to Cinque Terre, the village of Monterosso. we grabbed breakfast from Vecchio Forno, i got the raisin and rosemary pastry again - so good. we bought our train tickets and then boarded the train towards Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre was about a three hour train ride and to get to the northernmost village, Monterosso, we had to switch trains at the Cinque Terre main train station. riding the train was so exciting because we were basically overlooking the ocean the whole time we were on the tracks in Cinque Terre. as soon as we hit Monterosso we we grabbed lunch at a restaurant overlooking the ocean. i ordered bruschetta and wine, it was all so good, light, and refreshing before hitting the beach! we got beach chairs and an umbrella to lay out on right beside where we ate lunch. we were told that Monterosso is the best Cinque Terre beach, which it was great, but it was a really rocky/pebbly beach which made walking frustrating and going into the water tough. we took pictures in the water and laid out in the sun (i'm extremely fair so i coated myself in sunscreen and made sure the umbrella shaded me the whole time or else i'd be toast). i loved being out on the chair and enjoying the beach, this was my first time really getting a legit beach experience and appreciating it. after several hours in the sun we packed up and headed to dinner. we wanted to get seafood at the beach! we walked farther into the town and found a cute restaurant with outdoor seating. i shared house white wine and seafood risotto with my roommate. it. was. so. good. YUM. i had been wanting seafood risotto this whole entire trip! there were clams, mussels, prawns, squid, and crab in the risotto - yum and it was served in a big pot to ladle out your servings. after dinner we went to get gelato, i ordered pistachio and it tasted just like a pistachio macaron - one of my favorite flavors. after dinner we walked back to the train station and soaked in as much of Monterosso as we could before we purchased our tickets back to Florence. on the way back to Florence (long story short) we took the wrong train, missed our connecting train, got on the wrong train, went to Pisa (again) where it was a holiday with lots of fireworks, hung out in Pisa, met some great Americans from NY that were in the same predicament as us, caught a by chance train to Florence due to the holiday, then got dropped off at a station on the outskirts of Florence, and had to walk 40 minutes to get to our apartment. we arrived at 3:30am. it's a good story to tell!
ciao! britney on Thursday we started our day off at Vecchio Forno getting a pastry for breakfast before italian class. this time i got a flaky, nutella and apple pastry. we started watching a movie in italian class, it was so good! i don't remember the name of the movie but it was in italian, so we watched with subtitles - i love watching foreign movies. after italian we went to SandwiChic for lunch, i got a sandwich with gorgonzola, prosciutto, and sundried tomatoes - so good, that sandwich shop is so good! my roommate and i stopped by a gelato shop called leonardo's before wines class and it was agreeably the best gelato we think we will ever have, i got peach and raspberry. in wines class we tasted two white wines, vernacchia and vermentino. after wines class we went straight to the Santa Maria Novella train station to get tickets and hop on a train to go to Pisa for pictures and dinner. Pisa isn't too far from Florence so the train ride only took us about an hour and a half. once we arrived in Pisa we walked from the train station to the Leaning Tower, which is a pretty hefty walk. there really isn't much to do in Pisa besides seeing the tower and duomo and eating dinner... after we took our pictures we went to a restaurant close to the tower for dinner and ate pizza in Pisa. the prices were so good compared to Florence. i split a bottle of wine with my roommate and ordered the diavola pizza. so good! after dinner we booked it back to the train station to catch a train back to Florence. the next day we would be off to Monterosso for a beach day!
britney this morning we stopped at Vecchio Forno and i got a raisin and rosemary pastry for breakfast, it was so different and so good! we played telephone in italian class today, so that made for a great day of learning. after italian class we went to the sandwich shop that we had dinner at the previous night, SandwiChic! its such a yummy place, i got a prosciutto, mozzarella, and balsamic sandwich. YUM. we brought our sandwiches back to the apartment to eat and finish our italian homework. in the afternoon we had wines class where we tasted Super-Tuscan wines: Casadei sonno Mediterranean and Borgeri Rosso. i loved the Casadei! after wines class we went back to the apartment to get ready for dinner. we had been eyeing the central market. central market is made up of several different stalls containing bulk buying and meal buying for foods and drinks such as fish, meat, pasta, pizza, gelato, wine, beer, and so much more. we settled on getting pasta. i got the rigatoni with ragu sauce and a glass of wine the bartender paired with my pasta dish... it was delish. we also got some gelato at central market, i got the banana with chocolate drizzle... soooo good. evidently a Gelateria can most accurately be judged on their pistachio and banana flavored gelatos... this one passed the banana mark for me. yum. it's fashion week here in florence so we walked around admiring outfits on our way back to the apartment before we went out to karaoke night at lion's fountain bar - that was fun! tomorrow we are heading to Pisa, Italy after our wines class via the train so have dinner and see the leaning tower of Pisa!
ciao! britney today was my 10th day in Florence, the time is flying by! of course on the way to italian class i stopped by Vecchio Forno and tried a new pastry for breakfast, today i had the nutella brioche and it was so good! i love that bakery, i'll definitely miss it when i'm gone! then it was off to italian, i really find italian class enjoyable and i am learning a lot. after italian a lot of us were wanting to go to the Brandy Melville 50% off sale, so we went to the store which was in a part of Florence we hadn't walked around yet. i got a cute pair of shorts during the sale! once we were all done shopping we were hungry for lunch, i just ended up eating some of my salami, cheese, and bread at the apartment. we did our homework and then it was time for wines class. today in class we tasted a Trebbiano and a Poggio De' Paoli - i can't say i was much of a fan of either of these wines... this is my first day i just haven't love the wines we've tasted! hopefully tomorrows picks will be better... we also had a project to finish for wines class so after class we knocked out that group project of writing an article for the FUA magazine, Blending, about our Sunday trip to Montalcino and Pienza. for dinner we went to SandwiChic which was just a couple blocks away from our apartment. i had seen the shop several times when looking on the internet for good places to eat in Florence. i don't honestly even know what i ordered but it was some sort of ham, tomato, lettuce, and warm, toasty bread - but it was sooooo good and a generous portion with a water all for 3.50€ which is the best deal we have got on a meal this entire trip. the menu was so big, the options were endless - we are definitely going to be going back to that sandwich shop! it was right beside Vecchio Forno and on the street that our italian class is on... i just love that little area! i also stopped in a farmacia (pharmacy) to get some neosporin... i had googled what neosporin is called in Italy beforehand and the pharmacist seemed to know what i was talking about... so hopefully i got what i needed (i got some mosquito bite medicine last week from a farmacia and it works better than anything i've ever used in the US, so i have hope in this Italian neosporin. after we visited the farmacia we went to get gelato (shocker) a couple of doors down from our apartment. i got cherry gelato (my first time seeing cherry gelato!) and it was SO GOOD. absolutely my favorite fruit flavored gelato so far.
ciao! britney |
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