Buonasera,
It's been almost a week since I blogged so I have a lot to catch all of you up on :)
The week was pretty uneventful, just had my classes and some homework to do. One of my classes was cancelled since we're going to have a longer field trip time in April. We learned all about Fiesole, which is the countryside right outside of Florence. We will go there on our field trip. It's supposed to be beautiful and it was one of the Etruscans first colonies back in the ancient times. I'm really excited to go there; it's supposed to be awesome at sunset. This week I also signed up for a soccer tournament and we play during the week. I'm excited to play soccer again, although I didn't bring my cleats with me! I also signed up for volunteer activities. I signed up for helping out with preschoolers or helping high school students with their english. Hopefully the schools schedule matches up with mine and I can do one of the activities. I was debating on buying a gym membership this past week. It's about 200€ for a semester. I would love to go to a gym but I just don't think I'll have time to get my money's worth out of it. I should start running again, but I do walk around a lot.
This Friday, we took a school trip to Chianti. I wasn't sure what to expect, I knew it was an Italian countryside. It was so beautiful and quaint. Our first stop was the Trebbio castle. We got a tour throughout some of the rooms and the wine cellar. The tour guide was great, she told us about how the castle originally belonged to the Pazzi family, who competed closely with the Medici family for popularity and wealth. The Pazzi family decided they wanted to kill the two Medici brothers, and asked the Pope for help. The Pope agreed and gave the Pazzi family an army. They succeeded in killing one of the brothers on Easter in a church, but Lorenzo Medici escaped. He then plotted and succeeded in killing off the whole entire Pazzi family. The Medici Family took over the Trebbio castle and only left two of the Pazzi family crests on the walls since Davinci had created them. The castle was huge, about 43 rooms, but we were only allowed to see a few. There is a family who looks after the castle that lives there now. After the tour, we had an awesome lunch and wine tasting. Chianti is famous for their red wine, and vineyards can only call their wine Chianti if it is made in the Chianti area, and only if they use a certain type of grape. It was interesting to learn that if a wine is older, the droplets will fall slower down the side of the glass after swirling it around, than a new wine would fall. The first two wines were good. The dessert wine was gross. It's apparently a tradition to eat biscotti with the dessert wine and dip it into the dessert wine. I just liked the biscotti on it's own. We then got to walk around the area and take pictures. I was incredibly bus sick on the way back so after I got home I had to buy these stabilizing bracelets and medicine for the next day trip!
On Saturday, we went on another school trip to Siena and San Gimignano. I wasn't bus sick, so that was a plus. We got to Siena first, and it was a gorgeous day. It was sunny and warm and perfect for walking around. In Siena, we went to the cathedral and it was so pretty. It's a lot smaller than the duomo here in Florence, but it is a little more detailed inside. Everything was covered in beautiful paintings, or tiles. It was really cool to see how intricate every picture was. We were able to see the baptistry also, and climb up to the top of one museum to see all of Siena. We got lunch in Siena at a great pasta place with a bunch of our friends, and then we were off to San Gimignano. San Gimignano was a lot smaller of a city than Siena. It was soooo small but really cute. It was cool but I don't think there were that many locals walking around, we only saw tourists. We got to walk around, and see the little church they had there. They have walls surrounding the city from medieval times, since the walls were a form of protection from attacks. We could have walked around the city in just an hour or two. After we saw the church, we climbed up to the fortress and just sat down and enjoyed the sun and the view. It was nice to relax for a while.
And finally today, was maybe one of my favorite days in Florence so far. We woke up and wanted to go to the American Diner for pancakes! Italians don't eat any pancakes or waffles for breakfast; they just eat croissants and donuts and pastries. We got to the diner and it was a long wait, so we decided instead to go to our favorite pizza place - Gustopizza. We grabbed it to go and ate outside on the stairs of a church because it was so warm out today (I got sunburn...) We were trying to see the boboli gardens at Palazzo Pitti, and they close early so we wanted to eat as quickly as possible. We finally got to see the gardens after our first two failed visits! I guess third time really is the charm. The gardens were very pretty, and on a hill so we did a lot of climbing. We climbed to the top and could see a great view of Florence. We had no idea the gardens were so huge... we will have to go back another day to see the rest of the gardens we didn't see today. We ended up even going to another section of the gardens called the bardini gardens. There we could also see more awesome views of the city. We will have to go back into the gardens in springtime when all the flowers have bloomed. When walking around these gardens we heard music and saw all these people, and realized they were on piazzale Michelangelo. We decided to walk up there, and see more beautiful views of the whole city. The Piazzale is free and anyone can go and stand up in the big square. The fake David (Michelangelo's famous statue) is up there, and doesn't even compare to the real one. There was a lady singing and we ended up grabbing a drink and listening to a free concert for about an hour. She was singing english songs too! It was so awesome to see the view of the city from there. Then we went home and now we're just doing some homework and relaxing. It was a great day.
Upcoming Plans:
This weekend (Feb 1-3): Opera on Friday, Venice Carnivale on Saturday, and possibly Pisa on Sunday!!
Next weekend (Feb 7-10): We have officially booked Interlaken!!! So excited for the Alps!! I'm thinking about ice skating, Zurich day trip, maybe trying skiing, and definitely the chocolate show. :) I just have to figure out how to rent all the snow gear I'm going to need!
Feb 15-17: Paris!! We officially booked our hostel. It's a little far away but we can just take the metro in. It looks nice and it's in our price range!!
Ciao!!! I miss you all!
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Monday, January 21, 2013
Buongiorno,
This past weekend was really fun!!! We didn't travel this weekend, we just ended up staying in Florence. Since my classes end by 10:30 AM on thursday, I felt like we had so much time to do everything! Although it ended up being a pretty relaxing weekend, which is what I think we all needed because we've all been very tired.
Thursday night after I blogged, we went to a really awesome family style dinner place. There were 12 of us, and we all got 2 bottles of wine, bread, 2 big appetizers, and 3 dishes of pasta. There was so much good food, and I was so full, and the best part was that it was only 15 Euros. It's a great place to go with a big group.
On Friday, we decided to do some exploring and we didn't end up accomplishing all that we wanted. But, it was still really fun. We went to the general market, which is basically like the Reading Terminal in Philadelphia. There's tons of fresh food and meat. They have really weird meat there, like cow stomach/brains, and a lot of seafood like octopus and squid. We walked around and just browsed and decided to come back on Saturday to buy things. You mostly have to speak Italian there, so we brushed up a little bit before we went on Saturday. After the market, we walked around the little stands of leather jackets, purses, and scarves. It's called the leather market and it's a lot cheaper than buying leather in the actual stores. I'm not sure that it's real leather but it looks nice enough. We then decided to go back to the Pitti Palace and try to see the Boboli gardens which are supposed to be very pretty. We got there around 4:30 only to find out they had closed at 3:30. We were bummed, but we finished walking through the parts of the museum we hadn't seen. We went home, made dinner, relaxed, and then caught up on our sleep.
On Saturday, we went back to the market and bought a few things. My italian was awful, so I mostly resorted to pointing to things... they get mad if you touch anything. I bought some strawberries, a tomato, and a pepper all for only 1.75 Euros, which was really cheap. After that we stopped by the leather market and I bought a new purse. I managed to haggle down the price from 18 to 15 Euros so I was pretty happy about that. We found a supermarket really close to us when we were walking home a different way! We've been going to one that is about 20 minutes away and now this one is only about 5, so it will be way easier. We then decided to go the the museum called Academia which has the David sculpture in it. I was somewhat forcing myself to go there because I just thought the David was just some statue that everyone over-exaggerates and I was only forcing myself to go just because I had heard so much about it, but I wasn't expecting too much. Instead, I was blown away by how unbelievable it was. It was HUGE and it was so beautiful. I was so blown away by how human-like it looked and wondered how Michelangelo carved it. It was definitely worth seeing.
On Sunday, we went to a futbol game!!! We walked to a breakfast place and met up with "Florence for Fun" which we ordered our tickets from. They were really cheap tickets and we went with other Americans. We grabbed breakfast before we went and they had bagels!!! It was so nice to have a bagel again. It's really hard to find a bagel here, they really only have croissants. Then we walked to the stadium. We watched Fiorentina vs. Napoli. It was a good game, and luckily it only rained for about 20 minutes when we thought it would rain the whole entire time. The game ended in a tie, 1-1. The fans were so crazy and really into the game. There was a whole line of security guards standing in between the two team's fans, most likely so they didn't start fighting each other. After that, we went home and finished our homework!
Upcoming Plans:
This weekend (Jan 25-27): School trip to Chianti on Friday, then Siena and San Gimignano on Saturday. We talked about maybe Piza on Sunday, but we haven't planned anything.
Next weekend (Feb 1-3): Opera trip on Friday, then the Venice Carnivale on Saturday! We also talked about doing Pisa this weekend, but are still figuring things out.
Feb 7-10: We might be going to Interlaken, Switzerland, which is the alps!! We would do it with a group trip, and we get round trip bus (8 hour ride) and hostel included in the price. There is a lot to do there, such as ice skating, skiing, skydiving, bungee jumping, snowshoeing, etc. I was considering doing night sledding, ice skating, chocolate show, and a day trip to Zurich. We haven't booked this yet but I think we are close to doing it! I think we will be getting a discount since we have a large group of us going.
Feb 15-17: I officially booked my flight to Paris!!! I didn't think I really wanted to go to France that badly, but now I am so excited. I am leaving Friday morning and getting to Paris at 9 AM. It's only a two hour plane ride. I'm hoping to see the eiffel tower, and the louvre, and Versailles. We come back to Florence on Sunday afternoon. It should be a really fun weekend.
Ciaoooo!
This past weekend was really fun!!! We didn't travel this weekend, we just ended up staying in Florence. Since my classes end by 10:30 AM on thursday, I felt like we had so much time to do everything! Although it ended up being a pretty relaxing weekend, which is what I think we all needed because we've all been very tired.
Thursday night after I blogged, we went to a really awesome family style dinner place. There were 12 of us, and we all got 2 bottles of wine, bread, 2 big appetizers, and 3 dishes of pasta. There was so much good food, and I was so full, and the best part was that it was only 15 Euros. It's a great place to go with a big group.
On Friday, we decided to do some exploring and we didn't end up accomplishing all that we wanted. But, it was still really fun. We went to the general market, which is basically like the Reading Terminal in Philadelphia. There's tons of fresh food and meat. They have really weird meat there, like cow stomach/brains, and a lot of seafood like octopus and squid. We walked around and just browsed and decided to come back on Saturday to buy things. You mostly have to speak Italian there, so we brushed up a little bit before we went on Saturday. After the market, we walked around the little stands of leather jackets, purses, and scarves. It's called the leather market and it's a lot cheaper than buying leather in the actual stores. I'm not sure that it's real leather but it looks nice enough. We then decided to go back to the Pitti Palace and try to see the Boboli gardens which are supposed to be very pretty. We got there around 4:30 only to find out they had closed at 3:30. We were bummed, but we finished walking through the parts of the museum we hadn't seen. We went home, made dinner, relaxed, and then caught up on our sleep.
On Saturday, we went back to the market and bought a few things. My italian was awful, so I mostly resorted to pointing to things... they get mad if you touch anything. I bought some strawberries, a tomato, and a pepper all for only 1.75 Euros, which was really cheap. After that we stopped by the leather market and I bought a new purse. I managed to haggle down the price from 18 to 15 Euros so I was pretty happy about that. We found a supermarket really close to us when we were walking home a different way! We've been going to one that is about 20 minutes away and now this one is only about 5, so it will be way easier. We then decided to go the the museum called Academia which has the David sculpture in it. I was somewhat forcing myself to go there because I just thought the David was just some statue that everyone over-exaggerates and I was only forcing myself to go just because I had heard so much about it, but I wasn't expecting too much. Instead, I was blown away by how unbelievable it was. It was HUGE and it was so beautiful. I was so blown away by how human-like it looked and wondered how Michelangelo carved it. It was definitely worth seeing.
On Sunday, we went to a futbol game!!! We walked to a breakfast place and met up with "Florence for Fun" which we ordered our tickets from. They were really cheap tickets and we went with other Americans. We grabbed breakfast before we went and they had bagels!!! It was so nice to have a bagel again. It's really hard to find a bagel here, they really only have croissants. Then we walked to the stadium. We watched Fiorentina vs. Napoli. It was a good game, and luckily it only rained for about 20 minutes when we thought it would rain the whole entire time. The game ended in a tie, 1-1. The fans were so crazy and really into the game. There was a whole line of security guards standing in between the two team's fans, most likely so they didn't start fighting each other. After that, we went home and finished our homework!
Upcoming Plans:
This weekend (Jan 25-27): School trip to Chianti on Friday, then Siena and San Gimignano on Saturday. We talked about maybe Piza on Sunday, but we haven't planned anything.
Next weekend (Feb 1-3): Opera trip on Friday, then the Venice Carnivale on Saturday! We also talked about doing Pisa this weekend, but are still figuring things out.
Feb 7-10: We might be going to Interlaken, Switzerland, which is the alps!! We would do it with a group trip, and we get round trip bus (8 hour ride) and hostel included in the price. There is a lot to do there, such as ice skating, skiing, skydiving, bungee jumping, snowshoeing, etc. I was considering doing night sledding, ice skating, chocolate show, and a day trip to Zurich. We haven't booked this yet but I think we are close to doing it! I think we will be getting a discount since we have a large group of us going.
Feb 15-17: I officially booked my flight to Paris!!! I didn't think I really wanted to go to France that badly, but now I am so excited. I am leaving Friday morning and getting to Paris at 9 AM. It's only a two hour plane ride. I'm hoping to see the eiffel tower, and the louvre, and Versailles. We come back to Florence on Sunday afternoon. It should be a really fun weekend.
Ciaoooo!
Thursday, January 17, 2013
I haven't blogged in like 4 days! Haha I've been so busy. This week was good, and very busy. I like all of my classes. It's a lot different here because there are some exams in my classes, but mostly papers. I'm used to just exams with my business major. My italian class is awesome, instead of just learning vocabulary like most level 1 language courses, we've been really immersed into it right away. He's been teaching us all the terms we should know as we learn to get around Florence. I've been trying to use as much as I can when I'm ordering food, and in stores. Yesterday, two people came up to me in the stores and spoke Italian so I was excited that maybe I kind of look like I fit in.
My other classes are good too. My identity and culture class is a sociology class where we compare Italian and American cultures, so it's interesting and fun. I'm also taking Family Business in Italy, and we actually already took a field trip to the Gucci Museum (who knew they had a museum?!). It was very classy and obviously all of the handbags and luggage were all very elegant. It's kind of crazy to me that they actually have a museum of Gucci. It was cool though because Gucci started out as a family business. My last class is called story of the city, and I have it twice for 90 minutes each on wednesday. The first class is learning about the history of the city, which is interesting. I also feel somewhat stupid because I haven't taken a history class since high school! The second class of the day is used to for field trips around the city. It seems like it's going to be really cool and hopefully I will learn a lot.
We climbed up duomo which is the dome part of the cathedral today. Earlier this week we climbed the bell tower that is right next to the duomo. The bell tower was 414 stairs, and the views were really awesome. The dome allows you to be a little bit higher up. The dome is cool because when you climb it, you walk right under the ceiling paintings to you're able to see them close up. They had some weird creepy paintings on the top of the cathedral, but it just blows my mind how they even got up there to paint it, let alone paint it really well. The dome was 463 stairs and definitely tiring, but so worth it. The bell tower and the dome have the tiniest stairways that you have to go up and down on the same one, but it's very old and fascinating. At the top of the dome, we met some people who are in a home-stay program, meaning they have a host family and they are staying there while going to school at their program. They were really nice and they told us they were going to a soccer game on Sunday, which now we are thinking about probably doing! They were really cool and we might even hang out with them later. Because they are living with host families, they know a lot more of the local places to go.
After we went to the duomo, we found the best gelato we've had yet. I got dark chocolate and crema la grom. Crema la grom was chocolate and cookies and pure deliciousness. I got it in a cone and it was only 2.50 Euros. We will definitely be going back there. Speaking of delicious food, there's a restaurant right below us and I finally grabbed some take out there for dinner last night. I got lasagna and potatoes for only 5 Euros and it lasted me two meals. It was really great lasagna. I feel like now that I know how good and cheap this place is that I won't be cooking as much. The restaurants are weird here because they open at 7PM for dinner and I'm usually hungry before that so it's sometimes frustrating.
It's really awesome being done classes by 10:30 AM on thursday, because it leaves us so much time to do other activities and explore more of Florence!
Upcoming Plans:
This weekend (Jan 18-20): Check out some more museums. The kids we met told us how they are going to try and stay in Florence for the first month and do limited traveling because the museums become very crowded in February with tourists. I'm really glad they told us that because now we will try and do as many museums as possible! We were also considering a trip to Pisa for a day this weekend, but we haven't planned anything yet. We definitely are also trying to go to the soccer game on sunday!
Next weekend (Jan 25-27): Friday, we have a free school trip to Chianti which is more out in the countryside. We get to do wine tasting and it should be a good time. Saturday, we are doing another school trip to Siena and San Gimignano which will be cool. It's nice to have already organized trips.
The weekend after (Feb 1-3): The school's opera trip got moved to the 1st and was originally full, but now that they changed the date, people already had other plans. The opera was originally 75 Euros, but now is only 10! They had spots so we signed up to do that on February 1st. The 2nd is the Venice Carnivale and that should also be really fun.
I'm loving Firenze! I just don't know when I'm going to have time to do work!
My other classes are good too. My identity and culture class is a sociology class where we compare Italian and American cultures, so it's interesting and fun. I'm also taking Family Business in Italy, and we actually already took a field trip to the Gucci Museum (who knew they had a museum?!). It was very classy and obviously all of the handbags and luggage were all very elegant. It's kind of crazy to me that they actually have a museum of Gucci. It was cool though because Gucci started out as a family business. My last class is called story of the city, and I have it twice for 90 minutes each on wednesday. The first class is learning about the history of the city, which is interesting. I also feel somewhat stupid because I haven't taken a history class since high school! The second class of the day is used to for field trips around the city. It seems like it's going to be really cool and hopefully I will learn a lot.
We climbed up duomo which is the dome part of the cathedral today. Earlier this week we climbed the bell tower that is right next to the duomo. The bell tower was 414 stairs, and the views were really awesome. The dome allows you to be a little bit higher up. The dome is cool because when you climb it, you walk right under the ceiling paintings to you're able to see them close up. They had some weird creepy paintings on the top of the cathedral, but it just blows my mind how they even got up there to paint it, let alone paint it really well. The dome was 463 stairs and definitely tiring, but so worth it. The bell tower and the dome have the tiniest stairways that you have to go up and down on the same one, but it's very old and fascinating. At the top of the dome, we met some people who are in a home-stay program, meaning they have a host family and they are staying there while going to school at their program. They were really nice and they told us they were going to a soccer game on Sunday, which now we are thinking about probably doing! They were really cool and we might even hang out with them later. Because they are living with host families, they know a lot more of the local places to go.
After we went to the duomo, we found the best gelato we've had yet. I got dark chocolate and crema la grom. Crema la grom was chocolate and cookies and pure deliciousness. I got it in a cone and it was only 2.50 Euros. We will definitely be going back there. Speaking of delicious food, there's a restaurant right below us and I finally grabbed some take out there for dinner last night. I got lasagna and potatoes for only 5 Euros and it lasted me two meals. It was really great lasagna. I feel like now that I know how good and cheap this place is that I won't be cooking as much. The restaurants are weird here because they open at 7PM for dinner and I'm usually hungry before that so it's sometimes frustrating.
It's really awesome being done classes by 10:30 AM on thursday, because it leaves us so much time to do other activities and explore more of Florence!
Upcoming Plans:
This weekend (Jan 18-20): Check out some more museums. The kids we met told us how they are going to try and stay in Florence for the first month and do limited traveling because the museums become very crowded in February with tourists. I'm really glad they told us that because now we will try and do as many museums as possible! We were also considering a trip to Pisa for a day this weekend, but we haven't planned anything yet. We definitely are also trying to go to the soccer game on sunday!
Next weekend (Jan 25-27): Friday, we have a free school trip to Chianti which is more out in the countryside. We get to do wine tasting and it should be a good time. Saturday, we are doing another school trip to Siena and San Gimignano which will be cool. It's nice to have already organized trips.
The weekend after (Feb 1-3): The school's opera trip got moved to the 1st and was originally full, but now that they changed the date, people already had other plans. The opera was originally 75 Euros, but now is only 10! They had spots so we signed up to do that on February 1st. The 2nd is the Venice Carnivale and that should also be really fun.
I'm loving Firenze! I just don't know when I'm going to have time to do work!
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Today, I'm starting to become a little less jet-lagged Some of my roommates and I woke up around noon, and we walked to the Palazzo Pitti. Palazzo Pitti is an awesome museum, and with the school we received a museum card for all the museums in Florence and we can go to any of them for free. Palazzo Pitti, also called the Pitti Palace, is an enormous palace owned by the Medici family. The Medici family bought it and it was the residence of the ruling families of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. In the 1700s, Napoleon took it over and used it as a power base. The palace was unbelievable. We were able to see the actual rooms they used for audiences, guests, bedrooms, and bathrooms. The rooms were unreal, there was so much beautiful painting and sculptures in every room. The ceilings in the palace were my favorite part because it's amazing they were able to paint so beautifully. I can see why Florence is very well known for its art.
In the palace, we were also able to see some artwork, jewelry, modern art, and a lot of the kitchenware they used. Everything was so detailed and there was a lot of diamonds, gold, and ebony used. It's crazy to think that they were so rich. It's also really cool being in the palace and knowing that people hundreds of years ago also were in that room. My favorite room was a room they used for events, which was filled with at least 30 chandeliers. The only thing I hated about this trip was that we weren't allowed to use our cameras in the museum, and I would love to show everyone how beautiful it was. However, we did manage to sneak a few pictures! Hopefully I can take my family and Matthew when they come to visit! We weren't able to do the whole palace in one day so we will definitely have to go back. There is a whole huge garden area behind the palace that we tried to go look at, but it was locked. We weren't that bummed because it was really rainy and cold today.
After we left the museum, we stopped by a ristorante and had a nice dinner. I got penne with a spicy sauce and it was awesome. It was a little cute place with just the older man taking orders and the wife bringing out the food. After dinner, we stopped to get some gelato! I got caramel and chocolate flavors together and it was delizioso! We are now finally home and just relaxing and getting ready for class tomorrow. My first class is at 9:30 which means I have to get up early.
Ciao ciao
In the palace, we were also able to see some artwork, jewelry, modern art, and a lot of the kitchenware they used. Everything was so detailed and there was a lot of diamonds, gold, and ebony used. It's crazy to think that they were so rich. It's also really cool being in the palace and knowing that people hundreds of years ago also were in that room. My favorite room was a room they used for events, which was filled with at least 30 chandeliers. The only thing I hated about this trip was that we weren't allowed to use our cameras in the museum, and I would love to show everyone how beautiful it was. However, we did manage to sneak a few pictures! Hopefully I can take my family and Matthew when they come to visit! We weren't able to do the whole palace in one day so we will definitely have to go back. There is a whole huge garden area behind the palace that we tried to go look at, but it was locked. We weren't that bummed because it was really rainy and cold today.
After we left the museum, we stopped by a ristorante and had a nice dinner. I got penne with a spicy sauce and it was awesome. It was a little cute place with just the older man taking orders and the wife bringing out the food. After dinner, we stopped to get some gelato! I got caramel and chocolate flavors together and it was delizioso! We are now finally home and just relaxing and getting ready for class tomorrow. My first class is at 9:30 which means I have to get up early.
Ciao ciao
Friday, January 11, 2013
I finally have time to actually start blogging! I arrived on Tuesday morning, and brought to my apartment from the airport. The apartment is nice! It's probably bigger than my apartment at Penn State. The buildings are really old, but they're so beautiful. Florence is a really pretty city full of history and art and beautiful buildings. I love being able to walk around and know that I get to live here for four months! The first night was tough, it's pretty overwhelming being in a whole different country. But, the second night was fun and a little easier to handle. I'm still pretty exhausted from traveling, but hopefully I get on their schedule soon.
The first day, I moved into our apartment, which is pretty nice. There is 3 bedrooms, a bathroom, and a kitchen. We unfortunately don't have a living room with couches, but our kitchen is pretty modern and large compared to everyone else's. The buildings are so old and different here. The radiator in our room didn't work the first night, so it was a little cold, but now it's fixed. The buildings are definitely different here. We have to open the window after we shower for about 15 minutes, so mold doesn't start to grow. They have trash bins underground and that's where we have to take the trash.
Yesterday, we had our first day of orientation. It was a lot of boring presentations. After we got dinner at a small restaurant that had great gnocchi. There are so many ridiculously cute small restaurants. They never seem crowed because I think there are so many options for places to eat. Also, we are in a very high end location in Firenze. There are so many expensive stores, including Prada, Gucci, etc. We are definitely going to have to shop at the cheaper markets. Yesterday we went to a few different Irish bars with some people in our program. It was fun, but not a lot of Italians go to those bars.
Today was our last day or orientation! We got a lot of things accomplished today. At orientation, we learned about schools trips, and volunteer activities. I also got my schedule, finally:
monday:
italian 9:30-10:30 AM
identity & culture in italy - 1-2:30
PM
family business in italy - 3-4:30 PM
tuesday:
italian 9:30-10:30 AM
family business in italy 4:30-6PM
wednesday:
italian 9:30-10:30 AM
story of the city 11-12:30
identity & culture- 1-2:30 PM
story of the city - 4:45-6:15 PM
thursday:
italian 9:30- 10:30 AMFor our lunch break, we went to this awesome pizza place across the river called Gustopizza. It was really great pizza, so I’m sure we will be going back. Later that day, we got our books and finally our SIM cards! Hopefully the phones work out!!!
Ciao
Hi everyone!!!
I'll hopefully be blogging a bunch from here and posting pictures. I'll also be posting pictures to facebook! It's a lot to keep up with but I'm going to do my best. Currently I am in Florence!! (actually it's called Firenze). It is amazingly beautiful here; every building just looks so perfect and cute. I will be posting about my first two days and pictures soon! Ciao!
I'll hopefully be blogging a bunch from here and posting pictures. I'll also be posting pictures to facebook! It's a lot to keep up with but I'm going to do my best. Currently I am in Florence!! (actually it's called Firenze). It is amazingly beautiful here; every building just looks so perfect and cute. I will be posting about my first two days and pictures soon! Ciao!
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