Leaving the Florence in 11 hours.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

I am leaving Florence in 2 days. Crazy talk, I know.

Last week in Florence.

So I am kind of freaking out over here. I have less than week left in this amazing country, no food left, and two giant empty suitcases. Its been raining for 2 days and apparently its going to keep raining until this sunday. Florence is sad that we're leaving, breakups are never easy. For this week I will be taking finals and showing my photos at an art exhibition at the school, which I am really looking forward too. I changed my theme completely to "windows", we'll see how it goes...
Can't wait to see all my people :)

Oh I forgot to tell you guys about the place my friend Luigi took us in the Chianti region. It was called Mac Dario and is owned by a world renowned butcher, Dario Cecchini. Not to brag, but ANTHONY BOURDAIN HAS GONE THERE 3 TIMES. We ate an ungodly amount of meat. steak tartar, 2 pork dishes, meatloaf, hamburgers, chianti butter (basically lard with herbs=amazing). Not to mention the bread, vegetables, french fries, coffee, WINE, WINE, WINE, and dessert liqueurs.

Pics from lunch will come soon, my computer is freaking out!

Photos

Today is a good day. Here are some pictures for my final photography exhibition. Yea, I'm gonna be famous and you get a sneak preview.

The Almafi Coast.

This weekend was full of fever and fun (I was kinda sick). A few months ago I signed up for a trip to the Almafi coast which included Sorrento, Capri, Positano and Pompeii. Of course when you do things like this you risk rain and poo conditions. This is exactly what happened to us this weekend but we still had some luck and sunshine. We left thursday night around 7 and got to our hotel around 230 in the morning. yipee. woke up the next morning around 7 and headed to the island of Capri by ferry. LIndsay, Melissa and I signed up for a boat tour which ended up being the highlight of the day. It was a little overcast, but the views were amazing. We went through huge rocks in the middle of the sea and then into a small cave. The cave part was actually pretty funny, its called "the blue grotto". You get off the main boat and hop into a smaller row boat with one man rowing (a total babe in our case). he brings you into the cave, but in order to get in you literally need to lay down in the boat, the opening is so small. Inside, a small amount of light enters from the bottom giving the water this amazing blue color. The whole tour of the grotto lasted 5 minutes, but it was worth every euro.
The next day we went to Positano to the beach! and luckily the weather was gorgeous. We had to take a different bus because you need to have a special license to drive along the cliffs, yea its intense. It was a great day, we ate a slice of pizza, napoli style, and laid on the beach the entire day. For dinner we ate bruschetta and pasta with tomatoes freshly picked from the mans garden, it was delicious!
Sunday, in the pouring rain, we trekked to pompeii. Ironically, a city that was destroyed by a volcano. at this point we were just hearing about all the flight cancellations that our friends were dealing with. anywhos, pompeii was really interesting and I got a freshly squeezed orange juice/ lemon ice concoction on the way out.
Overall, great weekend, but florence still wins :)

Easter and Cinque Terre and Boboli Gardens.

So a lot has been going on here since the last time I posted. Easter happened, which was a really cool thing to experience in one of the most catholic countries. I went to a mass down the road and shortly after went to see this event that takes place every easter near the cathedral (the duomo). There were hundreds of people crammed in and around the church to get a glimpse of what is basically a religious fireworks show/celebration. Its called Scoppio del Carro, which means explosion of the cart, aka its just a reason to light things on fire, so fun. After that, we had a big brunch with people from our building, it was delicious! Then of course the food coma occurred and everyone left. typical.
Ooooooook so next up Cinque terre, the most beautious place in the world and my new obsession. Cinque terre is 5 towns that are all connected and along the coast and most people go there to hike them. It is also known for inventing foccacia bread and pesto. We woke up that morning at 5, put our spandex on and we were ready. The hike route we took was 9km long which is about 6 miles, yea I'm athletic, I get that a lot... maybe just not with the long jump event... anywho so we hiked our little buns off for about 7 hours up and down the hills in what looked like something out of a Jeff Corwin adventure. There were lizards and frogs and birds and crocodiles, no crocodiles, but mountain lions, no mountain lions, but seriously it was awesome. The weather was amazing too, not a cloud in the sky. it was a really great day and i'm going back.
Next was our little picnic at the Boboli gardens which is right in Florence at the Pitti palace museum. It was another beautiful day, filled with paninis and gelato. Check out the pics.
ALERT. I only have three weeks left until I have to get a job noooooo!

Ciao! Car