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

Ballerina Flower.

I am alive.

Just so everyone knows I am alive and I am in the most beautious city ever!
Still eating my way through Florence, one gelato a day...
Went on a little adventure this past weekend to Orvieto, a city in between Rome and Florence. Very cool place.
Time is flying by with a little more than a month to go! Gotta go! Ciao!
Here are some pics of the square that I live next to.

The Motherland

This spring break was probably the best one i've ever had. I went to belgium this past thursday for a crazy weekend of food family and carnaval! I ate everything belgian that I had missed.. here goes: french fries with mayonnaise, waffles (no brainer), chocolate, homemade jam, loaves of bread, beer, and so much more. I also got to see almost all of my family (cousins, aunts, uncles, babies everywhere) aaaaaaand on saturday my family had a little get together, out of nowhere my dad walks through the door! I was flipping out and I'm pretty sure everyone in the room was crying.
Carnaval was hilarious, people paraded down the streets in groups some dressed up as blow up santas, some michael jacksons. I'm so glad I finally got to experience the carnaval of Welkenraedt with my family :) vive la belgique!

Solo adventure.

So today I went on a solo adventure and it was beyond awesome. I started off at this little hole in the wall panini place to grab a sandwich, one of my favorites salami and artichokes. Popped that in my bag o' books (yes, I can read) and I was on my way to the top. My goal was Palazzo Michelangelo.... eventually I made it there, but it was my last stop. I started walking up this steep and narrow road lined with old colorful apartments, one of them was Galileo's house COOL! Once I got to the top I turned around just to see how high I had walked and I could see the snow capped mountains on the outskirts of florence. I was speechless and snapping pictures like a crazy woman.
Approximately 10 minutes later I continued on my journey into the unknown, eventually coming across a museum, a Medici fortress and a garden. All within feet of each other. The views kept getting better the farther up I got. The smaller roads that took me to a main road and all of the bright apartments made me seriously consider living in Italy (But don't worry i'll come home first) Everything has so much character I love it. Next I found a homeless man sleeping behind a wall that looked like a door in the woods (scared the crap out of me), a baroque church with really interesting frescos inside, and Palazzo Michelangelo. I ended my day with a cappuccino from my favorite coffee shop and a funny book. Well, I'm off to the jazz club. This is one WILD spring break.

Roma.

Rome was such a strange experience, there were ruins everywhere we went. We would be walking and then boom ancient ruins, no biggie, just a couple thousand years old. We crammed everything into one big day, the Colosseum, the Arch of Constantine, the Trevi fountain, the Sistine Chapel, Rafael's frescos (including the School of Athens!!), Religious works by Marc Chagral and Dali, Vatican City, we even stopped into a small church to see a famous Caravaggio painting, and managed to squeeze in gelato of course. Belgium in 2 days!

I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS CITY

Hi. So i really love it here and i think i'll stay. Forever. Everyone except for Lindsay and I left on spring break. They're all going to Spain, Paris, Prague, etc etc. I am more than happy to be staying in Florence and exploring every square inch of it! Today we discovered where to get some of the absolute best (and most expensive.. we realized after) chocolate I have ever had. I got these pistachio squares and little chocolate covered hazelnuts, I swear I went weak at the knees. Then he gave us a sample of the gelato. I'm drooling, I have to change the subject. So after that we went to a couple of really cool shops, one had a ton of mod dresses with funky patterns and all of it looked like it had been made with love.
I think one of the reasons why I love it so much here is because everything from the clothes to the buildings revolves around quality and detail. This revelation hit me yesterday when walking back from dinner around 10pm. We were passing the duomo, like we do everyday, but last night it looked so beautiful. Maybe it was the wine at dinner, who knows, but I literally stopped in front of it and just stared for a good 20 minutes. The detail on that building is incredible and the closer I got the more I saw. Its just amazing to think that people actually created something that beautiful with their hands.
Well, I must go, my chocolate awaits.
Ciao!

Mr. Golden Sun

Ok so after one week of rain rain rain, the weather has become ridiculously beautiful. Not to rub it in, but its been in the 50s since thursday. I have been taking full advantage of this. We've been discovering more awesome places to study/eat/drink. Today, to help us study with midterms, lindsay and I went to a bookstore/cafeish thing and got DEElicious cappucinos, strolled around and took some cool pics. By the way, thanks again santa for my camera. :o)
Ciao!

Siena.

This weekend was full of fun fun fun. Sunday we decided to take a little day trip to Siena which was a great idea. It took us an hour and a half to get there, which is good considering we had no idea what we were doing. We had a little lunch and just walked around the cute town center. Everything was very medieval looking there exposed brick everywhere and narrow streets. We also visited the duomo of the city which was beautiful, kind of seemed like it was in the middle of nowhere, which i loved. Of course there we saw so many more beautiful things, but im feeling lazy. it was a great weekend. i love italy.