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.

More random adventures.

These past couple days have been a real hoot and half. Many new places have been discovered and I took my first solo journey outside of Florence, to Bologna! I met up with my cousin Andre and he took me out to his favorite pizza place. The pizza was literally bigger than the plate...I ate all of it...it was a thin crust ok?
Last night we decided to try out the italian aperitivo, which is where you go between the hours of 6-9 for a drink or drinks.. once you buy a drink you can go to the counter to a little buffet for munchies that are included! We went to this place called Rex, looked like a funky coffee shop, comfy chairs and cool music. Then we went to a jazz club!! I am an official member now of this jazz club. It was a basement like setting and the bands/singers that played were sooo good! I'm really excited to go back.
aaaaaand today we went to the Salvatore Ferragamo museum. amazing amazing. There were shoes that belonged to marilyn monroe and audrey hepburn. tons of beautiful shoes and tons of inspiration in that place.
It is currently pouring rain like I have never seen before, but that won't stop me. boo-yah.

VENICE!

Official notice, Venice is thee most beautiful city I have been to so far.It was like walking through a painting. We left on Saturday for carnavale and it was freezing but sunny sunny sunny! It was so strange at the same time. There were no cars, just boats which was really weird to see....or not to see.. There were little bridges and narrow canals throughout the whole city that the cute little gondoliers go through. We had quite the adventure when trying to get to the island of Murano, where the glass is made. There is a "water bus" that takes you to all of the locations in Venice, so we bought a pass to use for the whole day and hopped on the bus to murano...dun dun dun. We left when the sun was setting, and 40 minutes later it was dark and we still weren't there. Then, we made a stop along the way that looked like it was straight out of a horror film. The sign right next to the port said in neon lights "something strange happened here." so that was our cue to turn around, never did make it to the island of Murano.. but we tried. After that little adventure we were hungry so we got some dinner, drank some vin brulee (hot spiced wine) then met some cool french people in the center where the main part of carnavale was taking place. The costumes and masks were awesome!! I took a million pictures! heres a few from the crazy day.
Ciao!
Car

Ciao ciao

Ciao everyone! Everything is going great in Italia, just bought my first leather bag today :) What is really awesome is that we get a weekly stipend, its like christmas once a week. All my classes are going really well, sometimes I forget that we're actually in class because usually its in a museum, or on the street for photography class. We're going to Venice tomorrow for carnival, hopefully it''ll be sunny. It's been rainy and cold lately, we've been living off soup and hot chocolate. I'll be back to update tomorrow and it'll be better I promise. toodles!

So much chocolate so little time.

This weekend was basically all about chocolate. We eventually ate it in all of its possible forms, but started our rainy day outing with hot chocolate (aka Italy's hot chocolate is basically a melted chocolate bar). Oh I forgot to mention where we got all of this chocolate. THE CHOCOLATE FAIR! It was basically an outdoor chocolate factory. There were all sorts of vendors selling their chocolate, including truffles, chocolate toys, chocolate covered fruit, hot chocolate, chocolate bars, chocolate salami, and so much more. It was beautiful.
Still can't believe I live here...
Car

"I'm a vegetarian, but I eat prosciutto"

"I'm a vegetarian, but I eat prosciutto". Yes this is what my italian teacher told us...only in italy...
I am having an amazing amazing time and eating way too much gelato. No classes on fridays makes time flllllly by, we've already been here for 3 weeks! yikes!
Today I booked my trip to the Almafi coast where we'll be going in april, along with pompei and sorrento. I CANT WAIT! aaaand i officially am going to belgium to visit the cousins and fam over our spring break in march!
Did I mention that there is a chocolate festival tomorrow? Im freaking out over here. and my ADD is kicking into high gear. perfect. I just played a game of pick up sticks with the spaghetti I dropped and the water is overflowing. AH! sorry for this scatterbrained message. ciaO!