first cooking class!

This is going to be a short post a) because its late and b) because I don't have a lot to say. In my first class today I learned a lot and we took an interesting tour of the city and in my second class we saw Santa Maria Novella church which I have never seen before! There were a lot of chapels in that church, all of which I found very interesting! I also had my first cooking class today which was so much fun!! We made a risotto, pesto (which I couldn't eat because of the nuts :( ), a Fratella?, and a chocolate cake!! We split up into four groups, and my group made the risotto!! It was so good!! Then we just hung out, and now I'm going to bed once I do my quick reading for my class tomorrow morning! (I hope its quick!!) I'll write more tomorrow, and I'm sure I'll have time to upload some pictures on thursday, because we have no class. For those of you who care, I also got to see two of the guys from Jersey shore today. I don't like that show, but it just excites me because I know they're kind of famous. Tomorrow in my morning class we're seeing San Lorenzo church, and things in that area, which I have never seen before, but pass by multiple times on my way to class everyday and I can not wait to see inside!!

--Amy

First day of classes

I had my first class, the quarters of Florence, today at 9 am. I know that I'm going to love this class! My professor is this funny Italian guy who is just so enthusiastic about everything he talks about and he goes on these little side rants which make the class all the more entertaining. We're going on site visits everyday which means less of a chance of me falling asleep during the 2 1/2 hours! I had an hour lunch break before my next class, Italian Renaissance Civilization and Culture. This class was not quite as good and it took all of my energy to unsuccessfully not fall asleep. You'd think this would be my favorite class, but the professor is dull and the room is really hot and I already sat through a long class. We go on a few site visits in this class, but mostly to the same places and not quite as frequently, but thats ok! I had to run a few errands after that and then I skyped with my parents and grandma before doing some homework and going to dinner with a bunch of the girls. Tomorrow in my morning class we're going to San Lorenzo church and the places close by there and we're going to the Santa Maria Novella church in my second class. I'm really excited because I've never been to either of these churches and I've always wanted to. But for now I'm gonna go to bed early because I haven't been and hopefully I can sleep off whatever is making my throat hurt so I don't get sick!! goodnight! 

--Amy

Pisa and Lucca

We started off today by getting on a bus and traveling to Lucca. I have never been there before and it was absolutely beautiful. It's like a mini version of Florence, because it has a similar feel, but is much smaller and still has all of the original city walls. However, the walls are so thick that they have made the top of the wall into a park with a paved path surrounding the city. We rode our bikes around the city on that path, and it was so much fun and so beautiful!! Lucca is my new favorite city in Italy!!! We had a picnic lunch on the wall as well before taking the bus to Pisa. All we did in Pisa was see the leaning tower and the Cathedral and baptistery. There were so many tourists there it was crazy!!! But seeing the leaning tower was amazing. We came back and I made my pasta sauce and then we got gelatto and now we're going to bed because its late here and we have our first classes tomorrow!! I know I said I would upload some pictures today, but there's not really any that I like enough to upload. I'll work on that in the next few days. In the meantime I'll try to upload some pictures to facebook!!

--Amy

Siena

Today we met at 8 and took a bus to Siena. On our way, we stopped at a little town called Montiriggioni. It was used as the safety town for Siena against battles with Florence in the middle ages. It was a tiny town, but absolutely beautiful!! We only stayed for about an hour, but it was well worth the stop! In Siena, we took a tour of the town and then had a delicious lunch at a small restaurant. Then we toured the duomo, which I have already seen twice, but it even took my breath away the third time!! On our way back to the city, we stopped at a small church on the hill above the city near piazzale michelangelo. For dinner we found some cheap pizza, and now we're on our way to bed after a long day! I promise I'll upload some pictures tomorrow! I just put some on my computer, so it will happen tomorrow along with the pictures from Pisa and Lucca tomorrow!!

--Amy

orientation day

This morning we had to be at orientation early and that took a good portion of the day. Then we were tired and some of us took a quick nap before grocery shopping. We just hung out for the rest of the day because we were tired. However, we had our opening dinner for the school (last night was for our program) in the palazzo Borghese, which was delicious and beautiful. Most of our group decided we wanted to go to the gelatto festival, however, we got lost on the way and half of the group decided to just head back, but a few of us went on and it was beautiful and so worth it!! We're just getting back and have to get up early to go to Siena tomorrow, so this is a quick post, sorry. Hopefully I'll start taking more pictures soon, so I have some to post for you guys!!! keep reading and commenting please, I'd love to hear from you guys!!!! I'm having such a great time and meeting a lot of awesome people!! Miss you all!!!! 

--Amy

Move-in day!

As the title implies, today we moved into our apartments and everyone else showed up!! The apartment is pretty cool, pretty much what you would expect. Two bedrooms, a decent sized kitchen, a bathroom, and in the hallways there are some couches. We are in one of the three apartments that is separate from the rest of the group. However, we have a nice patio and it connects our apartment to the guys apartment, which has been nice since now we've gotten to know the five of them pretty well. We didn't do anything too exciting today, just moved in and got an introduction to some of the funky things about living in an old building. We all ate dinner together at a nice restaurant where we had a 3 course meal plus dessert, and the food was AMAZING!!! Our first course was a small piece of bruschetta (mom ours is better) and some cheese/ quiche type thing which was actually really good, but I'm not sure what was inside of it and I probably don't want to... the next course was a delicious pasta in a marina sauce, and the final course was ham on potatoes. I'm not really sure what we had for dessert but it moved and was white and we haven't decided if we liked it or not, but we did like the chocolate sauce that it was on top of!! This took two and a half hours (and it didn't start until 8) and then we took our walking tour of the city which was fantastic. When we got into the piazza della signoria there was a huge orchestra playing along with opera singers, and the whole city was just absolutely beautiful at night! Some of us stopped for gelato at a legendary gelattaria and it was really good! But for now its 12:30 and we have our orientation tomorrow at 9, so we're going to bed!! good night!

--Amy

First day

So after sleeping for 14 hours, I am almost over my jet lag. I meandered through the city this morning and met up with my aunt for a quick walk through the city and lunch. It is quite hot here so we went for some gelato. I have never actually been able to taste the caffeine in chocolate before, but I sure did today! It was surprisingly good, but was the chocolate equivalent of an espresso shot!! It was so hot, that after wandering back to my hostel I needed a quick nap, and only went back out for dinner. 

As a surprising turn of events, three of the other girls in my room go to UNC and are in the equivalent program to the program I'm in so they will be living right down the street from me and taking classes at the same school throughout the month!! And they were also on the same flight as four other girls from my program that I ran into this morning! 

Since I have to check out at 10, I should probably get to bed early again. Tomorrow will be a busy day and things will just keep getting busier, but I will continue to try to write everyday for the first week or so until things get repetitive after classes start, and I'll post pictures once I have some!! 

--Amy

Ciao firenze!

So after over 20 hours of traveling, I'm finally here!! Everything went fairly smoothly, although I didn't sleep much on the plane. The flight from paris to milan was absolutely beautiful because we were flying over the alps most of the time. I had to sit around in the train station in milan for a while for my train which was boring because there was nowhere to sit. But all in all it was a fairly stress-free trip, just tiring!! Now I'm here staying in a giant hostel and I don't know anyone, but on thursday everyone else shows up and I move into my apartment, but for now I'm going to find some food and water and then go to sleep! I'll write again in a few days once interesting things start happening!

--Amy

Tomorrow!!

I can't believe tomorrow is the day I leave!! I guess I'm kind of ready. I'm so excited to go, but I'm not ready to leave Vermont again for 6 weeks, considering that I just got here after being away for 5 months.

For those of you who care, we'll be leaving our house in the 11:30-12ish time frame to drive up to Montreal. I have a 5:20 flight from Montreal to Paris, 4 hour layover in Paris, then I fly to Milan where I will catch a train to Florence. Roughly 21 hours of traveling!!

Well, I should probably get back to "packing" and whatnot but I just wanted to put up one more post before I leave! I'll post again once I get there.

--Amy