Just Call Me VIP

It hasn't quite hit me yet that I only have one more full day left in Florence. The first week I was here I felt like time was going by so slowly. But 42 days later, this trip has gone by faster than I ever could have imagined. There are so many things that I am looking forward to when I get home like actually seeing the faces of the ones I care about in person and getting back to a familiar territory. That was something I longed for my first weeks in Florence, but now the hustle of Florence living is my new familiar. As I'm writing this, I'm truthfully getting sad about leaving. I'm going to miss the sound of Vespas driving down the street or walking twenty minutes to and from class or passing by something as beautiful and historic as the Duomo everyday. I have been immersed in a city full of history and beauty for six weeks and I pray that I took advantage of every second that I had here.

Last night, after a day of shopping for friends, family, and myself,  I had Gusta Pizza for the last time until I come back again. We went out with our two roommates Darcy and Joanna and their group of friends. Each of us had our own bottle of wine and ate, drank and laughed for a the entire night. We went to our friend Mallorie's apartment to hang out before going to the disco (I feel corny for calling it that). And I sure am glad that I waited until one of my last night's in Florence to see her apartment because jealousy flushed over me at the sight of how large and spacious her apartment is. The main rooms in my apartment are a miniature sized kitchen and a "living room" that only has a love seat in it. But Mallorie's apartment has all sorts of spacious rooms and kitchens and get this, a backyard with orange trees that is three times the size of our apartment alone. That apartment does not have A/C either which makes me feel a little bit better about our small apartment. Bryn and I were hopping bars like it was our job last night. We started off with everyone at Twice, the classy club around the corner from our apartment where we got good priced drinks because their happy hour is from 10-12. Then we hopped on over to Red Garter which was so packed that we literally walked in and said "nope" and walked right back out. Then we went with one of our roommate's friends to Club 21, where she knew some people that let us in for free and let us into the VIP section of the dance floor. HAHA. If you know me, you know that clubbin' is not my scene but last night, clubbin' was everything I had every wanted. I felt like a rockstar being a VIP. Bryn and I danced for what seemed like hours to all the classic club faves. After one too many dance songs, Bryn and I headed home around three, which was three hours after Bryn had said she needed to be home to get rested for her presentation she had this morning. Oops. It was overall one of the most fun nights I have had here.

Love you B!

Our friend who got us into VIP

The view from our VIP perch

It's so insane to think that a little over 48 hours, Mississippi time, I will be back in the states. I have been more than blessed to have the opportunity to come to Italy for six weeks to take classes on things that I love and to have the time of my life. I have loved every single person I have met here and will miss Florence very much. This has been a bit of a sappy post but it may be my last post for my time here. Tomorrow I have my exam, then I have to do a bit more shopping, pack up everything (ugh), and then stay up all night so that I can sleep on that 9 hour flight. I haven't blogged about what I have been making in my classes but I have all my info and can't wait to make everything when I am home. I already told my mom that she could have a tasting party for all of her friends of everything I have learned to make and I'll even provide the wine. It's off to studying for me now but thanks for reading!

Arrivederci!

I've Got Brains AND Smarts

Back for round two: the Amalfi Coast! This past weekend was the best weekend to end my trip on. Bryn, Kim and I went to Capri, Positano, Sorrento, and Pompei with our new roommates Joanna and Darcy. It was about time for us to get to know our new roommates and this was the perfect opportunity.  We left on a six hour bus ride on Thursday night and arrived in Sorrento around one oclock. The hotel we were staying at was not too bad but was definitely not the best. We didn't care because it was just somewhere to lay our heads.

Friday, we woke up to a breakfast of a croissant and a roll that was as hard as a rock, which we later found out would be our breakfast every morning. We then walked down to a ferry that took us to the Isle of Capri. Capri is literally a tall, large rock stuck in the middle of the sea. It was absolutely gorgeous. We took a boat trip around the island where they took us to the incredible blue grotto and showed us many famous people's houses like Georgio Armani. The blue grotto was inside a small cave that we went into by boat. We had to lay down in the boat just to get inside the cave. But inside it was absolutely gorgeous. The water was such a beautiful blue and it was very cool inside. You aren't supposed to jump in the blue grotto but if you coax your boat driver a bit, he will let you. That truthfully means if you tip your boat driver he will let you jump in. I was "girl-on-a-budget" again this weekend so I was content staying in the boat. During the rest of the tour around the island, we made friends with our tour guides who are also from America but northern or western America. This is where the taunting of our southern accents began. The entire rest of the trip we heard "I reckon y'all can do that" or "what are y'all'ss doing?" By the end of it, I was sick of the taunting but we let them have their fun because they are just unaware of how great we have it in the south. :) The rest of the day in Capri we went to the beach where the water was crystal clear and the beach was rocky which took some getting used to. The water was so salty that we could literally float on top, which made for great tanning ha. When we made it back to the hotel, we had dinner, took some showers and decided that we were too exhausted to do anything else. Our other friends came into our room and we just sat and got to know each other better.

Sorrento in the morning

Kim, Myself,  Joanna, Meriwether, and Bryn on the boat

Capri

Capri

Boats around the Blue Grotto 

Inside the Blue Grotto

Capri

Boats anchored in the bay of Capri

Capri beach

Saturday was our chill day. They drove us to Positano which is a cute beach town on the Amalfi coast. The sand here was a grayish-black color and our tour guide warned us that the sand was so hot that it would literally take off the soles of your feet. Sounds fun right? The ground made it so hot that we had to take many breaks from laying out to jump into the water. After a bit of sun, we grabbed some lunch and bought your average "mini-keg" of Heineken beer. I've decided that I straight-up do not like Heineken but because all of us were drinking, it was the most logical drink to get. If you could have seen us, you would have laughed. We were just sitting in a circle around the keg, taking drinks and singing angry girl 90's music to ourselves. As the day went on, I ran into my friend Isabelle and her parents who were vacationing on the Amalfi coast for the weekend. It is always great to see them. After having laid out for a while and getting lots of sun, we headed back to Sorrento to repeat the activities of the night before, except this time we were upstairs with the rest of the group. We bought a few bottles of wine from the restaurant in the hotel and played a card game called "King's Cup" which I call "Captiain...", for those of you who know what I'm talking about.

Positano, Italia

Bride and Groom taking pictures on the beach

Bryn and Joanna with our baby

Good Times

On Sunday, we woke up to our final breakfast of strictly carbs and headed to Pompei. The ruins of Pompei were incredible to see. We had a tour guide that took us through the old Roman town, showing us where the ancient shops and homes of Pompei had been before the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius so many years ago. The saddest part of the tour was him taking us through a room that they just discovered in the last couple hundred years. It was a prostitution house where there were paintings on the walls which was technically an "erotic menu." We were told that going to this brothel for a man was the same price as buying a glass of wine. It was very sad to see and think about. We then went to see the plaster casts of people that were killed by the lava. Pompei was very interesting to see.

Pompei 

Brothel Bed

The Whole Crew 

Plaster cast of someone crouching and crying

While we were at Pompei, we saw a few stray dogs running around the ruins. Our tour guide told us that because of the falling economy in Italy, people have begun leaving their dogs because they can't afford them. This hurt my heart so much to see. It was the first effect I had seen of Italy's falling economy and it hurt me that I couldn't help them.

After we left Pompei, the bus took us half way up Mount Vesuvius where we then hiked to the top. There had been another bus with us and it broke down on the way up, which was quite unfortunate. It put everyone on edge a bit. One of my roommates friend's, Meriwether, had come on the trip with us and on our walk up the volcano, we discovered that we both are involved with Young Life. I didn't even notice how hard the hike was because Meriwether and I were in deep conversation about Young Life the whole way. I always love meeting someone else who has as much of a passion for Young Life as I do. When we got to the top of the volcano, I was surprised to see that the hole was strictly rock. Maybe that was stupid to say but when you walk to the top of a volcano, that wasn't the site I was expecting. We were able to see steam coming from the volcano though which was a bit eery. The view from the top of the mountain over the coast was absolutely gorgeous. It's scenes like that that immediately remind me of how great God is.

the hike up

the inside of the volcano

Kim, Myself, Meriwether, and Darcy withe the coast line in the background

We finally got back onto our buses and were headed home. Every time I return to Florence, I am so happy to be back. It is really strange that this was my last weekend in Florence, seeing as I leave this coming Saturday. The more I think about coming home, the more excited I get.

P.S. I forgot to mention in my last post that I finally helped the pastry chef for my school with that cake. Truthfully, what I had been expecting from him was for me to kind of be the apprentice but what really happened was he pretty much just gave the cake and said go. The cake had to be a book, which first of all is my least favorite thing to draw at Emileigh's. My boss can tell you that's true. I made fresh buttercream and worked with what I had to work with. It was not my favorite cake that I had done but I was happy to do it for the chef.

I'm luckily in Italy at the perfect time because the second week in July is the biggest time of the year for sales. Therefore, tomorrow this girl is going shopping. I have not shopped since I have been here so that means I deserve some good shopping time, right? Well, for now, I hope all is well with everyone at home. Ciao!

One Week Later...

Ciao! Momma bear left on Thursday sadly, but I fortunately will be able to see her again and the rest of the family in about a week now. This last week we were just going and going. I got to show Mom the high-paced lifestyle of Florence.

On Thursday night after Mom got a quick nap, trying to avoid jet-lag, Bryn, Kimberly, Mom and I went to Acqua al Due for dinner. It was a quaint restaurant with a cute atmosphere and delicious food. Acqua al Due is known for their balsamic or blueberry steak. Bryn ordered the balsamic steak and I wanted so badly to have some but I stuck to my new vegetarian ways and went with a pasta dish of course. I had been talking my mom up so much to my roommates that I was so happy for them to meet her. It was great to watch my roommates get to know my mom over dinner. We shared a bottle of wine which all ended up being the favorite of all of us. It was a Nozzole 2009 Chianti Classico. It was a great first night for my mom and I was so happy to finally be with my Mom.

After class on Friday, we finally went on a wine tour through Chianti wine country in Tuscany. It was so much fun and I got to show off my new wine tasting skills to my mom ha! We went to a castle just outside of Florence that looked over multiple vineyards. It was beautiful. They took us through the cellar of the castle that had wine barrels and the owner of the castle's personal wine collection, which was stocked full. We also so very old bottles of wine such as a few 1904 bottles. After the wine tasting at the castle, we went to two other small towns in Chianti wine country, Greve and Castellina, which were just ideal, small Tuscan towns. We then went to yet another small Tuscan town and had a four course meal ending with delicious Tiramisu.

At our wine-tasting castle

Mom and I with the overlook of the vineyard 

1904 wine bottles

Food for Wine-tasting

The wines we tried

All of us with semi-Tuscany in the background

Mom and I

On Saturday, Mom and I did what we like to do best when it comes to touring: we visited some of the churches. We went to Santa Croce which is right near my apartment where you have to wear sleeves and longer shorts. I was unaware of this at first and had to purchase a kimono for $.50 which was practically a hospital gown. The inside of the church was absolutely beautiful. Inside Santa Croce is where Michelangelo and Galileo are buried. So of course we said "hi" and went on our merry way. We spent a while in the church then we went to move Mom into her new hotel. First of all, the receptionists at this hotel were not the kindest people. Secondly, their internet was awful. Thirdly, my mom had booked a single room which customarily in America is one double bed. Unfortunately in Italy it means TWIN BED. I had been planning to stay with my mom while she was here and all of the double rooms in the hotel were booked so we slept in the twin bed for four nights ha! It was hilarious. Poor Mom.

Galileo 

Michelangelo

On Sunday, we woke up early and went on a day trip to Rome. All of us had kind of been dreading going to Rome because we hadn't heard that great things about the actual city but we knew that we had to go because we are in Italy, you have to go to Rome. It was very hot and we did a lot of walking but we saw everything important and were overall glad that we went. I don't really have much to say about Rome other than that. Next time I go there, I will book at least four or five days in order to see everything.

Spanish Steps

Throwing out coins, we are such goobs and I love it

Trevi Fountain

Pantheon

Momma Bear

Inside the Pantheon

The Forum

First Look of the Colesium

Vatican City

That night was the Euro Cup championship, Spain vs. Italy. On the walk to my mom's hotel, I could hear the commentary from the game all the way because absolutely all of Florence was watching the game. Mom and I sat at the bar downstairs, drank some wine and enjoyed the game. Spain kicked Italy's butt 4-0. It was sad but it was fun to watch.

On Monday after class, Mom, Bryn, Kim and I walked up to Piazza Michelangelo which gives you the best view of the city. It was absolutely gorgeous up there. I was so happy to share this view with my mom. There was a small cafe up there and we stopped and had a drink and then made our way back down. My friend Isabelle who is also studying here invited my mom and I to get drinks with her and her parents before dinner on Monday night. I love spending time with her parents and my mom enjoys them so much as well. We drank some champagne and wine and Isabelle and I talked about our senior year and my mom invited the Finly's to our tent this football season ha! It was a fun evening. After drinks, Mom and I went to eat at Za-Za's where we just shared a salad and some pasta and some wine. It was so good to finally get to hang out with my mom, just me and her. I loved this night because I felt like I truly got experience the beauty of Florence with someone so close to me. On our way home, we walked by the Duomo and just sat and marveled at it's beauty for a while. The Duomo had never been more beautiful to me.

On Tuesday after class, we all took a train to good ole Pisa. The funny thing about Pisa is that if the leaning tower were not leaning, it would just be another small Italian town. We found our way to the leaning tower where there were hundreds of people acting like they were holding up the tower and taking pictures... you know, cliche "Pisa pics." Of course, we all had to do it also. We had many funny attempts and finally got them just right. After that we weren't sure what to do so we stopped at a cafe and had a drink, and then made our way back to the train station.

My attempt to kicking it over 

Mom and her new friends on the train 

Finally on Wednesday we were able to do all of the touristy things that you have to do in Florence. We started off at the Accademia to see Michelangelo's "David." HOLY CRAP. He is way bigger than I imagined. It is amazing the detail that Michelangelo put into David. We learned some interesting facts about "David" such as Michelangelo chiseled him our of a huge piece of marble that was just lying on the street and he asked the city if he could use it. Of course, Mom, Kim, and I cracked ourselves up with the jokes like "he sure does look like he works out." Ha, we are such goobs. After that, we travelled over to the Uffizi which is Florence's largest art museum, and large is an understatement. I adore looking at art but we saw so much art that by the end, our eyes were practically weeping. There were many famous Renaissance paintings that I am very happy I was able to see. After the Uffizi, we travelled across the Ponte Vecchio to look through the windows and windows of gold and jewels, dreaming of what we wanted to purchase. That night, we took Mom to Gusta Pizza, our favorite, and afterward we grabbed a bottle of wine and drank it on the bridge and watched the sunset. It was my favorite night that I have had yet in Florence because of the beauty of the city and the wonderful company.

Beautiful Momma and her heart shaped pizza; Gusta loves her 

The unfortunate thing about waiting so long to blog is that I barely remember what happened last week, therefore this post has been pretty vague. My mom left on Thursday morning and we left for the Amalfi on Thursday night. Momma bear is safely back in the states now.

Shout out to my sweet friends that I can't wait to see in less than a week now, Linds and Mags. Maggie is the big 2-1 now! I'm so sad I missed her birthday but we will be reliving her 21st in less than two weeks now!

love yall!

I'm gonna take a break and then come back and tell you about my weekend. Ciao for now!