Adventure in Venice

This past Saturday some of us decided to venture to Venice for the day! From Firenze, It is only a two hour train ride. The train we took was VERY nice. We got to Venice around 11 bought a map and headed on our way! We took our time walking through the tiny street and bridges over the grande canal thru Venice. We walked in many Venetian glass stores- It was all so beautiful. We finally stumbled upon Ponte Di Rialto. Here we did some shopping and sat down for a nice lunch. My favorite spot in Venice was Basilica San Marco. It was just stunning- all the details that were put into are beatiful. Of course I decide to wear the only shirt I brought that resembles the outfit the men who drive the gondola wears- a blue and white striped shirt. I didn't even think about this until I got to the train station and my friend Joanna started laughing at me! I promise I didn't wear it on purpose!!!! It did help us get the price of a gondola ride down to 60 euros (down from 80) but we still thought that it was kinda a ripoff!!! Although Venice smelled a little haha I still really enjoyed it. It might be one of my favorite cities in Italy I have been to! Finally around 6:30 we headed to the train station. We were all EXHAUSTED so naturally this would happen to me... We walked into our train car and started walking to my seat. A lady was sitting in my seat so we kindly told her. We thought maybe she just got on the wrong car. Well as it turns out TranItalia had booked two people for the same seat!!!!!! Well actually they double booked about 10 seats. What a mess. We finally got it all figured out and I did in fact have a place to sit.

Sunday afternoon we spent the day at the pool! My school organized this trip and we went to a nice Villa outside of Florence. It was so nice to be able to relax. It was funny though because in order to swim in the pool you needed to wear a swim cap- so weird! Crazy Italians.. haha


I am so busy this week finishing up my shopping, working on my final project for my class, visiting all the places in Florence that I haven't gotten a chance to see yet and trying to figure a way to move here!!!  My final day of class is Friday. I will then travel to Rome for the remainder of my trip. I can't believe I have a little over 1 week left in Italy. I could stay here FOREVER!!! Ciao!

Pisa and Pizza

Wow. I cannot believe another week has gone by. Time is going by too fast!

Wednesday after class a group of us decided to travel to Pisa for the afternoon. IT only took close to an hour to get there by train. Pisa was not at all what I expected. It was very quiet and very deserted. We finally found the famous leaning tower and that was where all the people were! We took lots of pictures- some are pretty cheesy but we had to do it! There was not much else to do there but we looked around for an hour or two and headed back home. It’s nice to be able to say I have seen the famous leaning tower!

Thursday morning my International Marketing class had a field trip, which was a nice break from the classroom. We got to visit the Santa Maria Novella Pharmacy, which is one of the oldest pharmaceutical companies in the world. The company dates back to 16^th century and was established by Dominican friars. I forgot to bring my camera with me so these pictures are from the Internet but I just wanted you to get a feel for what I got to see!

I have been eaten A LOT of pizza but I think I had the best pizza tonight! We walked across the bridge to Gusta Pizza, which pretty much everyone had told me I HAD to visit. I got the spicy salami pizza and they have this amazing spicy olive oil that was delicious on top of the pizza. Our pizzas came out in the shape of a heart- so cute!! I will definitely be returning to Gusta before my trip is over!

Tomorrow morning I am heading to Venice for the day!! I have heard mixed review about it so I’ll let you know what I think!! Ciao!

Amalfi Coast Weekend

This past weekend at the Amalfi Coast was absolutely amazing! We traveled to Sorrento, Capri, Positano and Pompei. We left Thursday night with a huge group of about 40 or so! It took about 7 hours to get there but it was so worth it. We stayed at a hostel in Sorrento.

On Friday we took a ferry to the island of Capri. It was gorgeous. We had a boat tour around the island. They took us to the famous blue grotto where we go to go inside the grotto and swim! The water was SO blue- such a neat experience. We saw many famous people’s houses like Georgia Armani and Brad Pitt. The rest of the day we decided to stay at the beach. The water was crystal clear and the beach was rocky not sandy which took some time getting used to. We also did a little shopping. I got a cute little bracelet made with a pretty coral colored coral from Capri! That night as a huge group of 40 we all went out to the town of Sorrento for an amazing dinner. 

In the Famous Blue Grotto

Beach at Capri

Thea, Joanna and Me on the boat

Me and my Friend Thea at Dinner

Saturday was my favorite day of the trip. We drove to Positano, which is a smaller beach town on the Amalfi coast. These beaches are called black sand beaches but really the sand is grey. Very different from the white sand beaches I am used to in Destin or Gulf Shores. We then took a boat to go cave swimming and cliff jumping! It was a great experience although it was kinda scary haha I only jumped off the cliff once while my friends kept going 2 or 3 times. We then decided to go back to the beaches or Positano to just hang out. By that time we were all exhausted and had all gotten a little too much sun! That night we had a buffet dinner on the rooftop of our hostel where a band played -another great way to end the night.

Where We Went Cliff Jumping!

Dinner on the Roof Top!

On Sunday we packed up our things and were on our way to see the ruins of Pompei. We had a great tour guide that took us through the old Roman town showing us homes and markets before the volcanic eruption happened. It was so incredible to see Pompei- I had always read about it in school but never really knew how intact the town really was. Can you imagine being the one who discovered these ancient ruins? By the time our tour was over we were very hungry and decided to eat at a place called Pompei Pizza. We then loaded up our bus and headed back to Florence.

The weekend was amazing but it was so nice to come back “home” to my apartment in Florence and get a good night sleep!

Walk to School

I can't believe it is already Thursday night! I am still loving Florence! My class is great so far. I walk about 15 or 20 minutes to my school but i don't mind because I have a great walk with lots of neat scenery. I will be leaving in about an hour for a trip to the Amalfi Coast and the island of Capri!!! We will also get to stop in Pompei and see  Mount Vesuvius! I am going through a company called bus2alps and will be spending three nights in a hostel called seven hostel. We get to ride a boat to the famous blue grotto!

These are some pictures from my walk to school!

Home Sweet Florence

I have been so busy and out of pocket these last few days I have lots to tell you about! Saturday as a group we went on a bike tour to Tonfano and then to Forte dei Marmi. One of the girls in the group had never learned how to ride a bike haha so in order for her to get to come with the group three of us volunteered to ride a family bike with her. It was quite the experience. No matter how fast we pedaled we still were going super slow and got way behind the group but somehow we were not the ones to get lost. During the 2 hour bike ride we lost THREE people but luckily, somehow found them. haha what a mess. Then that night we had a farewell buffet dinner at our hotel. I really loved Tuscany but I was so ready to get to Florence to unpack my suitcase and not have to drag it around all of Italy!

 Family Bike

This is me and my friend Joanna eating lunch after our bike tour!

Sunday afternoon we packed up our things and got on a charter bus headed for Florence! The ride was supposed to be close to two hours except our bus driver was crazy and we got there in 45 minutes. Needless to say I was carsick! Then i got dropped off at my apartment which is on Via Della Pergola! My friends Tori and Victoria from school had already gotten there and we dead asleep from their flight when I arrived but I didn't mind- I had lots of unpacking to do. I have a room to my self which means a full closet to my self! What a luxury it is to hang up all of my clothes. I have been so used to living out of a suitcase this past week. I will do a better job of blogging once the internet in my apartment gets set up! Ciao!

 My bedroom!

 View from the window in my room

 Our living room/tv room

 Kitchen!

 Such a Pretty View!

Marble, Carnevale, and the Beach

Can you believe this time last Friday I was getting ready to leave for Italy! Time has gone by so fast!

So yesterday we traveled to a nearby town called Pietrasanta where we visited their church. It was so beautiful. We had free time for lunch and I loved getting to see another cute Tuscany town! I had a wonderful pizza and some nutella gelato, which is definitely my favorite flavor! After lunch we went to visit the marble quarries in Carrara. Let me just start off by saying that the marble quarries did not sound too interesting to me but it actually was. We all laughed because we all loved the fact that from our hotel in Versilia you could see the sea and also “snow-capped” mountains. HAH we were SO wrong! They were actually marble-capped mountains.  We got the full run through of how marble is taken out of the mountain. Carrara sells over 400 million tons of marble every year. 

Today was a fun day too. They chose the coolest places for us to visit! We rode our bus to Viareggio and went to the place where the town makes their famous floats for their Carnevale. The floats were HUGE. After that tour we had the whole afternoon for free time in Viareggio. We decided to get some lunch and we happened to pick the place that “claims” to be the first place to make “Margherita pizza”. It was first made for the Queen Margherita hence the name- They made a pizza of three colors-green white and red to mirror the Italian flag-pretty cool huh? 

We then decided to go to the beach. It was another rocky shoreline. Today the waves were HUGE and the tide was too strong for us to swim but it was still nice to spend some time there. Tomorrow we are going on a bike ride to tour the towns of Tonfano and Forte dei Marmi! Until Then… Ciao!!!!

 

P.S. there has been the sweetest kitty outside our hotel every day and it loves attention!