Paris!

James’s last day in Florence already :/  Time passes so quickly here.  We ran a few last minute errands before grabbing a kebab to go and hurrying to the train station.  Our flight went as smooth possible for ryanair.  We were definitely ready to get to our hostel though because our hour and a half bus ride into the city felt like forever.  Our room in our hostel had neon green walls and a little shower that was a 2’ by 2’ square.  We went exploring down our street for a place to eat.  Our waitress spoke very little English but attempted to explain what everything was on the menu.  We got brick, which were the best cheese sticks I have ever tasted in my life, salmon, which was raw with potatoes, and yummy ravioli.  Nutella crepe with fresh strawberries for dessert!!!  

We got up early for breakfast in our hostel the next morning and to start the sightseeing.  We walked to the Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower before heading to St. Michel’s fountain for a free walking tour.  The walking tour took us to the Notre Dame again.  Who knew it was almost torn down until The Hunchback of Notre Dame was written and they decided to restore it instead?  What was the French thinking!?! 

We walked along the Siene River and saw the bridges that are in Taken and Jason Bourne.  We saw the statue of King Henry IV and heard about the brutal execution of his murderer.  We saw the building where the French maintain a “pure” French language- aka make sure they make French words for all English words.  It took them three months to decide whether the word for iPod should be masculine or feminine.  We saw the Louvre and then we peaced out of the tour because it was so incredibly chilly that we needed to find somewhere to warm up for awhile. 

We ate dinner at a restaurant that was recommended to me called Refuge des Fondue and everyone needs to go there!  It was such a fun atmosphere and you meet so many people because they only have two long tables and everyone is scrunched together.  You drink wine out of a baby bottle, and after some cold cut appetizers and a yummy fruit drink, they bring you out cheese fondue and bread.  Anddd since I’m a chocolate fiend we also got dessert.  We sat next to a family from Arizona who had come here years ago when they were studying art abroad.  On the other side of us were four girls, two of which were studying abroad in London and Prague and the other two were visiting for their spring break.  When we were leaving, a couple from Milan sat next to us and the woman had studied in Nashville when she was ten years old.  Small world right?  

We saw the beautiful Sacre Crour all lit up after dinner.  As we were walking down the steps of the hill, three men cornered us with their stupid bracelets that they aggressively try to put on your wrist and then charge you ten euros.  James is so calm while I’m repeatedly saying no, no, no.  They literally made James walk backwards because they were in his personal space so apparently my protective side came out and I said enough and stuck my arm in between them which turned into a little shove- woops, thanks vino.  He turns around and shoves me back while they start using profanities.  Funny how they know all of our dirty words yet they couldn’t understand no.  Anywayyy, it was getting late so James and I decided to skip the Moulin Rouge and headed back to our hostel.

James left at 5 am for the airport and our second two month countdown began :/

And I headed to Barcelonaaaa, ready for some sun, the beach, and Spring Break XI                                                                             

Cinque Terre and a week with James

Cinque Terre is Italian for five lands.  These five little towns are beautifully colored and perched on hills right on the coast.  They are linked by a seven mile long hiking trail, most of which were unfortunately closed because “the mountain fell” aka there was a rock slide.  

James and I did make it down “Lover’s Lane” where we added our own lock to the collection along the trail.  When we made it to the second town, we drank cappuccinos and watched the water crash against the rocks.

  

A train took us to the last town, Monterosso del Mar, since the trails were closed.  This town has a little beach that we curled up on until we were ready to take the train back.

  

 We stopped at Il Centro, our grocery store, on the way back to grab some chicken, red sauce, and fresh parmesan.  Our side dish: the mac and cheese that James brought me!!!!  And thennnn James caught my stomach virus.  Needless to say, he didn’t get any sleep that night and literally didn’t leave his bed the whole next day.  At least he was sick on the day it poured rain…?  And I spent the day studying for my midterms. 

On Monday James felt much better.  I had my midterm on the Mafia in the morning which went really well!  Although James still didn’t have an appetite, I dragged him to this TASTE festival that was in town for the weekend.  There was so much food!  Breads, olive oils, balsamics, sausages, fish, cheeses, wine, beer, chocolate, etc.  You know James didn’t have much of an appetite when he didn’t taste any of the beer…  A few hours later though we headed for Il Gatto’s for a family style dinner with some of my friends.  After four delicious appetizers, three plates of pasta, and a few glasses of wine, we headed to Bacco for beat the clock before calling it a night. 

Tuesday, we started up the Duomo’s 463 steps, and the view from the top was definitely worth the claustrophobic, spiral staircases.

We treated ourselves to gelato from Grom and I headed off to my History of Florence and Wine tasting midterm.  My history midterm went pretty well although I wasn’t expecting such a vague essay topic: Please write about the history of Florence from the 14^th century until the Medici family gained power…  My wine tasting midterm… well it’s wine tasting.  We met up with my friends after at The Clubhouse for some soccer and American food- buffalo wings!  Although in Europe, ranch dressing does not exist so they didn’t taste quite the same.  We hung out at Bigallo for some drinks and then danced at Red Garter.  We ended the night with yummy chocolate croissants from the Secret Bakery. 

Nutella donuts and cappuccinos were for breakfast on Wednesday before my Italian midterm.  We shopped around the San Lorenzo leather markets to look at leather shoes for James and popped into Freddy Doner’s for a kebab.  It started to get really windy and stormish after lunch so we stopped and got dark hot chocolate and headed back to the apartment.  I took my literature midterm, and I thought my hand was literally going to fall off, while James took a nap.  We drank wine on my terrace and hung out with Tay and Rob for a little bit before heading to Keith and Tom’s room.  Italy was celebrating its anniversary of unification (150 years) and the Duomo and Piazza della Repubblica were lit up in red, while, and green lights.  We danced in the VIP section of Colle and snuck off to another trip to the Secret Bakery.

We slept in Thursday and headed out to get a nutella waffle which are extremely overpriced but you would completely understand if you could smell the deliciousness wafting from the stands.  After shopping for souvenirs in the leather markets we put our name down on the 1.5 hour long waiting list for one of Florence’s special trattoria’s, Trattoria Mario.  We killed time by going to see the David in the Accademia.  Trattoria Mario is only open for lunch, and we had a delicious meal and sat next to a couple from Chile who were interesting to talk to!  The whole menu was in Italian so after guessing random dishes we decided everything there must be good!  We found James some nice leather shoes and stopped in H&M to find him something green to wear for St. Patrick’s Day! Then we headed back to the apartment to pack up our bags and relax for a little bit until our appetite was back.  We ate at Dante’s for dinner for the second time and it was just as good as the first, and we of course stopped and bought gelato for dessert!  Then, I wanted to take James to Kikuya to try the Dragoon beer.  Though he got a little distracted when we walked past a Lamborghini, it was a great way to start of St. Patty’s.  We ended the night with Bacco where we found Keith, Tom, and Matt, andddd the Secret Bakery, as always.

Paris next post!!! Ciao!   

Ciao Bello!!! James is here!

I know I havn’t updated anyone about my life in three whole weeks… buttttt good news, I remember everything!  But I’m going to give it to ya’ll in doses.

So quick update on the few days before James got here.  Apparently, my stomach virus was not food poisoning and was extremely contagious (James caught it while he was visiting.  :/ )  Good thing it only lasts one day!  Tuesday I took it easy and although I didn’t have an appetite, we went to a Tuscan Wine Shop for my wine tasting class to taste Chianti Classico and Vernaccia di San Gimignano- Tuscany’s best red and white wines.  The rest of my classes reviewed for the midterm coming up the following week.  Wednesday night I went to a chocolate tasting that I signed up for.  The most interesting chocolate I had was one with chili pepper!  After the chocolate tasting I waited to hear from James to make sure he got to Atlanta and made it on his flight to Florence (His Knox flight was delayed and he has a short layover in the first place).  And he made it, thanks goodness!  I got quite a few good runs in this week which I was happy about because the half is getting so close and I have a feeling I am going to be relying on all the walking I have been doing in Europe as my training…  

Thursday, I picked up same sausage and fruit to make James for breakfast, ran a few other errands, and went for a jog before I headed to the airport.  Best day ever!!  James and I headed to my apartment which was quite the process.  Rolling a suitcase over cobblestones and dodging stubborn Italians that never move out of your way isn’t the easiest task.  Buttt we made it and after relaxing and hanging out for a little bit, I made us a pizza and we opened a bottle of wine.  We met up with all of my friends a little later at Tijuana’s for happy hour, which James and I naturally missed by 15 minutes.  We headed to Eby’s afterward to take the renowned Eby’s Café shot, and then to the Lion’s Fountain for a drink before calling it a night.

I ran poor James ragged the first few days because we had beautiful weather in Florence and I knew rain was in the forecast for the rest of the week.  When we woke up Friday, I made the sausages and we set out for a tour of Florence.  We started with the Duomo, Mercato Centrale, Piazza della Rupubblica, all of the name brand stores by my school (Dolce and Gabbana, Fendi, Armani, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Patrizia Pepe, etc.), Piazza Signoria, Palazzo Vecchio, the fake David, Uffizi Gallery, Ponte Vecchio and ended with the best gelato on the Ponte la Carraia.  We headed back to my apartment before I dragged James on an extremely long walk to the Piazzale Michelangelo where we sat and watched the sunset with a bottle of wine.  Dinner at Dante’s was delicious!  Students get free wine and I had yummy ravioli and James had tortelloni.  Naturally, we stopped for more carraia gelato since Dante’s is on the same street.  Towards the end of dinner, the British woman and her mother sitting next to us began talking to us and asking us questions.  They were so friendly and I always love talking to people from other countries.  We stopped in Piazza della Repubblica to listen to a street performer on the way home and joined our friends for a night in hanging out in the apartment.

Carnevale di Venezia

.

What a weekend!  Carnevale in Venice turns the beautiful but usually calm island into a festival where anything goes, especially while wearing a mask.  We took a 20ish minute ferry to get to Venice and spent the day exploring the pretty streets lined with water, crossing bridges, taking pictures of the most outrageous costumes (ironically, most of which are usually worn by the French), and trying to move through the shoulder to shoulder crowd to get to the biggest piazza- Piazza San Marco where they held different shows.  

For dinner, we searched for a seafood restaurant on the canal in our price range.  Obviously we only were able to accommodate two of our three requirements, so price went out the window.  My thirty euro pasta with rocklobstersauce and 2 glasses of wine was absolutely delicious though- no regrets!  I tried vino brule (hot wine) for the first time and it was quite yummy.  We walked the crazy streets and ran into some very interesting people along the way.  We hopped on a train to get back to our hotel, and Lauren and I sat next to Italian college students from 30 minutes outside of Venice.  They were so fun to talk to, and Lauren entertained them with her spang-italian-lish.  Thanks to facebook we are now friends!

 

Sunday, we went to islands Murano and Burano in the Venetian Lagoon.  Murano is famous for glass.  We went to a glass blowing demonstration and watched a glass horse be made in literally less than 5 minutes.  Then, we were rushed to Burano where we unfortunately only had an hour to explore.  Burano is famous for lace-making.  I found mom the cutest salt and pepper shakers to add to our collection.  They are a man and woman dressed up in Carnevale costumes/masks on a gondola that says Venezia on it!  After an hour ferry ride back to the mainland, we headed back to Florence.

 

Today, I gave my presentation in my organized crime class on the pizza connection and heroin trafficking.  It went really well!!  The mafia started using pizzerias in the northeast and other parts of America in the 1970’s to distribute heroin.  So I made pizza last night and brought it in with my presentation and it was delicious! 

I went for a run and then took a nap in the evening though and woke up nauseous.  I think I might have food poisoning :/ So its been a little bit of a rough night.  Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow!

Ciao!        

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. -Psalm 147:3

Yesterday was a hard day for my family and even more so for their friends' families.  Please keep them in your prayers.  Sending love from Florence to the Highfill family.   

dove il sentiero?

I know it’s been a little while but nothing was tooooo overly exciting to make individual post so instead you’re getting a week plus of my day to day life in Firenze.

Another week down.  I have officially been in Florence a whole month and I’m already stressing about not having enough time here.  Not enough time to explore Florence, let alone other cities in Europe.  Time is just flying. 

Tuesday, after my wine tasting class the guys cooked dinner for all of the girls and it was so good, especially the chocolate crepes with strawberries and whipped cream!  We went to a new pub after for a drink and had a delicious English beer called Dragoon. 

I went on little runs Wednesday and Thursday along the Arno.  It was beautiful but a little chilly, especially after leaving Rome’s nice war weather.  We have had quite a bit of trouble this week with our internet and our water, which likes to shut off conveniently right when you want to shower.   But Wednesday night, I was able to catch up on some homework and our internet worked long enough to watch Grey’s, which was a nice little piece of home. 

Thursday we went to a few different bars and a club before ending the night with a trip to the Secret Bakery, of course.  Nothing like a chocolate crescent and a piece of pizza to put you to bed.  And my internet apparently has a better connection at 4 a.m. so I was actually able to see James instead of just hear his voice!

I have two projects due in the next weekish- yes, I do actually have to do a liiiiiiittle bit of work while I’m here- so I spent my Friday doing some work for those because I know I’m not going to want to next weekend while Kathryn is here and while I’m in Venice.  After working on my Mafia heroin trafficking project, I went to get a glass of wine and some tiramisu at a restaurant on our street with Anna, Ashton, Courtney, and Randi.    

Taylor and I woke up early Saturday morning to go hiking in Fiesole, a little town 20 minutes away by bus.  Just our luck, Taylor and I forgot to validate our bus tickets anddddd received a 55 euro fine.  Lesson learned the hard way I guess.  The hike and the view of Florence were perfect regardless of our slow and tragic start.  We also couldn’t find the hiking trail so we now know how to say “dove il sentiero?” (where is the trail?) very well.  And we were very grateful for the little Italian woman walking home with her groceries behind us because whenever we reached an intersection we would look back and she would nod to the right direction.  She even waited to go inside her house because she knew we were going to ask her one last time which way to go.  Taylor and I got some coffee after and did a little shopping at the leather markets.  I’m so glad we took advantage of such a beautiful day because it is going to be rainy and chilly the rest of this week.

We didn’t have hot water or water pressure for that matter, so I showered in my friend’s room before going to the Lion’s Fountain for a drink.  We made another trip to the secret bakery before calling it a night.

Since it was gross out Sunday, I stayed curled up in my bed reading one of the books for my literature class, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, and I could not put it down!

Mom’s package finally came, in a month later!  I loved her cute little Valentine’s Day goodies.  It’s suppose to rain everyday this week so any moment that it isn’t raining I made sure to get a run in.  I had good, short runs Monday and Tuesday.  I’m crossing my fingers than the rain will hold off and my lungs will let me get a good long run in before I go to Venice this weekend because I signed up for the Florence half marathon!

I gave a presentation of the murals of in Santa Croce on Tuesday for my history of Florence class.  The church is so beautiful, and I had no idea that Galileo Galilei, Machiavelli, and Michelangelo are all buried inside.  And as always, wine tasting is the best way to end the day.  We tasted the Chianti Classico, along with others, and learned how to properly open a wine bottle.

Salute!