The final weeks

Ciao everyone!

Sorry I haven't been able to write..I've been so busy with assignments and papers! I can't believe this semester is coming to a close in 3 weeks..it really does feel like just yesterday that I came here and was in complete shock. It's really nice to see how much I've changed and adapted to Italian culture in the past few months and it's definitely going to be bittersweet when I have to leave.
Last weekend, the stony brook university group (all 75 of us) went to Sicily for our last trip all together. The weather was pretty terrible, but the food and how beautiful everything was really made up for it. I ate a true sicilian cannoli.. and omg it was the best thing I've ever eaten! I also ate the best bowl of pasta in my life..the food is SO ridiculous! It was also really cool to go to Sicily because that's where my family on my mom's side is from..even though we didn't get to go to their town, it was nice to know that I could at least be in Sicily.
So, I'm in the process of writing/ handing in all my papers and I must say that this whole 'study' part in study abroad can be bad sometimes because all you want to do is go out and enjoy Florence and not side inside your apartment doing work..especially since it's so beautiful in Florence in the spring time!
In these last couple of weeks, I'm gonna try to make it to all of the places in Florence that I haven't been able to visit like the Boboli Gardens and the Uffizi. Once you start living here for a while, you kind of forget about doing the touristy things and you pretty much start living like a true Florentine/ Italian.
Even though I still have 3 weeks left, it's really starting to hit me that I'm really gonna miss it here. This was really a once in a lifetime opportunity and I'm SO glad I was able to do it!
..I'll write soon!

Kelsey

Time is flying...

Ciao!

I can't believe it's April already! I only have 5 more weekends left in Florence..that's crazy! Time is really starting to go fast now. I have so many things left to do and it's making the days fly.

This weekend, I went on a trip to the Amalfi coast and it was AMAZING! It was like the Bahamas for the U.S. The water was so blue and the weather was awesome. We stayed in a cute little bungalow in Sorrento and we spent most of the weekend on the island of Capri. The one thing I knew I had to do while I was in Capri was see the blue grotto. We missed the last boat to go inside the grotto the first day we got there, but we went back the next day and it was totally worth the wait. We were inside the grotto for only a few minutes, but it was probably one of the best moments ever. The water was so beautiful and the man rowing our boat sang us Italian songs the whole time. It was great!

We also went on a chair lift in Capri and saw the best views of the whole island and also of the water surrounding it. I can't even begin to describe how pretty the island of Capri was and even Sorrento, too. I think that the Amalfi coast was definitely my favorite trip of the semester so far. I would go back in a heart beat! I'd defintely say that it was one of the best weekends of my life.

If you ever want to go to the Amalfi coast, book it through euroadventures. They make it so easy and it's supposed to be very hard to travel in that area by yourself.

Well, I gotta run to go to my cooking class now! I hope you enjoy the pictures!

-- Kelsey

Spring Break

Hey guys this is Kevin. I just got back from Spring Break. It was a really great trip. I went all over Europe. First Madrid, then Amsterdam, then London. They were all pretty amazing cities. The first flight over to Madrid was a bit of a pain. We had to go to Pisa airport around 8 in the morning and the flight was scheduled for around 1030. But it got delayed. For 6 hours. They said it was due to "fog" but I never saw the sky clearer.

Anyway Madrid was fun, I got to check out all the museums there and the king's palace there. The weather was beautiful, the best all semester. The highlight of the city was seeing a bullfight. It was pretty horrible seeing the bull, especially knowing its fate. There were a total of 6 bulls, and they all lost the fight one after the other. One of them got one of the matadores in the leg. Seeing the bull fight back like that was the most exciting part. Overall it was pretty horrible, but not as horrible as I expected. I wouldn't ever see another one in my life nor would I recommend seeing one to a friend, but it was something I could only see in Madrid so I don't regret seeing it.

The next city I saw was Amsterdam, and I think it was my favorite of the three. Amsterdam is a canal city and its very similar to Venice. However, Venice is controlled by tourists. Everyday there is tourist season and there's very little people who actually live there. However Amsterdam is like Venice with a little life andmodernism to it. People still live there and you can see their influence in the city - it doesn't die when the tourists leave, like Venice. The canals of the city were beautiful and the buildings looked very nice. The Anne Frank house was really interesting too.

Amsterdam is also home to the Van Gough and Dutch masters museum, which has some of the most important Dutch painters in history, like Rembrandt.
So if you end up traveling for spring break, you're probably going to live in hostels for the entire time. They are the cheapest accommodation and are pretty much designed for traveling young people, which was perfect for a poor college student like me. Living in a hostel was pretty much just like living in a college dorm. It can be dirty and pretty run down in certain parts, but its still incredibly comfortable. You'll be sharing a room with a bunch of other people. For me I was in a room with bunk beds for 8 people. And you'll have communal bathrooms, but the atmosphere is very comfortable and friendly, exactly like living in a college dorm.

The last city I visited was London. It was really expensive! The pound is very strong and it's worth at least $1.6. So if you plan on visiting London, bring at least twice the money you plan on spending.

London reminded me a lot of New York. I called it "New York Light." Considering New York is one of the greatest cities in the world, that's definitely a compliment. There's plenty to do and see in London. I hit up the Tower, the British Museum (which has tons of treasure like the original Rosetta Stone) Abbey Road, Platform 9 3/4 and a bunch of other places. The highlight of this city was the shows. London is known for its theater and the shows I saw were great. The first one I saw was Jersey Boys, which was a great show and had great music. But I felt kind of a traitor not seeing it in New York, since Fankie Valli and the Four Seasons are an American band and all.

But anyway, the trip was great even though I spent pretty much all of my money. I'd do it all again if I could. But now I have to start getting back into the school vibe. I mean study abroad is half traveling and half school. I did my traveling, but now I got to get back to work :/

But it really is great being back in Italy again. Ive been speaking Italian the entire trip, even in London. After a big trip like that, I needed a place to relax. Now, Florence seems even more like home.

Kevin

Spring Break 2011!

Ciao everyone!

I have to say I had the best spring break of my life!

First, Bobby and I stayed in Rome for 2 days and we walked around and saw a lot. We went inside the colosseum which was absolutely amazing. We also saw the trevi fountain and it was SO beautiful. It was hard to get a good picture of it though because it was at night and there were tons of people trying to get pictures. We really wanted to see the vatican but it was closed for Saint Joseph's Day. Rome was a little bit of culture shock for me because it is such a huge city and Florence seems so tiny compared to it and it was hard to simply walk to where ever you needed to go in Rome. I feel like whenever I go to stay in a different region or country, it really makes me appreciate Florence more everytime and its always nice to come 'home'.

After Rome, we went to to the best city ever..Dublin! I absolutely fell in love with Dublin. The people were so nice and helpful and Ireland is absolutely beautiful. We stayed in a really cute bed and breakfast called Charles Stewart Guesthouse. We got to Dublin at around 11 p.m. last Monday so we got some rest that night and started our trip on Tuesday. The first day we walked around and got to know the city and did A LOT of souvenir shopping (probably too much!). On Wednesday, we went on a bus tour to see Southern Ireland. On that trip, I probably saw the most beautiful things I've ever seen in my life. Everything was so green and pretty. We went to the Cliffs of Moher which are right on the Atlantic ocean and if you ever go to Ireland, you HAVE TO go there! It was such a great experience. On Thursday, we went on a "hop on hop off" bus tour that took us around the city to show us all of the historical/ popular places. We made our way to the Guinness Storehouse for one of the stops which is something everyone has to do if they're in Dublin! Overall, the people were so nice, the food was great and Ireland was so beautiful.

It may not seem like I did much on this trip, but I just wanted to have a nice relaxing trip and get away from all of the work I'm doing in Florence. It was so great and definitely the best experience of my life to go to Dublin! I'm definitely gonna try to make it back there at some point in my life..or it will possibly be the next place that I study abroad!:)

Well, it's time for me to go to my cooking class now..I'll write soon!

-- Kelsey

Midterms week

Ciao everyone!

I've taken 4 midterms so far and I only have 1 more left tomorrow! It is SO hard to study and sit still here. All I want to do is go out, walk around and see everything! I feel like I'm already in spring break mode and spring break hasn't even started yet.

After my midterm tomorrow, spring break starts for me! First, I'm going to take a train to Rome and spend 3 days there. I am so excited to see everything there from the colosseum, the roman forum, the vatican and the trevi fountain. Out of all the cities I'm going to be visiting in Italy, I think I'm the most excited to go there. After Rome, I'm heading to Bologna for 1 day then Dublin for 5 days. I can't wait to go to Dublin! If I decided not to study abroad in Italy, I definitely would have chosen Dublin (but I'm very happy that I chose Italy). I'm so happy to take a week off from school work and just relax!

Well, it's time for me to go and study for my last midterm tomorrow. I'll write as soon as I get back from my trips and post some pictures!

Ciao!
-- Kelsey

Venice and midterm week

Hey, so this is midterm week and yesterday I had 3. So I was filling out tests all day. It was a little ridiculous. But I'm sure you all have been in the same spot too. Well I've got 2 more. My only midterm tomorrow is Italian Cooking Traditions. I had a midterm yesterday by the same teacher and it was a bit harder than I thought it was gonna be. The midterm yesterday was Vegetarian Cooking and I to write a paragraph on each question. Some were like what are the nutritive qualities of a carrot and I had to list the vitamins that they have. I mean beta carotene is a given, but I ended up making up a bunch of vitamins. I mean they're just a letter and a number, right? So I'm gonna have to put in a little more studying for the one tomorrow. The last midterm I have is on the history of the Medici Family, I'm pretty set on that since I'm a history major. But I gotta spend a little time memorizing the family tree. But whatever, I'll spend a little time studying tonight and tomorrow.

After midterms is spring break! I plan on going to Madrid, Amsterdam, and London with a few friends. Its gonna be some fun times! I won't have my computer with me so I don't know if I'll be able to post next week. But I'll come back with some stories.

But this past weekend I went to Venice! We left Florence around 930 in the Saturday. We found a side route to Venice that took a little longer and had

3 transfers, but it saved us like 30 Euro so we decided to take this route. Well we got our tickets but then it pops up that our train is gonna be 15 minutes late. Which means we had about 5

minutes to hop of the train at the next station, orient ourselves, find the ticket machines, buy them, validate the tickets (in Italy, you have to buy the ticket and then "validate" them right before

you use them which puts the date and time on the ticket. If you don't validate then the minimum fine id 50 Euro.) and then hop on the train. And thats what happened. Twice. We ended up

sprinting across some huge train stations.

Venice is farther from Florence than we thought. The train ride took 4 hours and we arrived in Venice around 2. We checked the trains back and the last one was at 730. We had about 5 ho

urs to spend in Venice. So, yeah, there was a lot of sprinting that day.

So anyway our first stop was the island of Murano. We went to the norther tip of Venice. There we found water buses. The only methods of traveling around Venice are either walking or taking a boat. So the public transportation system is a fleet of water buses, vaporetti in Italian, that take you to stops in Venice and in the surrounding islands.

We get off at the Island and they show us a pretty cool glass demonstration. I didn't think of taking a video, but I've got some pictures of it. And they have some really impressive glass

works on this island.

So we walk around, taking in all the glass, and we go to the line for the water buses and the place

is packed. Water buses are the only method of transportation between islands so people push and shove their way to the front of the lines. A bunch of people, mostly Italians, kept on pushing the the front, cutting the line. So eventually I had enough of this and started doing it back. Me

and my friends eventually, after 30 minutes of waiting, were in the front of the line.

When the next water bus came everyone pushes and shoves to get on. I'm surprised no one fell in the water. But it looked like my friends were going to get on and I wasn't. It was that close. So I grab my friend's shoulders in front of me. I figured if I attach myself to someone in front, it would be harder for people to push in front of me. And I said, "Hey if I don't get on the boat, I'm jumping on your back." I really was about to jump on his back but then the lady who decides who's the last person on the boat grabs me and pushes me into the crowd on the boat.

We were all laughing, the situation was so ridiculous. I was the last one on the boat. When I stepped on, my feet were right at the corner of the boat. I couldn't take one step back. But then the boat started to go. The safety rail wasn't even up yet. They just started going. Glad I had a few friendly hands to stabilize me, otherwise

I'd have had to swim back.

Anyway we get back to shore and I'm practically squeezed off the boat. We make our way down to Piazza San Marco. We really started to get a chance to just explore the city a bit and take in the beauty of it. Venice really is beautiful. Its incredible and its packed with so many interesting things. I was really disappointed that the whole boat situation took such a toll on our time there. But the buildings on either side of each street, for the most part, can be touched by extending both of your arms. The streets are tiny. And they're like a maze. Getting lost is half the fun of Venice, but you really wouldn't know how to get anywhere if there weren't signs pointing towards the major landmarks of the city.

Piazza San Marco is incredible. I was there when I was 10 and, back then it seemed limitless, but now that I saw it again, it seemed much tinier, but still huge. It was pretty beautiful. Apparently Napoleon loved San Marco square and he called it the "drawing room of Europe." Besides its beauty, both of the buildings and of the waterfront, the square is really special because there are absolutely no cars around. All the noise you here is from people.

I wouldn't mind spending all day there, but we had to go catch our train. We spent about an hour in the square which wasn't NEARLY enough. I'd walk around there all day if I had the chance. But we make it back to the train on time and headed back home. No problems.

Anyway I gotta go back to Venice. When you step in, you can tell how special the city is. I'm definitely gonna go back. If any of you get a chance. GO THERE

Kevin

Traveling in Tuscany

Ciao everyone!

I had a pretty busy weekend traveling to a couple different places around Tuscany. Let me start with my day on Friday.

Friday- First, I went to my 9 a.m. class (I highly recommend not signing up for a Friday class!), then right after I got out Bobby and I went right to the bus station to get two tickets to go to Siena. I kept hearing such great things about Siena, so I knew I definitely wanted to go. It took about an hour and 30 mins to get there and the ride was a little tough. It was so bumpy the whole time and I learned that I definitely like taking the train better. Usually, everyone travels by train to get to places outside of Florence, but in this case it's actually harder because there's no direct train into the city center of Siena. Well anyway, once we got to Siena, I knew why everyone had such good things to say about it. It was absolutely beautiful. Siena is really different from Florence. It's really hilly and the whole town is very old, unlike Florence where there are parts where everything is modern. I really enjoyed the old feel of it. We walked around for a bit, ate some good food, saw some really awesome cathedrals and then we went to the top of a tower to see all of Siena. This was my favorite part of the day and I fell in love with Siena because it was so beautiful. After all of the walking through the hilly city, I was starting to get exhausted and we headed back to Florence after spending about 5 hours in Siena. I'm gonna have to say that outside of Florence, Siena is one of my favorite cities so far.

Saturday- Bobby and I hopped on a 12:30 train to go to Lucca, which is also in Tuscany. I don't know why, but on Italian trains, they don't announce what stop you're at, so it's like a guessing game on the train if you don't know where you're going. We actually found two girls who are also studying abroad at FUA and they told us where to get off. When the train arrived at Lucca, we got out of the train station and found out that Lucca is still surrounded by ancient walls. It was really awesome. In order to get into the city center, you have the go through some corridors in the walls to get in. We spent most of our time inside museums and looking at different cathedrals. My favorite part of the day was when we went into a baptistery that was built on ancient ruins. They let you go downstairs and see the ruins, like roman baths and mosaics. It was so cool to able to see things that are that old dating all the way back to the 2nd century. Overall, it was a really beautiful city. Before we left, we walked around on the top of the wall where they built a path and we saw everything inside and outside of the city walls. It was so pretty, but my favorite place of the weekend was definitely Siena!

My day today is filled with studying unfortunately. Midterms start tomorrow, I can't believe it. Time is flying. I think there's only about 8 more weeks left and I can't imagine how fast it's gonna go after spring break. I have 3 midterms tomorrow, so I better start studying!

I'll write soon!
- Kelsey