Oh Me! Oh My! Oh Almafi!

Wow, it has been a while since my last blog post, but boy have I been busy! The Monday following my return from Croatia, I had Italian class in the morning (as always), but instead of having it in the classroom, my professor took us to Mercado Centrale for a scavenger hunt where we got to locate the specific prices of different common groceries like "pomodoro" (tomato) or "fragole" (strawberry). It was a nice change of pace compared to normal class and my group came in second so we got bonus points! The rest of the day I just played catch-up from missing the weekend with work and homework and then I was also able to row too.

On Tuesday, I had Oil Painting class where we worked on our painting of statues of various Italians (mine looked like a sickly patient in a hospital), so I was glad when our professor decided that we could be finished with that painting and get ready for a new still-life painting the following week. Since Tuesdays are normally my busiest days, I would generally be running off to cooking class right after my painting class was finished, but this week, my professor for cooking, (who is actually a total boss) knows many of the local popular restaurants in Florence and so he organized for us to go out to dinner for a typical Italian-style meal that night right by the Duomo. Before dinner, I was able to take a double out on the Arno with Massimo and I am so proud to say my blisters are coming back!!! (its a rowing thing...if you don't get it well then you just don't get it).

Don't mind me, I'm just rowing on the Arno

What a sad looking painting

I GOT A FIRENZE UNI

Dinner Selfie

 The dinner that we were able to enjoy was comprised of five different courses and unlimited wine topped off with a shot of Limoncello at the end. Normally, we were told, a dinner like this would cost 50 euros per person...but because my professor is such a boss, we each got the meal for 25 euros. The first course was a ricotta and egg souffle with edamame, extra virgin olive oil, and tomatoes (literally melt in your mouth goodness). The second course was comprised of a flaky pastry-like dish. It was much like a croissant topped with Mushroom Marsala sauce. The third course was my second favorite for sure. This included a cheesy risotto with asparagus and tomatoes as well as an al-dente pasta with meat sauce. Yes. It was that good. The fourth course was a very rare steak (filet cut) topped with Parmesan flakes and basil , Zach for sure would have liked it. Lastly, the grand finale. The dessert at this ristorante is one that I will surely be returning for. Made of a dark chocolate shell, it was filled with a light lemon creme and topped with strawberries...honestly tantalizing. Then of course, the Chianti wine was super dry and super good and the Limoncello was good as well but definitely not as good as that found in Sorrento (I talk about this trip later in the blog) . I have become quite the wine connoisseur here. After dinner, I went home and studied for my Italian quiz the next morning, and then watched a couple of episodes of Scandal--my mom got me hooked on the show--and then went to bed.

 Wednesday went as usual, I got up, went to Italian class, took my quiz, and went to the boathouse. After my workout, I went home and made some of the risotto that I learned how to make in cooking class for my roommates (and they loved it--I mean come on, I made it). Then I went to drawing class and drew a stump for three hours...it was about as entertaining as it sounds. I grabbed groceries with Krista, and came home and worked on some design homework. Thursday, I had design from 9am-2:30pm but it seemed to fly by and then I went to row and kind of hung out for a while.

Friday is when things started to get exciting. Realizing that I literally had no responsibilities, no trips, and no prior commitments, I decided to sleep in...SHOCKING...I know.  I slept in while my roommates did an extra-curricular through school and we planned on eating together at the Central Market to try "Trippa" (thats cow stomach on a sandwich...they told me it was good) for lunch. A little while after I woke up, I noticed that the sky was looking gloomy so I got dressed and made sure to put on a rain coat, when all of a sudden, THIS happened:

Florence...not prepared

Yeah, so that is hail. A freak hailstorm happened on Friday. My roommates came tearing into the apartment, lucky enough to have just missed all of the hail that was falling to the ground. One of my classmates has a professor that has lived in Florence for 49 years and he said that he "has never seen anything like it". So you could say that I was here when history was made. Nbd. Since there was a freak storm, the top of the Mercado Centrale was flooded so we had to settle for Trippa from a food truck. It was not good. I will be going back for the good stuff.

Panino Trippa

The rest of the day on Friday, we got prepared for our trip to the Almafi Coast which would include Pompeii, Sorrento (where Reese Witherspoon recently vacationed as informed by my mom), and Capri. In two days. So it was a lot. First, our bus left Florence at 6am on Saturday morning and we had about a 5 1/2 ride to get to Pompeii-- after a 12 hour ride each way to and from Split, Croatia on a bus, literally nothing can phase me. We arrived in Pompeii at about 12:15pm and we were given time to grab some lunch before we started our tour. It is crazy to think that in a place like Pompeii, where the nation was so strong and mostly wealthy, that something as crazy as what happened COULD happen. It was certainly a humbling experience to walk the ruins.

After the tour was over, we were all told to meet at a specific location and get ready to get on the bus for our ride to Sorrento. I saw a really cool rock up against a column that I wanted a picture on...so I climbed onto the rock and asked my friend to take one. No more than five seconds later, a little guard about 5 feet tall came running in my direction using all of the air in his lungs to blow his whistle and shake his finger at me (imagine an exasperated Oompa Loopa). So I got down. Granted, my professor was sitting on the same rock so I thought everything was kosher...I was clearly wrong.

The people of Pompeii had a sense of humor

 The picture on the left was seen during the walking tour. It is kind of difficult to see, but there is male genitalia carved into the rock between the street signs. Our guide told us that the Pompeian people were very open about sexuality and that they had quite the sense of humor. 

Wanna take a bath? The bathhouse in Pompeii

Pizza in Sorrento, Italy...what a great face.

When we arrived in Sorrento, we were given the keys to our rooms and we had about two hours before we were going to be going to dinner. The professor on the trip was super familiar with a restaurant there and so we got to have pizza in Sorrento. I do have to say that this pizza closely rivaled the pizza that I tried in Split Croatia but I certainly cannot choose a determined victor.

Afterwards, the professor, (whose name is Luca...not that you need to know that but he is great and it adds character to my blog), took us to a Limoncello factory where...yeah you guessed it, they make Limoncello. There, we got to try Limoncello, Meloncello, Limoncello candies, chocolate-covered Limoncello, frozen Limoncello...basically anything you can imagine with Limoncello, we tried.

Limoncello Factory in Sorrento, Italy

Following our tour of the Limoncello factory, we went back to our hotel, got changed, and explored the nightlife of Sorrento which really is nothing to brag about, then we went to bed.
 We got up and were ready for our ferry ride to Capri at 8am. After about an hour ride, we arrived in Capri...its gorgeous. We were given a private boat tour around the island and we got to see all sorts of amazing things. We went to the blue gratto, (if you do not know what that is, google it), and it was just as gorgeous as all of the pictures you see online. Following the blue gratto, we went back to the main port and we were given a tour at the top of the mountain of Capri by Luca. There, I am convinced, is the best gelato in the world. To top off the fact that their gelato is delicious, they hand-make all of their icecream cones. That's right. In a waffle maker. Hand-rolled. Still warm when you eat it. Amazing.

We then hung out at the beach for a couple of hours and got to explore until it was time to take the ferry back to Naples. Once we got to Naples, we got on our bus and headed home to Florence...we arrived at 12am. It was a long weekend for sure, but totally 100% definitely worth it.

An underwater shot of my fraaaands in the Mediterranean

"The cave of Lovers"

After thinking about it for a little while, I have been to the Mediterranean, Dalmatian, and Almafi coasts all in one month. While taking classes in Italy and rowing on the Arno River. To top it off, I will be going to Switzerland and Lake Como this weekend and I was able to score a discount code that has given me the ability to afford Oktoberfest for next weekend where I will be meeting a fellow classmate from Marietta and Zach's cousin Matt. 

HOW CRAZY IS MY LIFE RIGHT NOW?! I mean never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that I could work to make all of this happen, but I did it! I am beyond grateful for this opportunity but it is a sad realization that it is already 1/3 of the way over.

Some more fun facts about Italy and me (mostly me):

1. Smoking is a very common thing here and I hate smoke.

2. If you form relationships with locals, in my case at the boathouse, you are LITERALLY set for help with any troubles you may have.

3. Pompeii has very aggressive street vendors that scoff at you if you try to haggle with them for stickers.

4. The beaches of Capri are all rocks, so bringing your hand-towel thinking it will be small, easy to pack and useful for drying off is wrong. Just wrong. 

5. Some Florentines have this funny way of erging at the boathouse but it would be inappropriate to laugh since, ya know, you are using their facilities and all.

6. I take back what I said about the water in Cinque Terre. The water surrounding Capri was saltier.

7.  Yes, I still carry my nalgene with me everywhere. Yes, sometimes I get weird looks.

8. Converse are all the rage in Florence...as well as a "90's grunge" look (as my roommate refers to it...then again she is a fashion major so she knows all of that technical terminology for a specific style).

9. I miss Chobani still.

10.  I am so glad I took 5 years of Spanish because Italian is extremely similar to Spanish.

11. My apartment is not even 100 yards from the Ponte Vecchio, and its tourist season still. Enough said.

12. I found (okay so Zach found) a site in which I am able to use Netflix!!!!! ...my wifi is still the same though, haha.

13. Thanks again for reading my blog! Get ready for some craziness in Switzerland and Lake Como, Oktoberfest, and many more places to come! (There will be GoPro pics...get excited)

Come on, can you say beautiful or what?
 (on top of Capri)

In Capri they hand-make perfume from their
 flowers, "Carthusia"...it smells divine.