Leather Leather Leather...

AHH I have internet for the time being!!

I am sorry this has taken so long, but our internet went out and in Italy, everyone just moves slower. So of course there was no rush to fix it. It is actually still not fixed 3 days later, I am just connected to some "guest" wifi with a low signal, but it will do for now :)

I have so much to tell! A few days ago we were treated to a nice walking tour of Florence. I mean nice as in the city is unreal, but the weather was about a cool 30 degrees during the day and may or may not have gotten frostbite on my fingers. But anywho, I still feel like I am on vacation and will be leaving soon, so I have the urge to buy EVERYTHING I want now. For example, I already bought my leather jacket and leather boots (to be fair I had birthday money I wanted to use to buy them). They are SO CUTE and I'm in love. I also got a sweater poncho thing from H&M because everyone wears them and it was cheap! And a little bucket hat as you will see in my picture in front of the gold bronze doors :) all very Italian. We also got to hike up (and trust me, I mean hike UP) to the Piazzale Michelangelo where we saw the entire city. It was so beautiful, but I am going to go again when it is sunny and not so cold out. Like today for example is sunny and chilly.

I also did a quick run through of the Uffizi gallery so I could get all my excitement out of wanting to see everything immediately, and am looking forward to spending hours and hours admiring everything in more detail on a free day. Like La Primavera. Ohmygoodness. *sigh*. The same day Maddy and I also went to a small leather market and found the jacket of my dreams. It is dark brown and tight fitting with little buckles at the bottom. The best part of the purchase was being taken down to some sketch leather warehouse dungeon that you enter into by some random door on the side of a building... it was an experience haha! At first we were like ah.. maybe not... and the man turned to us and was like "Italy is safest country in world. Come." And it was completely same as he said!

Yesterday we shopped around in the rain exploring more streets of Florence. There is literally tiny shops in every inch of the city. No matter how lost you get, you can shop, ha! I swear Italy much have the best economy ever, everyone is always out buying things. We also cooked dinner for the first time and it was a success. We had pasta with locally made pesto sauce, salad, and some kind of breaded chicken patties we found... but it was all delicious! We then went out and got some gelato (literally the best place we have been so far, hidden on a small street) and I got a cone with flavors of Chocolate nut, hazelnut, and tiramisu. It was SOOOO good but a huuuge amount, and of course I ate it all :) After getting lost for a while walking, we went and had expresso shots in a cafe and sat and chatted for an hour and a half.

Today was a wonderful morning! We were out the door by 9am and visited Mercado Centrale, the biggest food market in Firenze surround by a huge leather market (San Lorenzo). We got chicken, wine made locally and only in Florence, pineapple, bread, and lots and lots of thick yummy pasta! We passed on the pig tusk, hooves, whole animals and other not so good looking items. We felt like real Italians shopping! I also discovered I like a sandwich! Bread, spicy salami and lettuce. I end up having it almost every day for lunch.

Maddy is in class right now and my first one is tomorrow, but I go from 9am to 5:30pm. Long day but all of my classes will be a blast so I am excited! So that's all for now, ciao!

 I live by the clock tower building!

 Piazzale Michelangelo

 This is the Piazza where I live :)

 My Italia hat!

 Front of Duomo

Ponte Vecchio!!

My boots, poncho and scarf :)

Our first home cooked meal!

Apartment Pics!

Here is our cute little apartment! But it is messy in the pics because we had just moved in... so imagine it without the clothes everywhere...

More pictures of Florence will come tomorrow! Ciao!

Ciao! I am Ali and I live in the heart of Florence.

Tile floors, Tuscan apartment, huge open windows on the top story of an ancient building, right off the Piazza della Signoria and a block from the Uffizi, beautiful huge dark brown wood furniture, stone walls, church bells ringing though our open windows, and I am never coming home. La dolce vita.

Before I go into my love affair with Florence, I have to tell you about the rest of my wonderful trip to Rome. Two nights ago was a friend's (Natalie) 21st birthday. Maddy, Natilie, Chandie, Lindsay and I went to dinner and shared the house wine over pasta and pizza. We asked the waitress for a good place to go out to, and she told us of a local pub she though we would like. And OH MY GOODNESS best night of our trip so far, and I think it will be hard to beat. First, we were the only Americans in the packed bar - awesome. Second, a live band was playing fun music - American pop music to be exact - and everyone knew the words, it was hilarious. Third, we had many drinks and danced and met many Italian guys (some creepy, some not, ha!). And last, we didn't leave until almost 3 am! It was so fun! Trying to talk to the Italians was the best part, because they would try hard to speak English, and we would speak in Spanish with somewhat of an Italian accent, and the result was great. The band ended up singing "Happy Birthday Valerie!" instead of Natalie for one example haha!

The next day we saw the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel, which I have seen before but had a MUCH better experience this time around because I have been studying art for a while now and had a much better appreciation for it all! And St. Peters with Michelangelo's Pieta was still monumental... so beautiful!!

So now Florence. We left this morning on a 4 hour bus ride here. We had one stop in which I got a real Italian cappuccino - so delicious, and strong - and when my group arrived we realized we would have to hike through rugged cobblestone roads for 10 minutes carrying two large suitcases, a duffle bag and a carry on... it was horrible, but all 9 girls in my building laughed and laughed the whole way there. Lets just say we had about 5 "rest" stops in 10 minutes lol. And a few Italians stopped and took pictures. We were the ultimate tourists. And then we arrived at Piazza della Signoria (yay!) took a left and saw two huge brown doors in between a food and wine shop and a store. We were home! And then we looked up. Oh no. You have got to be kidding me. Yes. Our apartment is 5 stories high. And yes we had to carry everything up the stairs. It took about 25 minutes for 9 girls ha! But 100 calories burned later, we arrived at a glass door with metal bars (cute) and unlocked it. ANOTHER FLIGHT OF STAIRS - not joking - but this time they lead to a large common room, which had three different doors, which were our three apartments! There are 3 girls in each, and we were happy to see we were all so close! We opened all of our windows and began unpacking. It is so cute and adorable and I will upload pictures for y'all tonight!! Right now we are going to go buy some food and towels, and walk around the beautiful city, so until I upload pictures, Arrivederci!!

Day 3 - Ancient Rome!

Wow today was amazing! But let me start with last night...

We decided to walk (aka hike and get sidetracked) to Trevi Fountain before dinner last night. It was kind of a long walk but very fun! Maddy, Shandie, Natalie and myself all made the trip and took pictures along the way, getting us completely lost in small side streets and luckily walking into Trevi Fountain by chance. It was beautiful! and we threw coins in for luck :) After that, we ate dinner at the cutest little place by the fountain. It was warm and cozy and we all had pasta and wine. Yum! We then decided that we should definately buy Corona beer from a street vender and walk to the Colosseum at 11 oclock at night and take pictures haha! So we did, and it was a blast. We got back late and slept, but Im still having trouble sleeping through the night.

Today we walked on a 4 hour tour of Rome! Going into the Colloseum and Ruins of the Forum was definately my favorite. It was all so beautiful and ancient, and did I mention monumental?? I don't know how they did it! We also saw the Arch of Constantine, the Pantheon and a few other places and took about a million pictures. At lunch we walked accross the Tiber River to a part of Rome with no tourists and real Italians and saw the oldest church in Rome from the 4th century!! We ate lunch there as well at a tiny adorable little restaurant where I had the BEST PASTA OF MY LIFE! It was thick and homemade with a pesto sauce to DIE for. I've also decided Italians stay so skinny while eating nothing but carbs because they have small perfect proportions that don't make you want to gag yourself because you are so full, unlike America...

After lunch we had a bus tour of Rome, which everyone pretty much slept through because we were so exhausted lol. Then we took a nice long siesta, and now I am here :) We are about to go out for Natalie's 21st birthday tonight! So that's about it for now. Tomorrow we go to the Vatacan, so I will update soon and hopefully have pictures in the next few days! Ciao!!

Day 2- City of Rome!

Well I will give a much better update tomorrow, but I am at the hotel in the middle of Rome so it is a great location! Tomorrow we go on a 3 hour walking tour and then a bus tour to farther away places. Wednesday we tour the Vatican, so it should be an exciting couple of days! I am in an internet cafe right now and the keyboard is interesting, and everything is Italian so Im lucky I made it to this website haha so excuse my bad punctuation. We had to wait for our group and bus at the airport for a few hours today, but I had pizza and gelato (so good!) and met some nice people once we got to our hotel. The gelato man also told me "very nice" when judging my appearance... thank you gelato man. Ok well I will have a better update tomorrow!

Ciao!

Day 1 - I'm alive!

Two stuffed oversized suitcases. One Vera duffle. One Vera bag. And me in my red peacoat looking like a typical American dragging twice her body weight behind her. But I made it! All of my bags and I made it! (Though sleep was obviously left behind in the US because I didn't get any during my flight to London or Rome).

The plane rides were typically boring and I managed to get somewhat lost in the London airport. I tried to buy a water, and I started pulling out euros, and the cashier said "Oh are you not paying in pounds?" (me) "Oh... no..." (cashier) "Well we can take euros, but I have to give you change in pounds, but we can also take dollars". In the end I somehow bought a water by combining a 1 euro coin and a 1 dollar bill... I just didn't ask questions and took the water, I was dying.

Then I was in Rome and yes! my luggage made it. So I take it all and hike towards the busses where my shuttle should be. I waited about 40 minutes in the freezing cold, but it came. So take that mr. taxi driver who tried to scam me out of 25 euro saying the shuttle doesn't come on Sundays. Hah. I also made a nice friend for 10 minutes waiting for my shuttle, and he was waiting for his. He was from South Africa (they have scottish sounding accents) and probably the nicest person I have run into so far. But the two Italians from the shuttle who took me to the hotel were probably the funniest. They did not really understand English, and I obviously don't understand Italian, so naturally we ended up speaking in Spanish. And when they found out I was from Texas, all the could do was giggle and say Cowboy. Yeah. It was an interesting ride.

Maddy and I reunited and are now in our hotel getting ready to go eat finally, and are meeting up with the rest of the ISA group tomorrow to head into the city of Rome! That's all for now :)

Ciao!