Firenze!

After a few weeks of saying that I wouldn't spend my money to go to Florence since I'm already going to be living there for four months, I caved. We have a week long break after our intensive italian course ended. Everyone in my program planned these great vacations to Greece, Amalfi, Paris, Oktoberfest, etc, but I really wanted to experience Roma while I'm here.

But I felt out of the loop so I went to Florence for the weekend. As I said in my last post, I missed my first train. Ended up being just fine. Got to Florence and met my friend, Maribeth, and her friends from school. We had a picnic at the steps of Santo Spirito. That was really nice. Cross the river with gelato in hand and went to Maribeth's apartment, very close to the Uffizi. We rested and went out for dinner and drinks for one of her friends birthdays. 

We woke up the next morning and walked to the Duomo to get a cappuccino and a cornetto. I planned on meeting up with some other friends from high school, Emma and Rosie, but we ended up being lost in communication. While Rosie was in the museum, I decided to walk around the city I will be living in. Florence is beautiful. Hands down. 

Difference between Rome and Florence:

1.) ROME IS HUGE. Florence is tiny. you can walk anywhere in Florence within just a few minutes. Not an issue at all. You have to plan for travel time in Rome, It could be close to an hour or two. 

2.) Things are very very close together in Florence. Rome is full of big streets for big traffic to travel down. The streets in florence are made for foot traffic, which I like a lot.

3.) It seemed like I only heard american study abroad students in Florence. Very high concentration of American girls in the areas I was in. Maybe I'm just not looking for it in Rome.

These cities are so different. I feel like once I get to Florence all I'm going to do is comparing it to Rome, trying to figure out which one I like more. I'm just enjoying Rome for now :)

When I arrived home Sunday night, there was a huge thunderstorm that kept me awake from 3am-5am. I skyped with an old co-worker which was so much fun but made my Monday very very lazy. 

Nothing else new here in Rome! Hanging out and being in awe day after day. Hopefully I'll wake up in time to see the Papal Audience tomorrow morning!

here are some photos from Florence:

 The Arno and the Ponte Vecchio

Baked goods at a Farmers market at Santo Spirito

 Fake David

Duomo and Clouds

Blogging on the go!

After a long pause in the bloggosphear, I'm back!

One reason I have been so delayed was because my computer broke! Che peccato! The hard drive died and I had to use my limited Italian vocabulary and the apple tech guys limited English vocab to reach the consensus that I needed to buy a new hard drive for €170. I hate money. But yes my computer is now working. The only bad part is that I basically lost everything. Bummer because I lost my first three weeks of Italian pictures.
It still doesn't ruin the fact that I'm in Rome. Still obsessed.

Actually right now I'm on the train to Firenze! Blogging-on-the-go!a few things could go wrong this trip. There is a train strike that starts tonight and lasts until tomorrow night and I already bought my train ticket home for 6 tomorrow afternoon so hopefully something will work out! I'm going to visit some friends and check out the lay of the land for when I get there. I already missed my first train this morning. I silenced my alarm at 5am. Whoops. Got to termini and was told to get on another train to Orte (?) and transfer to a train going to Florence.

I have the rest of the week alone in Rome so if any of you have suggestions of things I can do that are cheap and exciting, pleaseee let me know!! Classes start a week from Monday. I'm taking ancient roman art, age of baroque, and renaissance art. Oh and Italian. Lots of art history. I couldn't be more excited!!

Also, I bought my tickets to Madrid and Paris for the 1st week in November. I love those cities!

That's all for now. More on Florence later!!


Ciao Bella!

Things I have learned in Italy

Yesterday I took a day trip to Naples. Excited to eat pizza and experience a new Italian city, we booked our tickets home for late in the afternoon, around 6:30 pm. We left Rome at 8:15 am and purchased the cheapest Trenialia ticket, €10.50 each way. Being our first time going to Termini Stazione, we arrived at 6:30 am, thinking it would take us longer. At that point it was raining in Rome. Alright, deep breath, we're fine, just have to hang out at the train station for three hours. Don't get mugged, don't get mugged! I got a cappuccino and got on the train.

I slept most of the two hours we were on the train. Got to Stazione Centrale in Napoli at around 10:30 am and instantly went looking for L'Antiche Da Michele, the pizza place featured in Eat Pray Love. #obvi.

Took us sometime to find it but arrived before the lunchtime rush. We were seated instantly and the six of us ordered our own pizzas. It was the best pizza I have ever had. ever. Perfect in every way. Here's a picture:

Gorgeous, right?
the dough was light but chewy and the sauce was so simple. Perfect.

 Once we all finished our pizza (or tried, i definitely couldn't finish it all) we were all in complete food comas. All we wanted to do was lay down at rub our bellies into a nice long nap. But we couldn't. We were in Naples for another six hours. We walked down the main street from the train station and looked at sunglasses and shoes and then decided to find the National Archeological museum.

 We walked back to the train station and looked for the metro. found it but there was actually no way to buy tickets. just open escalators down to the metro. we hopped on and hopped off without any problem. Went to the museum and they wouldn't let us use the student discount because we're not students from the EU. Walked around the museum, hungover from pizza, for two hours. We still had four hours to kill. We found that there's not a lot to do in Naples except eat pizza and buy crappy shoes. The city is very very dirty too, trash everywhere and people are everywhere! Definitely made me realize my San Francisco bubble. We hung out in the train station McDonalds for another hour or two and finally could go and sit on the train. This was the same McDonalds I went to when I was eight when my brother got his camera stolen and he missed America. I think I got an ice cream cone. The train ride home was really gorgeous at sunset but took almost four hours because it took long breaks at every station. It was a very long day.

Here is just a short list of things I have learned in Italy thus far
- There are no toilet seats in public bathrooms. be prepared to squat.
- Rarely is there toilet paper. bring tissues or TP in your bag.
- Bring a lot of water, or be prepared to spend a few euros on water bottles.
- Sometimes you even have to pay to use the bathroom. what?
- Hand sanitizer. 'nuff said.
- Do not buy a return ticket for late in the afternoon/evening. Most tickets allow you to take a train four hours past the time listed on your ticket.
- Police officers do not speak English and are rarely helpful.

That's all for now. I should start studying for my midterm on Wednesday. Almost halfway done with my Intensive Italian! Wish me luck! or better, wish me bocca di luppo (in the mouth of the wolf, as they say in Italian)

te amo, Hallie

La Bella Vita

Ciao Tutti!!!

Rome doesn't cease to amaze me. I love the streets, the buildings, the history, the art, the food, the wine, the trees, the drinking fountains - almost everything.

I went out to dinner with Andy Steves, Rick Steves son, who is starting a weekend study abroad trip company. Small group of us went on a walk through the different piazzas then ended up at a great Italian restaurant near the Pantheon. The funny part was that on one of our first days in Rome, some of the girls I live with went to the Pantheon and we were following Rick Steves guide book and ended up at this restaurant. it wasn't until I was standing outside of it when I realized why Andy brought us there. It was great though.


Naples tomorrow for the day. going to eat some pizza and then coming right back. Any other suggestions?

My backpack for the past few days:

My backpack, my keys, my little vodafone, old bus tickets, sunglasses, my water bottle, information about Naples and my train ticket, map of Rome, Italian-English Dictionary, wallet, chapstick, pens, euro coins, my Italian textbook, and a sweater to cover my shoulders for the occasional church visit.

...and those are my toes




Still can't believe I've been in Rome for just little over a week, seems like a decade already! There is so much to do! Haven't even discovered half of Rome.


'till next time, Hallie