Czech it

Thursday, November 28th:
After recovering quickly from Barcelona for only 3 days, Ali, Danielle, Emmy and I (and a huge group of us from the program) traveled to Prague! We arrived in Prague in the afternoon and we immediately saw how beautiful and different the city is. Unlike the Western European countries, Prague looked cleaner, less like an industrial city and more like a fairytale. We spent the rest of day seeing some random sites and had our Thanksgiving meal at a great Mexican place. Also, I had a pumpkin spice latte, which was my first and last of the season- SO GOOD. AMERICA.

Friday, November 29th:
This day was solely devoted to sightseeing! The whole group of us travelled in a pack and saw the astronomical clock, Charles Bridge, the Lennon Wall, and Castle of Prague. The Lennon Wall was by far my favorite because of the intense, bright colors and we took a long time to take perfect pictures with it. Along the way, we ate at a not so great restaurant, but ate great little street food, like a sugared bread and shopped a little bit. Don't really remember what else happened this night!

Saturday, November 30th:
CHRISTMAS MARKETS! Since Friday was super busy and we pretty much saw everything, Saturday was our day to chill & explore. We first started off by shopping in some malls, and then went to the Christmas Markets, which were in the town square. The markets were super festive and there were a bunch of ornaments that were being sold which I bought! The tree-lighting ceremony was being held this night, but we couldn't really see anything from our spot in the square. Then, we were exhausted, so we decided to see the new Hunger Games movie, which was literally the best movie ever. I am so amazed that I saw an English movie in Prague!

Sunday, December 1st:
We headed back to Rome early this morning for our finals to begin- Hence, why I am writing such a short post!  

     

BARCA!

After just getting back from Florence/Pisa on Saturday & showing Kara around Rome on Sunday, I had 2 1/2 days in Roma and then Ali and I flew to BARCELONA!



















Wednesday, November 20th:
Ali and I left for Barcelona at around 5 and got into the airport there at around 10:30. Although we couldn't really see anything because it was dark, our cab driver tried to point out (in Spanish) the famous sites our hotel was near and the city looked really nice! We then went to bed early and got ready for the next day of activities!

Thursday, November 21st:
Ali and I slept in relatively late this day and then we headed out to explore the city. We first went to the BEST BREAKFAST PLACE EVER IN MY LIFE CALLED BRUNCH AND CAKE. It literally was a brunch place and a cake place at the SAME DAMN TIME. The first time we went (oh yeah, we went there 3 different times...casual) I got eggs benedict on a waffle, which was SOOO good and red velvet cake. After we were completely full, we walked to La Sagrada Familia, which was designed by Gaudi, the most famous architect in the whole city. It was such a different church than what is in Rome, and I can honestly say that I LOVED the church because it was so bright and colorful! After exploring the church, we went to Starbucks, which was my first Starbucks since August! Then, we ate a delicious dinner (typical tapas & sangria) at a tapas place and called it a night!


Friday, November 22nd:
Again, we slept in relatively late and went back to our favorite brunch place. However, this time I got french toast and it was the best I have ever had. After brunch (no cake this time), we walked to the main street, La Rambla, and shopped along the street. Then, we came to the famous market on that street and wandered inside! IT WAS SUPER COOL. There was so much fresh fruit and there were fruit juices everywhere. I bought 2 different kinds and each was delicious. After the juices we walked down to the port, which was cool and different to see. We ended the day with a dinner recommended from the hotel and checked out the main part of the city!

Saturday, November 23rd:
SOCCER GAME!
This day was an unique experience that I will definitely never forget. Ali and I woke up earlier than we had been and walked ACROSS THE WHOLE CITY to the soccer stadium, which was huge. We got there early and watched the stadium fill up with people wearing all their FC Barcelona gear. We then watched the whole game and it was extremely exciting because BARCELONA WON 4-0!! WOOOHOO. BARCA-BARCA-BARCA. We celebrated the win by going out to eat at Brunch and Cake and I got the best guacamole I have ever had. What a great last dinner!

Sunday, November 24th:
We woke up early this day, like super early at 7:00 am, and walked all the way up to the famous Park Guell, by Gaudi. THIS WAS THE PARK WHERE THE CHEETAH GIRLS PERFORMED STRUT. AKA MY FAVORITE SONG EVER. AKA. THE REASON WHY I WANTED TO GO TO BARCA IN THE FIRST PLACE. This park was by far the coolest park ever and the design and mosaics made it truly unique! Can you tell I kinda loved it?
Sadly, right after the trekking back to our hotel, we had to leave!

All in all, BARCA was amazing. I LOVED IT

NOVEMBER?

I have quickly realized that I have not blogged anything about November yet, and it is already November 20th. So, here goes nothing...

The first week of November (4-9th) was dedicated to showing guests around Rome. We hit up all the major places, such as the Colosseum, Piazza Navona, the "Andy Steve" dinner, the Vatican, Dar Poeta, etc.
One cool part was when Ali, her cousin, Morgan, and I explored the island that is right by our house and ate the BEST eggplant parm (with ricotta cheese and walnuts inside). It was super good, but not as good as the gelato we enjoyed before our lunch on the island. Too good actually.

November 12th:
Art history/ food and wine recap:

For art history we ran from site to site in the rain. We visited 3 churches and a palace, which were cool, but not the best site visit thus far.
HOWEVER. Food and wine class was my FAVORITE thus far. For sure. We took a site visit to a gelato shop and watched this old Italian man make hazelnut gelato from scratch. He showed us how he melts Nutella into the actual gelato and then we got to try 3 different flavors. I ordered pistachio, the freshly-made hazelnut, and chocolate. It was the best gelato I have had in Rome.

November 13th:
Didn't really do anything super cool this day.

November 14th:
HUNGER GAMES PREMIERE!!!

The movie, The Hunger Games (the 2nd one) was released in Rome and all the major celebs traveled to Rome to walk the red carpet. So, Ali, Emmy, Venesha, and I decided to just show up to the event and see what happened. We went further out in the city and ended up seeing the stars! We just walked up to the red carpet as screams erupted abut 100 feet away. We ran to see what the deal was, and sure enough, LIAM Hemsworth was there. He was so incredibly hot, I cannot even deal. Then we stayed by the red carpet and Josh Hutcherson and Jennifer Lawerence walked right by us and it was SO COOL. Venesha even got Josh's autograph. After the celebs left, we decided to push our luck again and we actually walked on the red carpet, met some Italian celebrities (?) and then went into the lobby of the venue. Overall, it was a very amazing experience that no one else can say they did in Rome!

November 15th:
FLORENCE!
The roommates and I left super early this morning with our program and made our way to Florence. I loved Florence the first time that I visited, and I knew that it was going to be great again. We started off with a walking tour of the whole city/town. It was a little boring, but then we went to a delicious free lunch with everyone in our program! It was so cool to eat with some girls that we usually don't hang out with and enjoy all the free food. Then, we all went to a famous leather shop, where Michelle knew the owner, and bought a ton of leather goods for cheaper than usual. Actually, I only bought one really nice hunter green purse, but I am in love with it. At night, we ate a famous panini place and we hung out with the girls in our program. So much fun.

November 16th:
PISA!
After shopping in the leather markets in the morning, Ali, Danielle, Emmy, and I took a train to Pisa, where we met our friend from school, Kara. We only had 2 hours in Pisa, so we ate at another famous panini place, and rushed off to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The Tower was huge and it was hilarious that every person was trying to get a perfect picture with it. Really cool

Andiamo a Venezia!

This Halloween was celebrated much differently than the usual dressing up & trick or treating (yes, I still have gone trick or treating when i'm grown up). Not only did I not go trick or treating, but I traveled to Venice! Here are some highlights!

Thursday, October 31st:

Ali, Danielle, and I got up early on Thursday (after Ali and I went to see an opera with our school the night before) and left for the train station. The train was a high-speed train and we arrived in Venice in only 3 hours! When we stepped out of the train station we were right on the water. It was so different than anything I have seen before, just because the water is literally right next to you the whole time you are in the city. After Danielle went to find her parents, Ali and I ate at a rather touristy restaurant where the food was not good at all. Nothing at all like Rome. Then, we walked around and around at looked at mask shops and glass shops (the only shops in Venice) and went on a gondola ride. The gondola ride was super amazing and it was everything like what you see on T.V. Next, we went up on a tower where you could see all of Venice! At night, we went to dinner, which was better than lunch, but not by much. I had seafood, which was really fresh! Then, we called it an early night & went back to our hotel.

Friday, November 1st:

After sleeping in and getting our beauty rest, Ali and I had another chill day. We wandered around Venice and took in more of the sights. We even sat next to a little canal and just watched some boats for a while. When we got hungry, we ate a bunch of sweets, like an awesome pistachio cookie dipped in chocolate and a less than impressive fudge/alcohol piece of chocolate, and went back to shopping around.

 I bought a really cute mask, and then we called it a day and headed back to Rome. Overall, Venice was a beautiful city, but definitely a little smelly, expensive, and very touristy. However, of course it was a fun experience!

2nd week of family

Monday, October 21st:
Everyone was still in Rome this day, but I had to take my New Testament mid-term at school, so Matt replaced me as  tour guide. My family went around Rome and revisited some of the sites that we had seen when Matt studied abroad. Then, we met up at night, but I again had to study for my Culture of Food and Wine midterm the next day, so I was a little stressed out.


Tuesday, October 22nd:
After taking my second midterm, I was finally free!! Everyone met me at my apartment and we headed off to Tuscany for a night to wine taste and see the Northern part of Italy. After driving up to Montepulicano, we arrived at the farm house where we were staying, which was so quaint and cool. Mom LOVED it. We couldn't see much of the grounds because it was dark, so we drove into the Medieval town, ate some food (sub-par) in a deserted restaurant and went to bed fairly early for our next day of activities.

Wednesday, October 23rd:

When we woke up, we found ourselves in the awesome farm house with rolling hills everywhere and an enormous amount of grape vines! It was so cool to finally see the farm in the day, and it did not disappoint. We ate breakfast at the farm, where we were the only guests, and had the FRESHEST meats ever (they were from the pigs on the farm, sorry guys) and really good homemade jams from the fruit trees all around the farm. Then, one of the owners, showed us all around the grounds, and we saw pigs, the vineyards, the wine production factory, and the big villa where the owners live. We ended this tour with a wine-tasting with the wine that the vineyard produces. After staying around for a little while, we headed back into Montepulciano and ate the best lunch ever of the town's speciality noodles, and went into every little shop. The town was way more empty than it was when I went there for wine-tasting in September, but it was still fun experiencing it. When we were totally shopped-out, we drove back to Rome, where I had to say goodbye  after grabbing pizza with everyone, Ali and Emmy. It was sad leaving my family after the awesome week we had all across Italy, but I realized that I only had 50 days left in Italy, so I will see them in no time at all!

Thursday, October 24th:
RECOVERY DAY! I had no classes this day, so I slept for a while, and then did some homework that I missed from the previous day. Cannot remember what else happened during the day, but at night ROBINSON CANO was at the local bar with Venesha, so I went and met him! It was so crazy to meet a celebrity in real life, because I have never met any celebrities before! That was pretty cool, I guess. Unreal.

Friday, October 25th:
My New Testament class had a site visit today, and we visited Saint Peter's! It was really cool to go inside the church because I had not been inside yet on while I have been in Rome (I know, I suck). Anyway, we had to wait in the super long line for hours, which was kind of a buzz-kill, but when we finally got to go inside it was worth it. Then, at night, I met up with my friend, Brent, and we had a PLL marathon and got super creeped out by the show.

Saturday, October 26th/ Sunday, October 27th:
Nothing memorable happened these days, I guess, because I cannot remember anything. LOLZ

La mia famiglia!

Thursday, October 17th:

 THE FAMILY ARRIVED TODAY & IT WAS THE MOST EXCITING DAY IN ROME THUS FAR! 

It all started very early on Thursday morning, when they got to the airport at around 8, and came to my apartment at 10. I didn't have class this day, so even though everyone was tired from traveling, my family and Ali, her mom, and Ron went out for a quick lunch at a really great restaurant that was the perfect first meal in Rome for our families. Then, me and the family walked around Trastevere and I showed them Santa Maria Piazza and some other little shops. After, we hopped in the rental car and drove straight to Naples, where we staying for the night and then driving to Positano on the Amalfi Coast. 

Ali's mom, Ali, Me, and mom

After we got to Naples, we checked into our hotel and went into the actual to eat THE BEST PIZZA IN LIFE EVER. The place did not even look like an amazing pizza place from the outside, but it was so good. 

Friday, October 18th:

After waking up late at the hotel, we left Naples, got a little lost because there was road work and no signs, which is SO ITALY, and started 

driving along the Amalfi Coast to Positano where 

we were staying.

  

We saw tons of beautiful views among the way:

Not really sure where we stopped and took these pictures, but I know that the mountain in the background is actually Mount Vesuvius and Pompeii where the volcano erupted!

  

After driving for a while, we got to Positano and walked up about 116 steps, me and dad counted one day, with all of our luggage to our AMAZING hotel called Conca D'oro. It overlooked all of Positano. Once again, pictures will do it justice. 

We just explored for the rest of this day, and we checked out the town that had a really cool beach (with a lot of sea glass) and a bunch of cute shops and restaurants. We ate at a place that was right on the water , and I had a fresh fish that they had          to cut up right in front of me! The sun was going down too, and it was so cool to see the sunset over the beach. Then we ate some ice cream pop things, which were really good, and walked around the little town more and called it a night!

Saturday, October 19th:
DAY TRIP TO CAPRI
Since mom and dad have never seen Capri, we took a boat from Positano to Capri in the morning to spend the day there. The boat ride there was super fun and once we got off the first boat we walked around the town for a little bit and then got back on another boat to tour the WHOLE island. I explained to everyone that we needed to do the boat tour cause Matt only wanted to hike on the actual island. BUT we went on the boat and it was amazing! I could not believe that I got to see the whole island again. However, this time me, mom, and Matt went into the Blue Grotto, which was cool and dark, but a total tourist trap. It was actually crazy when we were entering into the Grotto because we crashed into another little boat. Scary stuff. Later on in the day, we went back to Positano and shopped around a little more and ate some seafood on a cliff.

Sunday, October 20th:
This was our last day in Southern Italy, and we had to trek back to Rome so I could take my midterm for my Theology class. After I studied at breakfast, we left Positano and drove to the actual city of Amalfi, which was super crowded, so we couldn't really get out of the car and look around. Instead, we ended up in a small city where we stopped and I collected a bunch of sea-glass and everyone else sat by the water. We also saw a bride and a groom, which was pretty cool! After leaving this small city, we continued on and finally got back to Rome late at night. I had to study so we grabbed dinner quickly at Dar Poeta where we again ate the Nutella calzone. BEST.THING.IN.ROME

Papa, Papa!

Wednesday, October 16th:

For my Theology class on this Wednesday, we got
 tickets for the papal audience!
My roomies and I got up so early and walked to St. Peter's in the semi-drizzle of rain. We got seats on the barricades because that is where the "Pope Mobile" passes and we waited for hours for Pope Francesco to arrive! There were a bunch of super cute kids in front of us and everyone was generally happy, which was nice to see. Then at 10:30, the Pope came out and greeted the audience and rode around on his little cart in the audience. He came close to us and it was so surreal that the POPE was so close to us. Although I didn't get the best pictures or get THAT close to him, the other Providence College students gave him a zucchetto ( a little pope hat) with a note inside that he read and it was all over the news! Then, the Pope read an address to the people and he mentioned that Providence College was in attendance. It was a really cool experience!