I'm Not Going to Die...I'm Not Going to Die

Once again I apologize for the delay but here is the last blog about the weekend. Saturday was quite the day, let me tell you:

It all started off with me and my roommate meeting my friend at Ganzo for their infamous brunch. If I have a free saturday morning, you will find me at their brunches. It's set up as a buffet with such high quality food and then they'll make you eggs if you ask and it's all just so delicious. But the only problem with it is that they tell you that you HAVE to finish the food on your plate. You are really not allowed to leave any food leftover because they dont' want anything to go to waste. So I pretty much ate my brains out and was beyooond full but it was the most delicious meal I've had and I loved it so I didn't regret any of it. After brunch, we had to decide what we wanted to do for the remainder of the day. The Duomo is one of those sights that you need to see when it's sunny out, otherwise the sites arn't as worthwhile.

Me and my two friends were standing on line to enter the Duomo but we wanted to the do the one where you walk up all the steps to get the amazing view of Florence and one of my friends said it was the Campinile Tower (aka Giotti's Bell Tower) right next to the Duomo, so we got off line and then headed over to the tower. We paid 6 Euros to walk 413 steps up this building to the right -->.

About a quarter of the way up, I was dying. I couldn't move anymore. My legs were throbbing, I was panting my brains out, couldn't have been a clearer way to say, "Hey Emily, you're really out of shape." But the stairs were really steep and there were a lot of them, and the hallways were sooo thin. An elevator would've been so much more convenient. Just saying.

But about 10 minutes later, and a lot of panting, sweating, and climbing, we all made it to the top and the views that we were able to see were INCREDIBLE. It beats the Piazzale di Michiangiolo by a landslide. For some reason though, the sights I saw remninded me of Willy Wonka...I'm not sure why, but maybe one of you will see what i mean. But just admire these views. If you go to Florence, this is something you should not even consider missing. Pay those six euros, climb your brains out, and go see the sights it has to offer for those who successfully made it to the top.

We were probably up there for almost an hour. When you see the views, it's just that you never want to leave. The weather was beautiful, the views were spectacular, it really makes you think. We all started talking about just how surreal it still is, even after a month to be living in Florence for a semester. Think about it, who REALLY has the opportunity to do this. It's a once in a lifetime chance, and us three go to live it. Already we started talkinga about studying abroad again next year, but who really knows what will happen. For a while though, we all just separated on the rooftop and continued to look out into the distance. My mind kept wandering about life and what I want to do once I graduate and how lucky I am to get to study in such an amazing city to help me determine where my future can take me. I've been here a month and so many doors have opened for me.

After we all left the Campinile Towers, we decided to go back and decided us three would go out for the night again to our popular bar, Amadeus. We all got dressed up and went over there to see our favorite people once again. They love us there. That's one tip I have to give. Find YOUR bar/club. The place that you always go to, make friends with the workers there, and make memories and close friends. We love being there because everyone knows us and they treat us incredibly well every single time. I wish I could remember my whole night, but that just means I had a good night right? Hahaha. I love the weekends because they are always filled with adventure and surprises.

This coming weekend, with my culture class I'm going on a free trip to Sorrento, Capri, Napoli, and Pompei.....I wonder what surprises are going to come then? I guess there's only one way to find out....

The Color Green Does Exist in Florence

So as I promised, I need to keep you updated about my whole weekend because I've been busier lately and keep forgetting that there are people wondering what I did the previous day. The next day....Friday.

It all started off with me and my roommate meeting my friend at Ganzo for lunch. It was quite delicious, as usual. Afterwards, we had to decide where to spend our day. We knew it was going ot be spent outside because it was 65 degrees outside!!! It was the most beautiful day we've had so far. No clouds, no rain, all sun. It was unbelievable. We came to the decision of going to Boboli Gardens in Oltrano, the other side of the river. It's located behind Piti Palace and it's just this huuuge garden area that is full of hils, fountains, statues, flowers, and it just incredibly beautiful. i would HIGHLY recommend this place. You really can't miss it, it's just so beautiful and you forget that you're in Florence while in there because all you see is landscaping. Here's a quick glimpse of it:

And that's not even close to all of it. I was in there for about 3 hours before I left and actually didn't see it all. I've decided though, that I'm going to be in there a lot because it's just so beautiful and it's an amazing place to just sit for hours in the sun and read. Even if it does cost 7 Euro, it's, in my opinion, a view that needs to be seen over and over again.

After we left the gardens we went back to our apartments and I spent my night in because I was so wiped out from walking that day. It was very comforting to just sit in bed and talk to my friends after a long day.

Sorry that this blog isn't much longer but the majority of my day was spent inside the Boboli Gardens and then in my room for the remainder of the night. But it was definitely a day well spent and I'm glad I spent it outdoors in the beautiful weather. Made the day so much more worthwhile. So in a case like this, I think I will post more pictures to show you what the landscaped part of Firenze has to offer:

Once again Florence, I have fallen in love with you. <3

Haiti Relief

I know I've only been posting about Italy for the past couple of weeks but yesterday, I was in a gelateria and they had on music videos and there was one of all the stars singing for Haiti Relief and I thought it was amazing and worth mentioning in my blog. Please watch this, lives were lost, houses were destroyed, memories were demolished. The least you can do is watch this video. Thanks!! <3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Glny4jSciVI

Do I Really Have to Even Question Why I Love Italy?

So my sincerest apologies go out because I have been so lazy to write in this blog while I have actually been going out and seeing the sights. I know you are waiting to hear about adventures that I've gone through in the last couple of days. This is why I'm going to write three separate blogs. Most likely all today, about what I've done within the last three days. So I'm going to start off with Thursday: (I promise I won't bore you to death)


So out of all my days of the week, Thursday is by far my favorite, and I can say that with such enthusiasm. It starts off with Chocolate Class and I'm ALWAYS excited for chocolate class. Usually we meet in a kitchen close to my apartment but as soon as we arrived there he said that he was taking us to his chocolate store. I have been there to buy chocolate but never to be in the back where he actually makes the chocolate from scratch. Our whole class hiked the lovely 1.5 miles to his store and once we got there we were all just staring at the chocolate in the store in shock because we couldn't believe that he actually makes all of that for a living. As soon as we all walked into the back to the kitchen, our mouths dropped. Every. Single. One. There were two fountains of constantly flowing chocolate. It was like a miniature Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. One was dark chocolate and one was milk; I wanted to die. He explained to us how each one of those was tempered already so he wouldn't need to temper it himself. We then did a tasting, which is the exact reason why I don't eat any thursday morning because I know chocolate will be entering my mouth at some point during my first class. Thursdays Topic: Ganache. We literally must have tried over 10 different chocolates. Plain ganache, rosemary ganache, tangerine, pepper, 100% cacao...which is nasty by the way. We all spit that into the garbage. We even tried green mint white chocolate bars....AMAZING! We knew he sold cookies and so someone jokingly asked to have a cookie and he gave us all cookies and they were fresh and straight from the oven and thin. I love cookies with a crunch so these were perfect. Then earlier in the class we made salt chocolate again and I jokingly asked him if we could eat what we made and he said Sure!! So we all at that as well. I have never in my life been FULL yes....FULL!! from chocolate! I didn't even think that was humanly possible. So when class was over he let us take whatever we wanted so I grabbed a bag full of chocolate, and ate most of it throughout the day even though I was sooooo full. Seriously, the single BEST class I've ever had in my life!!!!




The next part of my wonderful Thursday is culture class. But that's actually my least favorite part of the day. However this past thursday we got to talk about our three day trip that we have next weekend to Sorrento, Pompei, and Capri!! I'm sooo excited for it because I want to see other parts of Italy and this class trip is free because it's a part of the program which just makes it all the better. But after class is the part of love the most.....TRIPPA! Yes, Tripe...again. Every thursday me and my friend go and get Tripe right after our culture class and we literally had our money in our hands for the last 30 minutes of our class awaiting for the time to pass. We ran to our Tripe stand and found out they ran out of bread!!! It was sooo sad however we got something else where they just put the Tripe in like a container you eat straight out of and then they gave us bread with it. Even though I think the look of it is vile, I ate the whole thing still and the bread and still enjoyed it completely. Tripe has made me love every week that much more.





After our Tripe, we went back to our apartment and knew that we needed to get out more so we decided to be complete Americans and put on sweats, sneakers, and a tshirt and walked out the door for a walk (Yes, if you dress like that you are begging to be stared at) But we went for a walk and took just our cameras and keys with us. We decided to take a trip back up to the Piazzale Di Michealangiolo again because it was a beautiful day but by the time we got up there it was getting a little bit more cloudy. Here's what we saw on our walk through Florence once again:

Everytime I go up there, it just makes me appreciate Florence that much more and to see where I've been living for the past month already. I love it up there and I have a feeling I'll be there a lot more during the next couple of months.

After we finished taking pictures there, we decided to visit the San Miniato al Monte, which is the beautiful church up the hill from the Piazza. There were a lot of steps, tombstones decorated with beautiful flowers, and the amazing church itself. I can't believe I was here all this time and had not even known about this. Even if you have trouble walking or you know you'll have to walk really slow if it's a long walk, it's completely worth it. The views are to die for and the pictures you gain out of it are unbelievable.

Later on during the night we knew we were going to go out so we started to head back to take a nap but for me I need at least an hour for a nap and i wouldn't have had time to barely take a thirty minute nap so I stayed up and started dinner for me and my two friends. We decided to do an all American meal in Italy. So I made hamburgers, potatoe chips, and vegetables. It was the most delicious meal I've made, the burger's were so juicy and potatoes so flavorful. I must say, i am definitely bringing out my cooking skills while I'm here and I love it because it gives me an opportunity to experiement. For the remainder of the night we got ready to go out and to take out my friend for the first time since she's been here .

We decided to head to Amadeus again for the night because me and my roommate love it ther eand al the people are so nice to us. So we got there and we ran into some people we knew but they were heaed somewhere else so we decided to just hang out at Amadeus for a while. Then we headed over to the Lions Fountain which I haven't been to since the pub crawl and it was a lot of fun! Our bartender was from Sweden and he was soo nice to us and we had an amazing time singing to the karaoke on the tv and just hanging out. After a while we left and went to the Red Garter where we wanted to go to the bathroom and it was flooded! like i stepped into a scene in the Titanic...it was disgusting!!! Then we headed over to this club Lochness, sat down, hated it, and got up and left. That's when we decided to try the secret bakery again. We got there, knocked on the door, a man answered, and said....."What would you like?" We replied with two chocolates and a cream? He said okay hold on! We were all beyond excited to actually be getting something from the infamous secret bakery!!!! They were croissants filled with chocolate! We got three for three Euros and it was totally worth it! They were fresh out of the oven and the most amazing thing we've eaten as far as dessert goes. Returning to our apartment at around 2:30am, we have to say that our night was definitely successful. When you go out with friends, that's when the true memories are made and that night, I made quite a few.

Fiesole: Beautiful Panoramic Views....Nothing More.

I could compare my weekend to a potato; Starts off tasting really good with all the toppings and then you get to the bland skin and it just doesn't satisfy you anymore.

Since I already told you about my night at Amadeus and Blob in my previous blog, I'm going to skip ahead to Friday. You may all kill me for doing this but Friday I did nothing. Absolutely zip. Me and two of my roommates decided to make that day our laziest day since we've been in Florence. We stayed in our pajamas, watched movies, hulu, and read while eating our brains out. It was quite a lovely day if you ask me. But the main reason we stayed in that day was because when we woke up, it was pouring outside and it's just one of those days where you say to yourself, "Why go outside when you can be warm in your PJs and do nothing?" So that is exactly what we did. It was actually quite horrible and we felt incredibly guilty about it but oh well, it had to be done.

Saturday was a little bit more exciting because me and my roommate went on a trip to Fiesole which is a town about five miles outside of Florence. You depart from the Piazza San Marco, hop on the Number 7 bus and take it all the way up to Fiesole. The bus tickets are 1.20 Euros for one way so it was not that bad at all. This town is very small and is known for their ampitheater which holds many concerts during the springtime. However, since it's not that time of year, we went to go see the beautiful views it had to offer. This town gives you one of the best panormic views of Florence you will ever see. Here is some of what this place had to offer:

It was truly unbelievable. Although it was cloudy and kind of raining, it didn't stop me from taking astonishing photos. But let me tell you! If you can't walk up hills, forget about it! I almost died! These hils aren't very far up but the angle at which these hills sit is ridiculous!!!! I felt liek I was climing a completely vertical line. My legs were burning. There were girls there wearing high heels and walking up this hill. Let me tell you, I was waiting for one of them to fall over. I didn't get lucky that time but I know that someone had to have fallen down that hill at least once. But in all seriousness, once you get to the top of that hill, you won't regret a single muscle you pulled getting there.

After we saw the views of all of Florence, we were taken to a Roman Church that still exists today (although I highly doubt many people go with the height of those hills) It was very cool; very small and quiet and we even got to see the convent on the top. My clothes wouldn't fit in the size of one of those rooms.....just saying. And of course...we had to walk up ANOTHER hill to get to this church.

After we finished touring the church, we went to a market which was sooo small, there was nothing there and then they gave us free food. Probably my favorite part. Shocker, right? So then they gave us the option to either head back to Florence with them or stay and wander and take a bus later on in the day back to Florence. Me and my friend took the option of staying for a longer period of time and just coming back later on. We couldn't find much but we ran into one of the women from the school who took us and we asked her if there was anything else to do in Fiesole other than see the view. She blatantly told us....No. So that was pretty much our cue to leae and go back to Florence. Fiesole is beautiful and definitely worth seeing so if you need a quick day trip, I highly suggest going there.

When we arrived back in Florence we decided to get Tripe again!!! Thsi time the bread was better but the seasoning wasn't that great and ti was sooo messy, I got it everywhere. Even my jacket. :( After that we got dressed for the night and went out and I didn't get back until probably 4:30am. It was a looong night filled with drama and people and much more that isn't worth talking about. But I came back and talked to my roommate for a long time and Oovoo'd with some friends that I wanted to talk to. It was a lot of fun but then it was time for bed. :)

I think so far my week has been pretty good, yesterday I made an AMAZING chocolate molten cake that I ate the whooole thing and coudl probably eat about 10 more. We also made a cake that called for 450g of Starch! If we were smart we would've realized that, that much starch makes a cake a weapon. But we did it anyway and it was impossible to pick up with one hand because it was THAT heavy. But since we put melted chocolate on it, of course it became delicious despite the fact that it was like a brick was sitting inside of my stomach. The bad news is that I bought a ticket for the Florentina vs. AC Milan soccer game tomorrow and my Italian teacher won't let me go to it because I have a 10 minutes quiz. It's the only soccer game I can attend during my whoel time in Florence and a stupid quiz is now not allowing me to attend. I hae the ticket, I can't get the refund or anything. I guess this is one of the many reasons I don't like school. But what am I to do right? Oh well....maybe it'll get reschedules for some obscure reason. After that happened, my mood pretty much decreased about 60%. I'm trying ot make it go back up by buying myself small things like boots and gelato. :D

....I think the only thing I'm really looking forward to are my tentative weekend plans with Maria and Tripe again on Thursday!!!!

TRIPE TRIPE TRIPE......and other things that don't matter as much.

So I guess you've noticed that my blog updates haven't been coming in a lot anymore. But yesterday me and my friend realize what the main reason was. Within the first two weeks, we saw places and people in Florence that we'd never seen before. Experiencing experiences that we've never had before. And because of that, it had to be documented, usually with a camera and then told about in our blog because it was something new and exciting that we did. But since we've been here for almost a month, we done a lot, seen a lot, eaten a lot. It's just getting very repetitive and I don't to have to bore you with a blog that was written before.
So right now I think I'm just going to give a synopsis of what has happened to me over the past week:

Monday: So monday started off with my Italian cakes and pastries class. The assignment? Carrott Cake and some other cake I honestly don't know the name of. However, I really wasn't excited for this class because for my whole life I've hated Carrot Cake so I knew that I wouldn't want to eat it. But at the end, when it was made, I decided I have to try it because I could be missing out right?? So I tried it, and surprise surprise...i LOVED it. It was delicious. However, I heard it was nothing like the American Carrot Cake because this was not very brown or anything so I don't know. But from what I had, I loved it. We didn't put frosting on it or anything but it was still moist enough to make me satisfied. After class I went to the market. This time, I didn't accidentally spent 22$ on meat. But I did accidentally get two types of meat instead of a meat and a cheese because the butcher didn't understand me correctly. What I find funny though, is that I love going to the fresh food market because I love being around the food and thinking about what I'm going to make for myself during the week. The butcher that I always go to is my favorite person in the world there because despite the fact that he screwed up my order, he's really really nice to me. He always gives me free samples and talks ot me a lot and tries to help me out with my Italian. Probably one of the main reasons I love Mercato Centrale. The rest of my day pretty much included me cooking and then going to Italian class. Nothing to exciting for that day.

Tuesday: So my only class of Tuesday is Restaurant Management from 9-11:30am. You know how you can love your life but there's always one thing that gets in the way and makes it horrible?? Yeah, well this class is my one thing. It's 2 and a half hours of this man talking in an Italian accent, pretty much incomprehendable, and he's old and you know what exactly what that means: He talks monotone and sloooooowly. I can't handle it!!! And then we get a 20 minute break in the middle. Why? Oh, because he needs to smoke, EVERYONE needs to smoke. If you don't smoke, then you're American...that's how I think of it. But there is a small piece of that class that I like. And it's that it's actually relates to what I want to do in the future, own a restaurant (hence, restaurant management). But our final project consists of us pretty much forming our own restaurant and making the staff, and target market, location, etc and then present it to the class. And I'm very excited for this because I can use my presentation and relate it to my future. It kind of gets me excited and nervous all at the same time. After class, my roommate came to meet me and we headed to Ganzo for lunch where I had a very unfortunate lunch, for the first time ever there. Oh well. Can't always have a good meal. Weirdly enough, I can't remember what I else we did that day. Everything is always a blur. We did go and get gelato at a new place we heard of called Grom which is healthier. It was really good. I know it sounds like all we do is eat but I walk around a lot and then when I'm not, I'm eating. But I'm not always walking around to go someone so it's hard to talk about anything more than food. Later at night, I met my friend and a new kid she met and we met at this place called Joshua's Tree and it was a lot of fun. It's a very low key bar but all the staff is very nice and welcome and we just sat in there and talked for about 2 hours and then left because we had class the next morning.

Wednesday: I like this day because I don't have class until 6pm so I have the day free. This day was BEAUTIFUL too!!! It was 60 Farenheit so it was amazing! I wore a tshirt. I started off the day going food shopping and then i came back and I had heard of this 24-hour bakery you go to really really late at night and they give you very inexpensive pastries. So I decided to go search for it and see if I could find it for future reference. However, when I got to this secret location, I realized that I probably couldn't find it because I knew there was no signs for this place or anything and it also was around 2pm so clearly it was not open you so finding this door was pretty impossible. Then my plan was to go inside the Duomo because I was told that the best time to go was when it's very sunny inside so you can get amazing pictures, but of course it got really cloudy and so I couldn't go :(. However, I met my friend a restaurant she was at and I picked her up and we decided to just go walking all over Florence since we had the day free until I had my class. We walked past the Duomo and decided to go into a bunch of stores because we haven't really done a real shopping since we really haven't been into stores at all yet. We found some really good ones and some crappy stores that you can find in the United States. After about 2 hours of walking around I had to go to class. If something else happened, I can't remember. Two days is a long time ago.

Thursday: So usually Thursdays are my favorite day because I have my favorite class and then it's also my last day of the school week and it's time for the three day weekend. So I woke up and went to my favorite class, Everything Chocolate: From Therapy to Pleasure!! However, yesterday's class was very disappointing. Well first off, we made something I did not enjoy which was chocolate with fillings. The first filling was ganache, which I usually like but it was different. Apparently he put saffron in it, come on now...saffron? in a filling? doesn't not sound appetizing to me....does it sound appetizing to you??? Also, to top it off, he was in a really bad mood which was crappy because he is a really fun and exciting teacher to work with. After that class is my Culture class which, I'm sorry is the most BORING class ever!!! It's only an hour and fifteen minutes and it feels like 10 hours long. After class my friend and I wanted to get lunch and we kept seeing this stand outside on Via Macci that's ALWAYS crowded and we never knew why so we decided to go and just buy whatever they sold and just eat it. So we were waiting on line and it looked like pulled pork or something and then by the time we were almost about to order I looked at the sign and it said "Trippa" and I kept asking myself why that sounded so familiar and then I screamed "OH MY GOD! IT'S TRIPE! We're going to eat the inner lining of a cow's stomach!!!" But we decided to be brave and get it and i can't believe I'm saying it but it was one of the most delicious things I've ever eaten in my life. I actually would recommend this to anyone because it's just so delicious. After that, we decided to go back to shopping until we had to go and get ready for our four course dinner later on in the night. I ended up buying a sweater and we walked on the waay outskirts of Florence, it was kind of sketchy but oh well, I'm safe now. When we got back we took an hour nap (which was AMAZING) and then got up and got ready for the night. We went to Ganzo for a four course meal which was delicious:

Antipasti: Proscuitto wrapped Asparagus with parmesean balls and an amzing sauce.

Primi: Parmesean Risotto with some melon sauce in it to even out the strongness of the cheese and that was sooo good.

Secondi: Lamb Shank in a Balsamic Glaze with a Cauliflower and Walnut mash.

Dessert: Fruit Deep Fried Raviolis with a strawberry sauce and was INCREDIBLE!

After that we headed to a bar called Amadeus because our friend was leaving the next day for Paris and he was bartending there for his last night so we decided to go see him. When we were ther we heard about a small hole-in-the-wall bar called Blob and that we should follow a kid named Bob to get there. That may sound weird but it was just a student from London staying two months in Florence. So I met Bob who was extremely nice and all of his friends from England who were really fun to be around. We got to this bar/club and had an amazing time. I love finding new places like this...Florence just keeps surprising me. Then after, me, my friend, and Bob went ot go find this bakery again and WE FOUND IT!!! i knew I was right and when we got there, there was about 20 people waiting outside this door. But by the time they got there, they weren't giving out any more pastries, it was really sad but I shouldn't have eaten anyways, I've eaten too much lately. So we decided to go to Twice just to dance and we were there for a little while and left and headed back to our apartment later on. The day didn't start off so well but ended being amazing. Florence just keeps surprising me and I love it.

Tomorrow I'm headed to Fiesole which is a town right outside of Florence and the school is taking us excpet I have to pay about 2 Euros which isn't bad so I'm going to go. It's a very hilly area with a bunch of ruins and I hear it's very beautiful. The weekend is empty for right now because I spent a lot of money in the last two days and not on very useful things so I don't think I'm going to be doing much for the next week. Money + Foreign Country (with good food, bars, stores, and museums) = Very broke and sad Emily. :(

Rome Wasn't Built in a Day, But the Friendships I Made Were

1. BRING YOUR PASSPORT EVERYWHERE YOU TRAVEL!!!!!!!!
Well, I guess I may as well sum it up. Me and my friend almost got put in jail for three days. We were on the train and then these cops came up to everyone asking for our papers and we made copies of every single page in our passport because we were told that was alright when traveling within Italy. So the cops checked ours and said we need originals and we said we didn't have them and then we found out copies are not acceptable. Luckily, they let us go with a warning. Then, we we got to the hostel, we found out that they needed real ID too and that usually we'd be put in jail but for now they'll let us stay. We were soooo lucky but seriously, now we are attatching our passports to our hips.

2. The Colesseum is not a place to go when it's snowing.
It has been said that it has not snowed hard in Italy for 15 years, so you have to think, when is it really going to snow again? The chances are slim to none. Oh, but boy was I wrong. Waking up on Friday, my friend and I decide to go to the Colesseum bright and early so we would have the whoel rest of the day to go sightseeing. It was drizzling but we tried to be optimistic, and then we thought, maybe we shouldn't go today cause you want ot see it when it's sunny. But our friend that we met, Josh, he told us to suck it up and to go that day and see it, so we agreed. By the time we arrived there, it was raining a lot, but we had our umbrellas up and were ready to see the infamous architecture. We paid our twelve euros and went upstairs. It was amazing! I got one picture of the inside and then what happens?? It started SNOWING! Out of the 15 year break of no snow, it snows, the day I'm there, paying money. Then it's a blizzard and we don't even know what to do with outselves. We have to go inside and warm up because our fingers and toes were beyond frozen. Then a woman comes up to us and says that because of the snow, the building is closing. So we paid 12 Euros to go into a building, take no good pictures, and freeze our butts off, and got no refund out of it. Was not enthralled at all.












However, last night i got to back with a kid named Mitch and take some pictures of the Colesseum at night and I have to say that I think that made my bad experience here turn good because the pictures I got out of it were incredible and made me fall in love with Rome even more than I already had. Beautiful right?

3. 24-Hour Bakeries are the most brilliant invention on the planet.

So, when we arrived in Rome on Thursday night, we were starving and nothing in Rome was open. (Definitely not like New York City). But we heard from the guy Tim at the reception desk that there was a bakery that serves food 24 hours a day and it's baked fresh. So we respond to that by running down the hallway, grabbing our coats and shoes and money and headed out the door. Our new Australian friend Josh, came for the walk with us. We kind of got a little lost but eventually we found it. When I walked in, I could've sworn I heard angels. It was like a gift from God. They had fresh pastries being made and the size of everything was something that you couldn't even believe. After eating our troubles away of almost getting arrested, we walked back to our hostel incredibly satisfied.

4. Go to the Trevie Fountain when it's very sunny out.

Luckily, our day with the blizzard had to continue with more sightseeing so we headed to the Trevie Fountain. My friend ordered me to visit there and take pictures so I knew it had to be visited in the time that I was in Rome. For some reason, a miracle occured and it got sunnier, not warmer, but no more ridiculous weather. When we arrived at the Trevie, the sun was out and the fountain was flowing and it was the single most amazing fountain I've ever come acrossed. I didnt' want to leave because I just kept staring at it just mesmerized by the sights it had to offer.

5. It is possible to walk all over Rome, but know exactly where you're going.

So, walking home with my friend back to our apartment on Saturday we tried to go a long way, over a bunch of different bridges and taking a lot of pictures and getting as many sights in as possible. But we decided to not open the map until we found some place to go to eat. Bad idea. Because of course i think we found the one road that had not one food place on it. So we ended up wlking down this one road that pretty much took us into a residential district. We tried to find it on the map at that point and for the first time I had to say, "I think we're off the map." So a bus, adn about 4 miles later of walking, we returned back to the hostel ready to not move our feet for the next couple of hours. At least we got some good pictures out of it:

6. The Spanish Steps...yeah, they're just steps.

I don't care what the historical significance was or why they were built, but the Spanish Steps...they're just steps! There's nothing special about them. Even if it is beautiful, which I'm sure it is in the summer with all of the landscaping, i just think it was a sight that i would have been okay with missing. There was nothing there that really caught my attention. My house has steps, the hostel I stayed in had steps, I see them everywhere! I want to be able to see sights that will take my breath away and the only thing about the Spanish Steps that took my breath away was walking up them.

7. Never underestimate a hostel, you may meet the friends of a lifetime.

On Thursday night, my friend and I walked into the hostel in Rome and all we saw were people drinking and screaming and running around. We literally looked at each other and almost turned around and left because we didn't know what to expect. Little did we know, this hostel changed our view of Italy in the most dramatic way. I met the most amazing people, every worker was so friendly and helped us with anything; it was a place I never wanted to leave. My roommates were so amazing. First there was Mitch from Canada who is so cool and so much fun to hang out with. Then there's Victor from New Zealand who was a bit older but acted just like the rest of us. There were two other people I didn't know because they were never there but the last one was Josh from Australia. He had to be one of the sweetest people I've ever met. Me and my friend fell in love with him and had such a blast hanging out with him. He even let me straighten his hair. (You know, to go with that gay image of being a shoe salesman) Then there were other people from just the hostel. Lawrence and Aaron were always the very very drunk ones from Australia but they were a blast to be around. I hung out with them every single night. And I can not forget about George/Sjorn. That curly haired kid from Holland. Then the workers Tim and Angus, were soooo amazing. They drank with all of us and cooked and were so helpful with anything we needed. It was mindblowing. Everyone there was so nice to me and it made me think of my friends back home and how much I miss them. If I could have stayed in that hostel longer, I don't know if I ever would have left. This hostel made my trip to Rome above and beyond anything I imagined.