Dereck Comes to Italy!

Hello blog followers! (If I even have any). Soo I’ve been extremely busy lately- I know it’s not a good excuse- but I am finally back on my blog grind after a month without internet and me being my lazy self! :) Hey I'm livin life ok?! :)

WELL, Dereck visited good ol’ Santa Felicita and we adventured to Rome, Naples, Capri, and Pompeii. I was so happy he got to come and visit, we didn't think it was going to be possible, but we made it  happen thanks to his wonderful mother, Ellie! It was exhausting traveling to so many places in one week but it was so worth it and so so much fun! I think this week contained the most walking I have ever done in my life (not exaggerating) We planned the trip months in advance, so we didn’t really think about the idea of free time in all of our destinations. Dereck really wanted to visit Rome and Capri, but in order to get there we needed to pass through Napoli, the garbage can of Italy in my personal opinion (no offense, I love pizza just as much as the next person). We also planned to stop by Pompeii, thinking it was just a “stop and see the ruins real quick” kinda thing, but actually turned into being a “let’s explore the ancient city for two plus hours while almost missing our train” sorta thing. The day he got here, Friday, we went to my fav place, Gusta Pizza, for lunch then had a nice dinner at Anita's, another "list" spot of ours. We went to bed early because we had to get up for our long train ride to Roma in the morning!

a little sleepy on our 3 hour journey to Roma

Rome, even the second time, was awesome. Dereck was obviously loving it, running around like a child and taking pictures like it was his job. We woke up early almost every day for touring or for our train (didn’t make time for sleep in our plans either) and were sometimes a liiiittle cranky from all the walking (ok, so I was more cranky). At the Colloseum, we got convinced into taking pictures with a gladiator con artist who tried to get us to pay 20 euro for pics we took of him—no charge to him—so when I only gave him a two euro coin he was noooot happy to say the least…oops! We got a mediocre tour of the Colloseum then got to adventure ourselves for a bit before heading out. 

shoulda done it.

the Colosseum! ..and cool Italian smart cars

We figured out how to get to the Vatican, finally, and there we had to get into a huge line to wait to see the Sistine Chapel. Once there, we pretty much ran through the entire museum to see the huge Michelangelo painting in the chapel—for Gram of course. Dereck snuck a few pics and purchased a lovely set of rosary beads for Gram and we booked it outta there to check off a few more destinations on our list. 

for Gram!

illegal photograph of the Sistine Chapel...don't tell!

at the Trevi Fountain

That night we went to our hostel to check in, so happy to finally put our backpacks down and take off our shoes. We stayed at the Yellow hostel, which was decent and had a bar in the hostel where we got a couple of free drinks. We went out to dinner across the street and got a free shot of limoncello—not the best but needed to be tried—then proceeded, sleepily, to the Trevi Fountain—which was beautiful, etc., etc.—but whatever, we were too tired so went to the Yellow and slept for maybe 4 hours before waking up and heading to the train station.

the middle of the island, so colorful

  The next day was CAPRI! I was the most excited to see Capri because it was a side of Italy I had not seen before. The island of Capri is off of the Almalfi coast and was recommended to us by a lot of people. The weather wasn’t beach weather but the island was so nice! The only tourists were Asians obviously, so it being less touristy made the trip pretty laid back and I loved it. We took a train to Naples, and then a bus to a ferry that took us to Capri (we were doing great with the transportation up to this point). Once we got to Capri we walked off the boat and were completely overwhelmed. We didn’t do much research before the trip, so we really didn’t know what types of things we wanted to do on the island. We picked up a guide book (with oh so many typos) and headed to the Anacapri, the other side of the island. Capri is like two small mountains; one side is the Capri and the other is the town of Anacapri.

We walked through tiny streets that only scooters could probably get through for a while until we found our hotel, Hotel Bussola (Hotel Compass). Coming from Rome, where we stayed in a nice hostel (but it was a hostel), this hotel was great! It was like a normal B&B type hotel, and the people were so cute. The main lady was Rita, who told us all the things we could do before it got too dark out- she even called the boat company to see if they could get us in the Blue Grotto before it was too late- how sweet! She encouraged us to go see as many sights as possibly, and mapped it out over the map she gave us. 

So we put our backpacks in the room- thank god- and headed off to the bus stop where we caught a bus to the Blue Grotto, which wasn’t far at all. We had no idea what to do from there, so we just headed down some steps to what seemed like the cave and watched what seemed like 50 row boats go into the grotto, then out and in a circle to we were on the dock, then back. We tried to get some of the boats’ attention, but none of them spoke English or told us to get on their boat. We were getting really confused until we realized we just had to wait our turn- stupid Americans :) When all of the people from the tour boat in the distance were finished going into the Grotto, one of the guys picked us up on his boat and took us in. The cave entrance was so small we had to lean back in the boat just to fit through- scary! Once inside the cave, the man sang and tried to tell us about the Blue Grotto and himself- there wasn’t much I remember and/or could understand so we’ll skip that. We got a few pictures- mine without flash obviously- and then the guy got a really great picture of Dereck and I! 

picture of us in the Blue Grotto

We tipped him, hopped out, and took a bus to the center of Anacapri. At that point we were pretty hungry (what else is new) and we went to the nearest restaurant we could find. We met some doctors who were traveling around Europe and went to Capri on a little vacation. One of them was very quiet but the other was pretty much the opposite. He was really friendly and told us to put all our pictures on Facebook- will do haha. From there we went to the chairlift, which took us up to the top of the mountain. It was a one-person chair so we had to hop on really fast and got pulled up the steep hill. Along the way we saw a million Asian people going down and realized there was no one else going up- guess we missed the tourist crowd. At the top it was an amazing view! You can see the entire island of Capri from some points. My favorite part was the side of the island that no one visits…there were only birds flying around and it was so peaceful. [video] In the distance, you could even see Sorrento, Italy! We stayed up til we were freezing and then took the chair lift back down. 

Dereck seemed to be enjoying the ride

its a little scary going up that mountain alone!

edgy one of Dereck- Capri :) and Sorrento in the distance

you can see Odysseus' rocks behind us!

 

That night, we wandered to Capri to get dinner where we ran into my roommate, Kelly, and her friends who were also visiting! It was getting late though and apparently the whole island shuts down at 7 (cutie-ville? yup!!) and we were both having a hard time finding a restaurant. We eventually found a small one and ate quickly so we could go to bed- early day the next day as always! The next day we woke up, had a quick breakfast thanks to the nice people at our hotel, then literally ran (yes I did break into a sprint) down the mountain to catch our ferry..luckily we just made it, but unfortunately I didn’t have time to steal a fresh lemon or orange off of one of the trees there! 

Now on to Pompeii! Or so we thought. Before we left, we made sure to do some research so we didn't get lost or anything and found a website by "the Cole Family" (fitting, right) that told us how to get to the metro in Naples, which we needed to find to get to Pompeii. After 2 hours of walking with our heavy backpacks, sweating and attempting to talk to locals in Italian to find this metro, we were about to give up when we realized that we were back at the original train station we had come in on the day before. Hmmm. We went inside and to our surprise, and aggravation, the metro was simply right below the train station (kills me just thinking about it!) Well we were already 2 hours behind schedule, but I was still determined to see Pompeii. We did some quick thinking and decided that we could do this. We went up to the information desk and got our ticket back to Florence moved back so we would have a few hours at least, to see the ancient ruins of Pompeii. We were so close and we had come too far to let it go. Before we knew it we were on the metro to Pompeii, Dereck like a little boy yelling at me to look at things out the window, while I'm trying to guard my bag from some creeper who looks like he's about to pickpocket anybody who comes too close. The metro was an experience, but luckily it wasn't too long! In Pompeii, we started out slow- I mean how many ruins could there possibly be after all? We'd have plenty of time....we thought wrong. A half hour in we realized there was a city the size of Rome (OK exaggeration) here and we were sprinting around trying to see as much as possible, and still have time for pictures. The place was huge- and awesome. I'd recommend it to everyone, but definitely give yourself a day there, or at least more than two hours if you really want to see everything. It was crazy how in tact everything there was, I couldn't believe that this was an ancient civilization- I had never seen anything like it. 

 

Dereck feeling like the King of Pompeii

 Even getting out was long, there was so much to see! When we finally made it back to Naples, we stopped at our fav spot, McDonald's (you know that's not a joke) and got some fries and ice cream MmMmM :) Then, back to Florence- home sweet home! By the time we got back it was already Monday night, and we only had Tuesday and Wednesday left together in my favorite city :(

 On Tuesday and Wednesday, I unfortunately had class during the day, and afterwards me and Dereck caught up on Sons of Anarchy, which he so nicely brought to Italy for me for a late Valentine's Day gift. While I was in class, Dereck explored the city, tasting all the chocolate croissants he could find or making his way to Gelateria dei Neri for some gelato (chocolate of course). We also hit up the San Lorenzo leather market, hung out on the Ponte Vecchio like romantic couples are supposed to, and even put our love lock on the bridge! How cute were we?! :)

corny couple :)

On the first night, we learned the song "Call Me Maybe" and watched the music video maybe twelve hundred times (overdoing it? nahh) I even had to draw mustaches on everyone so we could reenact Justin Bieber's Youtube hit with the song (we're not 12 or anything). It was only necessary.  Then we proceeded out for the birthday celebrations to Uncle Jimmy's then Lion's, well almost (you know how it is)

yes, we went out in public like this

I Love Florence!

The next day we climbed the duomo in the morning. On our last full night, we climbed up to Piazza Michelangelo and got some nice shots of Florence at night (see above photo) To celebrate Kelly's friend Maggie's birthday, we went out to dinner at "Franco's" (can't remember the real name) and got some special treatment because we were with his fav customer, Carolyn. It was delicious, especially the bruschetta, and it was a great way to end an awesome week. It was most certainly a once in a lifetime opportunity and it could not have been any better! :)

Beautiful Verona

Ciao,

So yesterday three of my roomates and I decided to brave the public transportation system of Italia and visit Verona, the city where Juliet, from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, lived. This was the third city outside of Florence that we have visited (Rome the first weekend and Venice for Carnevale). We were all very excited about this and couldn't wait to see the city in the movie "Letters to Juliet". I personally have never seen this movie, so I really didn't know what to expect. We woke up after about 3 hours of sleep and ran to the stazione to catch our train at 6:55am. Needless to say, we were all very exhausted and not looking our best (as you will see in some of the following pictures). The night before we had met three adorable Italian girls who didn't speak much English but were so fun! I think they were just as obsessed with us as we were with them :) Here's a pic if ya wanted to see, which I know you do :)


us and the girls!

When we got off the train in Verona, all we could see was a giant city and it didn't really look like what we were expecting. Luckily, with some much needed help from locals, we made our way to the bus and were on our way to the city center. We got off at the amphitheatre, or Verona's Arena, which is Italy's third largest arena after the Colluseum. Here, in Piazza Bra, is where gladiators of the day fought and thousands of spectators watched. It is weird for me to think of how this building was the same structure but such a different scene back in 30 or so AD.



Verona's Arena, very similar to the Colluseum

From here we walked through the shopping center of Verona, which looked alot like the streets of Venice. Luckily, it was alot warmer than when we were at Carnevale and we could really enjoy the beauty of Verona. The city was extremely calm and just very picturesque. We stopped at a caffe to get some snakcs before dinner, then stopped at another practically next door to get a second helping (normal.) I had a chocolate croissant at the first and had some sort of spinach ricotta pastry at the second, which had all sorts of homemade goodies.



Don't they just look delicious



From here we walked through Piazza dei Signori, a major piazza in the city, where there was a market selling food and souveniers. Juliet's house was right near here, so we made our way through the crowds to see her balcony and touch the breast of her statue for good luck. The house was not what I expected at at- I had a picture in my head of a large villa where Romeo stood on the grass below to call upon Juliet. The house was on a main street, probably because of the tourism, and the blacony was very small and below was a cobblestoned walkway. I'm sure time has changed this spot for the most part, I was just surprised. I am also still not positive if this story was true or just a play made up by the imagination of Shakespeare. Either way, Juliet's family was known to live in this house and it was pretty awesome to get to see it.



Juliet's balcony...p.s. not Juliet on the balcony

 The best part of Juliet's home was the graffitti on the walls and the love locks. Everyone there was just so in love and the walls were dedicated for couples to express their love...it was just too cute. Also, there was a whole section of the area for couples to write their names on locks and "lock their love". One man even climbed up tot he top fo a gate to put his lock on the very top, so romantic. It was so cute I just had to buy a lock for myself (Dereck get ready to be romantic!).

us by the graffiiti walls



man climbing to the top...his love aint unlockin



After Juliet's house, we walked around the city for a bit, taking in the sights and forcing Kelly to take pictures of us because all of our cameras had died. The whole day was sunny and warm and we stood by the bridge and watched people go by and a band play in the street.

We went to lunch (not worth describing) and drank some nice red wine. Then we proceeded to the McDonald's in the train station where we all feel asleep on the table. Acceptable? Probably not. When we awoke we headed to the train where we slept some more and were given more food. Oh, how I love first class :)

Finally, we were back at home in Firenze! Finding a way back to our apartment from the random train station we were dropped off was an adventure in itself. We waited for the bus to come and were completely confused when it passed right by the bus stop. Apparently, you have to wave down buses in Italy...weird I know. So we wait and try waving down a taxi, which does not work. Double fail. Finally, we grab a taxi as someone is getting dropped off and get a ride to our home near the Ponte Vecchio :) Home sweet home.

Now, off to grab some gelato! :)

Out and About in the City

Buena Sera!

chocolate shaped as tools...doesn't look as appetizing!

Today was a great day! Although I slept through a museum tour of Uffizzi that I was supposed to go to, I made the most of it by exploring Florence a little bit and doing my two favorite things- eating and shopping :) We set out around 1 to find this great panini shop, Pino's, and ended up doing a little bit of shopping at Zara (which I recently learned is pronounced zah-rah haha) and Subdued, an Italian shop which had some really cute clothing! The whole day was a long hunt for scarfs and hats, but unfortunately none of us found any and will be freezing tomorrow in Venice for Carnevale! :( We also ran into a chocoalte festival going on in the center! I tasted a few different types of chocolate including hazelnut, melon, and wine flavored, and all were delicious!

Typical masks worn at Carnevale

Carnevale, as I learned on Wikipedia, "started as a time for celebration and expression throughout the classes, as wearing masks hid any form of identity between social classes." I don't really know much about the tradition of it but am aware that there are parades, shows, and alot of costumes and mask wearing. I am excited about buying a Venetian mask! I think its going to be really fun and I am so excited to see Venice, especially during these festivities! I recently heard that all of the canals in the city were frozen over- I hope they melted by now, otherwise it would be pretty cool to experience walking over the water in Venice, not many can say they did that! We're going with a group on a bus so hopefully they can tell us the activites for the day so we can get the best experience. Wish we were going for more than just a day but I'm sure this will be fun too!

Kristen, Kelly, and I at Gusta with our heart-shaped pizzas

The food here has been great! So far my favorite pizza place is Gusta Pizza, where they have the most delicious, freshly made dough and toppings. If you go with all girls, which we did the first time, they shape your pizzas in hearts which is really cute! I heard Mount Osuvious, where the Jersey Shore cast worked, had better but we have yet to find out.

felt good to eat some McDonald's

 Although we are all enjoying the great Italian food Florence has to offer, we are getting a little homesick for American food, so we also visited a few American food places. One, called "The Diner", served Italy's version of American breakfast and lunch. I really enjoyed the milkshake and pancakes here, but the bacon just wasn't doing it for me. They like bacon raw here and I could not eat any of it! The Oil Shoppe was great! I would consider this half Italian and half American. They serve paninis and salds and soups, but you can get paninis that were made for Americans, like chicken parm and meatball parm. Oddly enough, you cannot find either of those at most authentic Tuscan restaurants around here! Last but definitely not least, i had to stop in to my favorite place of all time, McDonald's. Call me weird, but i had the biggest craving for a double hamburger and fries and just had to give Italian McDonald's a try. It was a little different from home, serving shrimp and mozzarella burgers and not offering double hamburgers, but i guess they have to change their menu to appeal to different cultures, which makes sense. They also had "American style" burger special like the Arizona Dream, which i found funny. I don't remember what was on it but I'm sure Italians think thats what the food in Arizona is like. I guess its kinda like when we go out for Italian and order chicken parm haha.

great Italian-style paninis

 Well, ciao for now!

Nicole :)

First Day on the Job

Ciao!

So its been a couple of days and I have too much to say and not enough time to blog.  As I forgot to mention in the last blog, I got convinced into volunteering at GANZO, a school restaurant where students and chefs work to cook food for locals and other FUA students like myself. Well ya see this is how it happened. I go to get my vouchers for meals and I ask about what volunteers do at GANZO. Due to a small, but crucial, language barrier, they think I'm signing up to volunteer and bring me the paperwork right away and ask me to be in on Monday at 11am. Done deal, just like that leather jacket I just couldn't say no to. Anyways, I was a little scared about what I would be doing today but I gotta say it really wasn't bad. Besides not knowing what everyone was saying/ them not knowing what I was saying it, was a really good day and i think i made some lifelong friends (I actually could be wrong on this one, i'll get my back to ya once my italian get a little better). I ended up getting there at 11am and (again) was easily persuaded to stay until 6pm with no pay. I don't even know if i can call it being persuaded because its all my own fault, i just feel so bad about saying no that I literally offer my services to anyone. I worked with a man named whoknowswhat and a woman named Valentina, who works at the restaurant every day from 12pm to 11pm...how COULDN'T I feel bad?! They had her doing everything too...running to get bread every hour and fetching water, coffee and ice for them! Plus it was freezing and it doesn't help the kitchen isn't connected to the dining area. I learned a lot today, such as coffee does not equal a delicious Marylou's iced Mochanillanut, but instead a shot of purely espresso, which I took 3 of over the course of my 7 hour shift (the reason i have the enthusiasm to write this post). I fondly recalled times of forcing my fellow employees to take these "coffee" shots for losing water pong at work as I slowly sipped on my espresso-sugar mix (mostly sugar). I also learned that Italians love American music, but have literally NO CLUE what the songs on their iPods are saying. I don't know if they really love the "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" soundtrack or if they think those songs are normal American music. Either way, I really enjoyed hearing Russell Brand's "Inside of You" while serving guests delicious Penne con Gorgonzola. Really quite a treat. I also learned that I really don't enjoy when people are laughing around you and you have no idea what they talking about. Were they laughing at me? Probably, since they're blatantly staring and laughing at me for a reason iIam not sure of. Am I going to attempt to ask about this joke in broken italian/spanglish? Hell no, especially since one of them already made sure I didn't speak Italian OR Spanish. All in all, everyone actually seemed really great and I could tell that they didn't hate me, if that says much. Can't wait for next week so I can volunteer for some more unpaid labor. Until next time!

:) Nicole!

Prego! (Welcome to my blog)

Ciao amicas! (hello friends)

So that's as far as my Italian goes for right now, we'll see how it progresses as I start writing this blog! Sorry for the delay on this by the way, I have been so wrapped in in Italy...and so procrastinating on sharing it with all of my friends! This post will just be a recap for the last few weeks I've been abroad. Italy is amazing. I didn't really have any concrete expectations on what it would be like, but I am beyond happy for how this trip is turning out! So far I have been to Rome and am now staying in Florence. 

the Colosseum...right as my camera died! :(

the Trevi Foutain...so pretty at night

 

delicious raviolis in Roma

Rome was really fun- we stayed in the Hotel Palatino and got awesome tours around the city to see ancient ruins such as the Colosseum (riiight as my camera died), and even took our own (3 hour long) "adventure" to the Spanish steps (kind of a let down)...and got to see the Trevi fountain along the way (call me greedy- i made 2 wishes in that thing!). We went out to an ice bar called Ice Club  that was -5 degrees Celsius and made completely of ice. We also got a taste of authentic Italy when we went to a bar completely filled with Italians, such a good time, even though we made friends that we couldn't understand. Wicked and Flor will forever be my favorite Italian restaurant and legato place (oh, until I go to a different one, haha). All in all, Roma was great. It was tough living out of our suitcases and eating deli meats for breakfast every day, but finding out my true love for sparkling water (acque frizzante) made it all worthwhile.

view from the top of the Michelangelo

And Florence. First off, this city is sooo much larger than I predicted. Just when I think I kinda know where I'm going I get to a piazza that i have never seen before and start freaking out. It's a big city so when you get lost you better hope your not too far because taxis don't come cheap! i would literally pay someone for a foot massage right now. i hope this walking makes up for the lack of exercise I've attempted in the past...and boy am i paying for it! But its been so worth it!. We have this list of restaurant/bars/gelato places that were trying to go to and so far our favorites have been Grom for gelato and Acqua al 2, where we got a smapler of all the different pastas they offered. My favorites were the red peper and eggplant parm. Rachel got a blueberry steak at this place- delicious! Classes started yesterday and I have had my Italian, Special Event Management, and Fashion Marketing. A little intimidated about all this work but i'm sure it'll be fine!

the piazza Michelangelo church

...and your typical joint asian wedding reception atop the mountain

View from the church

The bars here are also ridiculous. Its weird because its a totally different scene on the weekends than the week days. Italians only party on Friday and Saturday so when we went out at first it was a god mix of Italians and Americans, even if the age range was 16 to 65. During the week though, its strictly Americans, and a couple Italians guys of course. So far, we have been to Red Garter, YAB (aka Step up 4), Space (just nuts), and Old Stove. We made an appearance at a few more on a pub crawl but I really just cannot remember the names- call me American i guess haha.

the Ponte Vecchio, right near our apartment

The apartment is adorable and we got our hot water back today after 3 days without showering! Oh, Italy! A couple of last events that i think are worthwhile to throw in: I got pressured into buying a 100 euro genuine leather jacket, we got locked INSIDE, yes inside, our apartment yesterday because our keys look like ancient treasure box openers, and the port-a-potty smell wafting out of our bathroom has still not gone away. This is going to be an interesting semester...but a great one! And I will try to keep this blog updated as best i can! 

Ciao!