Sheep and Harry Potter!!

Highlands with Vince

Last week I went on the school trip to Scotland for Thanksgiving break! Scotland was amazing. Everyone speaks English!!! I haven’t been in an English speaking country in 3 months; it was pretty exciting especially with their cool accents. We stayed in apartments on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. The first day we went on a guided tour of the city and then Erika and I spent the afternoon in the Christmas market. After about 5 minutes of being in Edinburgh I realized that I was in Harry Potter land. Everything looked exactly like everything in Harry Potter is. A multiple moments throughout the trip I kept thinking Harry would just come walking around the corner. 

Making Stuffing with Summer

Sadly he did not, but I did have a dream when I was there that I was Harry Potter. I later learned that the heavy Harry Potter influence was because Edinburgh is where JK Rowling lived when she wrote the first few books, and she got a lot of her inspiration from the city and from the castles in the area. Erika and I went to the Elephant House for tea, the same café where JK wrote the first 3 books. It was pretty exciting and I had Darjeeling tea, my favorite :) That night my apartment (14 girls) made Thanksgiving dinner. It was hard not being home for the holiday, but making dinner with the girls was a lot of fun and dinner was delicious.

SHEEP!

The next two days were spent on buses, traveling around the countryside of Scotland. We went on a boat in the highlands. It was so windy and freezing, but absolutely beautiful. We stopped in various small towns, went to Stirling Castle and saw lots and lots of fields of bright green. It was extremely windy and rainy the whole time we were there, but was still great. My favorite part was probably all the sheep in the fields. They are EVERYWHERE and I love them. We stopped in a small town on the coast that is known to have the best fish and chips. Personally I wasn’t too impressed with the fish and chips, but everyone else loved them. 

Erika and I had a mini photo shoot on the water before leaving. It was so windy we could barley keep our eyes open and it was hard to walk. We were literally being blown away, but it was fun. I also loved going to St. Andrews. We spent a couple hours in the city and saw the Golf Course and the University (where William and Kate met!). I also got Starbucks for the first time in 3 months! Red Holiday cups and an extremely tall cup of coffee is one of the best things in the world. 

Our travels home were long and exhausting, but so worth it. Hanging out with Harry Potter and the sheep on Thanksgiving break was pretty awesome.

Assisi Retreat

My roommate Maggie and I at St. Francis Basilica 

Retreats always seem to come at the perfect time and my retreat to Assisi hold true to this. When my parents left, I went on a retreat to Assisi with 15 other students and Father Russ, the Jesuit priest at GIF. Assisi is a small town a few hours away from Florence where St. Francis and St. Clare lived. The retreat was designed as more of a self-reflective and peaceful experience rather than a typical retreat with talks and small groups. Father Russ gave us booklets that would guide us in prayer and reflection with the help of Francis and Clare. We stayed in guesthouse that used to be a monastery. 

Watching the sunset over St. Francis Basilica 

The structure of the retreat was very free, as Fr. Russ would say every few minutes, “Just get lost, wander and be at peace with Francis and Clare.” His words could not more accurately describe the weekend. We spent each morning having mass together as a group, the first day in the tomb of St. Francis, the second day in the Porziuncola chapel, and the third day in a convent chapel. The rest of the day was ours free to relax. The town of Assisi is small enough that you can walk from one end to the other in 15 minutes. It’s quiet and peaceful and different from anywhere I have been. There was something different about Assisi. You can truly feel St. Francis and St. Clare’s presence. 

Picnic overlooking the city

It is one of the holiest places I have ever been and having some alone time to reflect on these past few months and simply just be was exactly what I needed. Living abroad is an absolutely incredible experience, however it is not always easy. Between being homesick, traveling almost every weekend, missing my Gonzaga world, going to school, and trying to make new friends while keeping in touch with friends back home, it’s exhausting and I have never felt more busy in my life. I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to travel and live in Florence, and having this weekend to myself in Assisi was the best way to bring a little balance and focus back into my life.

Candle light rosary procession 

Aside from having relaxing alone time, my favorite part was having lunch with a few of the other students on the retreat. We took a small picnic of cheese, crackers, cookies, and chips to the fortress at the top of the city. We sat overlooking the entire city. The fog was so thick that it looked like we were above the clouds, making it feel like we were in a city in heaven. That is truly what Assisi feels like, a city in heaven. Our beautiful picnic was short-lived when 20 minutes in we noticed extremely large ants crawling all around and on us. We all jumped up and went running down the hill. We also went to a candle-light rosary procession on 

Saturday night. It was beautiful to hear it all in Italian and to walk around the piazza in front on the church with candles and italian music. 

It was a beautiful weekend and I definitely will be going back to Assisi before I leave Italy.

"While you are procliaming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart." -St. Francis of Assisi

Mom and Dad Come to Italy!

Verona with my parents 

A few weeks ago my parents came to visit me in Italy for 2 weeks. I loved having them here and traveling in Northern Italy with them. I met them in Milan with Erika and we stayed in my dad’s business colleagues house right outside Milan. The first night we explored Milan and went to the incredible Cathedral. Aside from the Cathedral in Milan I didn’t really care for Milan. It is a huge city and a bit overwhelming. 

Pumpkin Ravioli for dinner!

The next few days we took day trips to various towns in the area. The weather was so beautiful so the first day we went to Lake Como and spent the day relaxing and wandering around the small town on Bellagio. Driving around Italy is very different than I expected. That night we came back to the house and stopped in Bergamo, a walled city that looked like a castle, for dinner.

Mom and me in Fiesole

The next day we went to Verona, the home of Romeo and Juliet. We had a great time exploring the city and seeing the incredible roman ruins. We came home that night and made the most amazing fresh pumpkin ravioli. The next morning we decided to start driving down to Florence and stop along the way. We drove through Forte Dei Marmi and watched the sunset on the Mediterranean Sea. That night we stayed in Lucca, officially one of my favorite cities in Italy. It is a walled city with so much character and life. We went out to dinner and spent the evening and next day just walking around in the crisp fall weather. The city walls look like a park with the trees changing colors and beautiful out exercising or playing with their kids. After Lucca we came back to Florence where we stayed the rest of the week. It turns out that the same people that run my pensione ran the pensione my mom lived in when she studied abroad. It was like a family reunion when they came to my pensione for lunch. We had a great time together and it was hard to say goodbye. 

La Mia Famiglia

Cristina and I in Ancona 

This past weekend my friend Summer and I went to Jesi, Italy to visit my distant cousins. Jesi is a very small town on the east coast of Italy right outside the city of Ancona. On Friday morning we took a four-hour train ride through the countryside of Italy. It was the most beautiful train ride I have been on. All the trees and vineyards were beautiful fall colors and the hills and the countryside were breathtaking. Cristina picked us up from the train station and took us back to her house where we stayed for the weekend. Cristina is my age and luckily speaks English really well. We stayed with her mom, Lucia, and her 12-year-old brother, Andrea.

Andrea, Giovanni, Elisa, Cristina and I 

The town of Jesi is small and adorable and right in the middle of the countryside. After having an incredible lunch on gnocchi and mushrooms, Cristina took us on a mini tour of Ancona. We saw an extremely old church and saw a beautiful view of the Adriatic Sea. That evening we went to Cristina’s grandparents house for dinner. I met the rest of the family: Simona and her husband Renato, and their kids Elisa who is 10 and Giovanni who is 3. For dinner her grandma prepared homemade pizza that she had spent the entire day making. We sat around the table, everyone speaking in lots and lots of Italian, and ate the most incredible meal of my entire life. With Cristina’s help we were all able to communicate. I attempted the little Italian I know as they attempted the little English they know. Their family reminded me of my family back home, with all the cousins yelling, and the parents shouting over each other; the only difference was the language.

Nutella Tiramisu

On Saturday we had a girls day of shopping in a nearby local market with lots of clothes and shoes. The market was wonderful and I wanted to buy everything. That afternoon Cristina and Summer and I made tiramisu with Nutella and then watched Madagascar in Italian. It was so nice being in a home and baking and watching a movie on a couch. Elisa and Andrea spent a lot of time with us also, which was great. Andrea and Elisa are adorable and are like brother and sister, always playing, telling stories, talking a mile a minute. We tried our best to communicate in Italian, but we mostly just watched them go back in forth in their elaborate stories with lots and lots of hand gestures and animated speaking.

Cristina, Summer, and I at the festival

That evening Cristina took us to the city center of Jesi, which is a medieval castle area. It was were all the locals hang out on Saturday nights and was so crowded and lively. We went to her favorite restaurant for dinner and had an appetizer of focaccia, prosciutto, cheeses and amazingness. We split 2 pasta dishes and a dessert; I have never been so full and content after a meal in my whole life. After dinner we went to her boyfriend’s nearby town that was having their annual festival. There was live music and festivities happening in the city center. We tried a specialty of the festival: brule: hot wine. Surprisingly it wasn’t that bad.

Family photo!

Sunday was relaxing; we just spent time with everyone, playing European monopoly complete with Euros and various countries in Europe. I also found out I have cousins in Australia and we skyped them all together in the morning. Cristina and I decided we need to go to Australia together. Before we left, the whole family came over for tiramisu and to say goodbye to us. They all took us to the train station and saw us off. They were so incredibly nice and wonderful and I’m so happy I was able to visit them. It was the most Italian experience I’ve had in Italy and was the best thing I’ve done so far abroad.

Never a Dull Moment

Erika, Aubrey, Megan and I hanging out in our pensione 

Just finished midterms, which means the semester is half over! I can’t believe how fast time is going here. Last weekend I stayed in Florence and had a relaxing fun time with everyone in my pensione.

I started off the weekend volunteering at this place called Creative Corner, where little Italian kids go to learn English and play games. My roommates and I spent a few hours doing activities with the kids and then we took them trick-or-treating. I worked with 2 adorable first grade girls, who knew very little English. I realized that my Italian is not quite as good as I thought it was and I have a long way to go. But we were able to discuss our favorite colors! Trick-or-treating with the kids was a lot of fun and it reminded me of home.

Superbed

My roommates and I pushed our beds together to create a big superbed where we watched movies and snuggled. I also did a little exploring in Florence and went to the Boboli Gardens at the Pitti Palace and found the most incredible park with leaves of all different colors on the trees.

Happy Halloween

On Monday my pensione decided to have a Halloween party and a trick-or-treating event. The trick-or-treating ended up as liqu-or-treating, where everyone went to each other’s rooms dressed up in costumes and were given a little wine or some other kind of alcohol. We all had a great time and it was nice bringing a little piece of home here, since Halloween isn’t celebrated in Italy.

Everyone in my pensione on Halloween!

Time is flying here and it feels like the semester is going to be over before we know it. November is very busy for me. I’m visiting cousins in Jesi, a small town outside of Ancona, Italy. I am going to Assisi on a retreat, going to Scotland for Thanksgiving, and spending some time with my parents next week! Seeing how little of time is left in the semester is making me so grateful that I am here for the year. Overall everything is going really well and I’m excited for all the traveling I am doing the next few weeks and especially excited for my parents to get here! 

Cavalli e Vino

Erika and Megan and I preparing for our horses

Horseback riding through the Tuscan Countryside!

A couple weeks ago my roommates and I went on a horseback riding excursion through Chianti vineyards and then went wine tasting in a 13^th century castle. 

Once we arrived at the stables, where no one really spoke any English, we were assigned horses. Erika made the mistake of saying she had ridden horses before and was given an Italian Stallion, a male racehorse that likes to run very fast. 

Chianti Vineyards

She almost peed her pants the entire 2-hour ride. Megan had an angry horse that was stubborn and angry and kept head butting the horse in front of her. Aubrey’s horse liked to eat absolutely everything and lead Aubrey astray multiple times from our group. And my horse was very mellow and calm, her name was Bruta, which means ugly in Italian, but I thought she was beautiful and we had a great ride together.  After a brief lesson, that included absolutely no introduction on how to ride a horse, we rode through vineyards and beautiful trails just as the sun was setting. It was incredible and we had a lot of fun.

Wine Tasting

Wine Tasting with Aubrey and Megan

When we got back we were taken to a 13^th century castle where we had a wine tasting of various Chianti wines. It was the first wine tasting I had ever done and we absolutely loved it. We then had dinner in a restaurant in the castle where we ate the most incredible food: bruschetta, gnocchi, thick noodle cheesy pasta, and panna cotta for dessert. After dinner we returned home to Florence. So far I think the countryside is my favorite part of Italy. It is so calm a serene and was such a nice change of pace from city life.

Bonjour, Bonjour, Bonjour!

Learning Italiano!

I Louuuuvre Paris! Last weekend I went on a school trip to Paris! After a very long day of travel with Erika, we arrived on Thursday evening into Paris. We spent our train ride, airplane time, and metro and bus travels practicing our Italian flashcards! There were about 75 other students traveling with my school during our weekend there. The first night Erika and I were too tired to do anything, so we got a chicken mushroom cheese crepe, snuggled in our big beds at the hotel and watched French tv while trying to pick up on as much French as we could. Merci!

Bike tour with Amanda and Kristie

On Friday we started our day off with a 3 and a half hour bike tour. It was absolutely amazing and the perfect way to see the huge city. We saw everything from Notre Dame, to the Eiffel Tower, to the famous restaurant from Ratatouille. We even got to ride our bikes through the Louvre. Our tour guide was amazing and shared lots of random fun facts about Paris. He took us to hidden spots in the city and gave us lots of recommendations of things to do and see in the city.

Boat Tour with Erika

That afternoon we went to Musee d’Orsay which was incredible. We saw a lot of impressionist and post-impressionist art, and things like Van Gogh's self portrait and Seurat's The Circus. We also briefly went into the Louvre and saw the Monalisa. Fun Fact: The Louvre is so big that if you were to spend 30 seconds at each painting it would take you over 3 months to finish. That night we went on a boat tour through the city. It was freezing, but beautiful to see all the buildings lit up and the Eiffel tour sparkling. We ended the night with Nutella and banana crepes, my favorite :)

Photo shoot at the Eiffel Tour

Saturday was another busy day with a themed tour in the morning about the French Revolution. The tour guide was only a few years older than me and made everything really relatable and fun. Now I can recite the history of all of the French Revolution! The tour lasted about 3 hours and then we had some free time to ourselves to explore. I went with Erika, Kristie, and Amanda to see Notre Dame up close and to the Opera house. The Opera house was stunning and one of my favorite things to see in Paris. Erika and I danced in the ballroom and we were also able to see the crew setting up the stage for a performance the following night. Our afternoon was spent shopping and eating pastries. By Saturday night we finally made our way to the Eiffel tour and had a mini photo shoot before going to the top to see a view of Paris at night. The city was beautiful to see and we ended up enjoying some fireworks off in the distance. We spent about 2 hours at the top, mainly because of the long lines, but I had a great time. After the Eiffel tower we had a true French meal of Escargot and cheese fondue! (The escargot was covered in garlic and butter, not my favorite food but definitely not bad).

Relaxing and eating with Erika

Sunday Erika and I spent the day in a local open-air market. We ate a baguette and sat by the fountain watching locals dance in the street to live music. Sunday was relaxing and perfect before our long travels home that evening.

Although Paris was big and overwhelming I really enjoyed my weekend there! I’m excited to be home though and have some down time in Florence.

Ciao for now!

Ciao from Firenze!

It’s taken me a while to start a blog, but here it finally is! After spending 10 days on Opening Tour in Berlin, Dresden, Prague, Nuremberg, Salzburg, and Bad Kohlgrub, I finally arrived in Florence on September 14th. Since then I've just been settling into my new home, going to school, and traveling a little. It's a little long, but here’s an update on everything that’s been going on since I left a month ago! 

Pensione Life:

My room! My side is the black bedding with all the pictures. 

I live in pensione Nazionale in a quad with Erika, Megan, and Aubrey (A pensione is like a mini hotel; it’s kind of like living in a dorm). I am about a 15 minute walk from school, but I am in the center of everything else; food, shopping, the train station, and the Duomo! I absolutely love my pensione and the 30 other Gonzaga students I live with. We are like a little family. The staff in our pensione is amazing; they have been housing Gonzaga students for over 30 years and have the reputation as the best food and hospitality. Manola and Mateo (the owners) take very good care of us and feed us the most amazing pasta I’ve ever had in my entire life! The pensione itself is adorable. When we arrived there was 4 beds and a bunch of random furniture shoved into the room, but after a little reorganizing and decorating we have a nice set up, with our own bathroom and our favorite: a BALCONY!

Erika and I met Megan and Aubrey on opening tour and decided to room together. Living with Megan, Aubrey and Erika has been my favorite part of Florence so far.  We all have camp names (nicknames that relate to camp because Erika is obsessed with her job as a camp counselor). Erika is Sunny, Megan is Snooze, Aubrey is Leaf and I am Odie (from Mama Odie in Princess and the Frog). Since then we have given camp names to about half of the students in our pensione.

We have a lot of fun drinking wine on our balcony and playing bananagrams together. Pensione life is wonderful and I could not be happier!

School:

School here is a lot like high school classes back home. I have class most days from 8:30-12, back to the pensione for lunch, then school until about 3:30. I have class Monday through Thursday and 3 day weekends to travel or explore Florence. School is right next to Piazza San Marco and it’s a beautiful walk through the busy streets of Florence. The school building itself is a tall, skinny building with 3 floors. Most of my classes are in the same rooms. My favorite class by far is Italian. My Italian teacher is fantastic and I have mastered a lot of the basics like ordering food and gelato as well as basic greetings! I also am taking a class called Intro to Florence where we get to go on tours around the city every Wednesday. My teacher is a little insane, but I’m getting to see places in Florence I wouldn’t normally see.

City life:

I’m really enjoying living in a city. Florence is so busy and has so much excitement all the time. I love walking through the market and meeting friends on the steps on the Duomo. So far my friend’s and my favorite thing to do is walk up to Piazzale Michelangelo and watch the sunset with a bottle of wine and bread and cheese. It’s an amazing view of the city and so fun and relaxing.

A few weeks ago I went to a Fiorentia calico game (soccer), which was a lot of fun. We wore purple and cheered on the team. Florentines are crazy about soccer so the game was pretty insane to say the least. 

I also took a cooking class with some friends! We made eggplant caprese, lasagne with a pesto cream sauce, and tiramisu’. We made the lasagne noodles from scratch and it was easily the best food I have ever eaten in my entire life. Other than that normal activities include getting gelato multiple nights a week with my pensione and sitting on our balcony relaxing.

Travels:

On opening tour we traveled all over. My favorite place by far was Bad Kohlgrub where I spent my 20^th birthday! Bad Kohlgrub is a small town in Southern Germany surrounded by the Bavarian Alps. After visiting cities like Berlin and Prague, the quaint and peaceful town of Bad Kohlgrub was exactly what I needed. On my birthday I spent the day hiking with friends. It was one of the most beautiful hikes I have ever been on in my entire life. Turning 20 in Southern Germany was pretty awesome. 

By far my favorite site to see on Opening Tour was the real life Disney Castle called Neuschwanstein Castle! This castle is where Walt Disney got his inspiration for the castle in the Disney movies and in Disneyland. Needless to say, it was incredible. We had the best tour guide ever and it was my favorite day of all of opening tour. We sang Disney songs during our visit to the castle and had a dance party to Abba on our bus ride back.

Viareggio

My first weekend in Florence I took a day trip to the beach. It was my first time on a train and first time traveling in a foreign country on my own. After a few wrong trains and missed stops we made it to Viareggo. Florence has been so hot so the beach was exactly what we needed. Aside from the absurd amounts of jellyfish in the water, I had a lot of fun swimming in the Mediterranean and napping on the beach!

Cinque Terre

I LOVE Cinque Terre! One of the cutest places I have ever been! We woke up at 5:00am to take the early train (getting to the train station an hour early fearful that what happened with Viareggio would happen again). We made it to Cinque Terre early in the morning and hiked between the 5 towns on the coast. All the buildings were different colors and the towns had so much character. The hike was pretty treacherous, but the views were unbelievable. 

Once we reached the last village, we swam in the most refreshing water of my life. I stayed for the night with a few friends in a hostel and watched the sunset over the cliffs and the ocean. 

Slovenia

Last weekend I went on the school trip to Slovenia. We took a 7 hour bus ride to Ljubljana and spent the weekend exploring Slovenia. When we arrived late Thursday night we were welcomed with a air-conditioned clean hotel with English TV! We watched Kim Possible on Disney channel in English as we went to bed that night :) On the first day we explored Ljubljana and went on a tour of the city. Erika and I spent the afternoon in the market and walking along the river that runs through the downtown. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming. That night we went to an authentic Slovenian restaurant with Slovenian food and dancing.

On the second day we went to Lake Bled and Skocjan Caves. At Lake Bled we took a boat to this island with a church in the center. The water was so clear and beautiful and Erika and I had a mini photo shoot. Later we went to Skocjan caves. The caves were absolutely incredible. It was kind of like being on the Indiana Jones ride in Disneyland, but real life version! All around Slovenia was amazing and I had a lot of fun.

What’s to come: Paris next weekend!!!

That’s all for now. Florence is amazing and I love being in Italy! Ciao for now!