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!