Even though not much really happened this week, I still want to share what happened during the week itself. This weekend, my trio of a group, Emily, Alyssa and I, ventured off to Florence for 1 night and 1 day.
Monday
I went through my usual routine of waking up and going to my first class, 20th Century American Poetry, and this week we talked about Robert Frost and some of his poems like The Road Not Taken, Mending Wall, After Apple- Picking, and so many more.
After that class, I walked back to my apartment and made myself a nice turkey sandwich with a glass of cola. I also had found out that Sylvester Stallone and his family were in Rome at the time and I asked my friends if they wanted to go see if we could find them but they were all busy. After my 5 hour break, I went to my next class, Contemporary Italian Society, and we talked about the facism that had happened in the country. After class, I went back to my apartment to get a quick little nap in so I could watch my beloved Buffalo Bills from afar. For me, the game didn’t start until 2 AM, so before hand I had eaten and I watched the ENTIRE game from my phone and I stayed up till 5:30 AM watching that game. Let’s just say, I didn’t go to bed a happy lil mafia babe.
Tuesday
Today, I woke up around 11 so I could catch up on the sleep I didn’t get while watching the game. I showered, got ready for classes, ate a quick lunch and left earlier enough for my class that I could fill my water bottle up on the way. One thing to know about Rome is that the water is like nothing you have ever tasted before. All around the city you will find cast iron fountains that pour out clean water to drink straight out of. I have a Brita water bottle which changed my life. It is so nice to have and so light weight. If you are traveling to Rome, please bring a refillable water bottle so you can enjoy the nice clean and cold water.
After my classes, I went back to my apartment, did some laundry, cooked and went to bed.
Wednesday
After my first class, I met up with Emily and Alyssa to discuss our trip for the weekend. We couldn’t really decide what we wanted to do or where we wanted to go, but we wanted a small trip. So we decided on going to Florence. It was originally the thought to just catch a train in the morning and spend the day there and take a train back later that day, but we wanted to have a full experience of the city. So we booked a hotel and decided on spending Friday night there and touring all day Saturday. When we did our planning, we met at Pimms Good which is a restaurant outside of the Guarini Campus of John Cabot University. As typical Americans, we all ordered chicken strips. They ordered water to drink but again as a typical American, I ordered a cola to go with my food. They also sell burgers at the restaurant, which is actually common to find on some menus around Italy.
After my break, I went to class and then came home to get ready for dinner with Emily. We at Wiki Wiki. We shared a wonderful four cheese pizza and I had a piece of lasagna as well. I definitely recommend this place because the waiters are so funny and give excellent suggestions on the food there.Afterwards, I went back to my apartment to try and get a “good night's sleep.” (They are in quotations because I still miss my bed at home and my dogs… Oh and my family of course! :) )
Thursday
My Thursday schedule is different from my Tuesday because I have a morning class. I have never in my years of college had an 8 AM course but this class reaches that moment. This class will either start at 8:30 AM or 9:30 AM depending on what we do, but we decided to meet at 8:30 AM to talk about what we would be doing the next day. The class is called Rome: Modern City, and we walk around Rome looking at its history and architecture and talk about it.
After class, I went home for a bit, changed my clothes because I was getting weird looks from Italians, who are usually saying “Why are you wearing what you are wearing?” Then I had to rush myself to my next two classes which were very fast to me. After getting home, I got ready again for dinner with the trio and we walked to the otherside of the bridge for dinner. We wound up at Elle Effe and I had lamb chops. After dinner, we walked to Piazza Navona and got gelato at Ai Tre Tartufi. If you go there, don’t pay cash because they wont give you your change back unless you ask for it. I was just under the impression that waiters and waitresses in Italy don’t take tips but our waiter put my money straight in his wallet, it was so weird and made me feel kinda awkward asking for my change back. The change was 13 euros and I wasn’t not going to ask for it back.
When we were done with our gelato, we headed back to Trastevere and I went back to my apartment and made sure to somewhat know what I was going to be bringing to Florence.
Friday
Today was a make-up day for classes that we were going to be missing on Thanksgiving. So our Thursday classes repeated the next day, it kinda put me through a loop but I was able to get into the groove of things.
My first class met in the classroom and we walked around the streets of Trastevere so we could get an idea for our upcoming assignment that will be due sometime in October. The streets were amazing and we even went into a couple of churches and we got to see the art that is on the ceilings.
After that class let out, I went back home, changed into actual clothing and also packed my clothes so that when my next classes were done, I could just run back to my apartment, grab my bag and go back to the same part of the town to get a taxi to the train station.
That is exactly what happened too. As soon as my classes let out, I ran home, unpacked and repacked my canvas bag and went to the taxi stand and we took a taxi straight to the train station at Piazza dei Cinquecento, which means the Square of the 500. We were a little confused about how to find the train on the boards but it was because the train was delayed 30 mins. We went through the gates and just waited on the other side and stared at the board until we saw that our train had a platform and then we ran to the assigned car that we had and got onto the train as soon as it had got there. While on the way there, we discussed what our next trip would be and decided that whatever or wherever it was, it needed to be planned early on and we could book plane tickets as well as museum tickets.
We arrived in Florence around 7 and we walked to our hotel which was super close and got ready within 30 minutes for dinner. Emily’s mom had made reservations for us at Caffe Del Oro. I ordered the Salmon Upstream which was salmon, asparagus, lemon capers and a beurre blanc sauce and to drink I had the purple sour. The purple sour was made with lovem liquor, rosemary sugar, lemon juice and egg white. It was purple and again, and so yummy that I had 2. After dinner we took pictures by the bridge as we waited for our Uber to go back to the hotel, and after going back to the hotel and getting ready for the night we went to a couple of bars.
The first place we went to was called Babylon. They have 2 rooms that play music, one room was American music and when we walked in they were playing “Baby” by Justin Beiber, and the other room plays spanish music. Both rooms had great music but it is such a small venu that we decided to go to a different place that had good reviews, Flo. Flo was great and I liked how their drink ordering system was. If you wanted a drink, you didn’t go up to the bartender and order, you had to go to a stand and buy a ticket that had a code on it so that when you went to the bartender and ordered your drink, they would know already from the number assigned on the ticket. It’s pretty genius if you ask me.
Saturday
We hit the town early first by heading to Ponte Vecchio. As we walked there we decided to stop at a few shops to do a little bit of shopping. We didn’t want to over do the shopping because we knew that whatever we bought we would have to carry. So that’s why we went into the Prada store and I bought a card wallet that is tri toned.
When we got to Ponte Vecchio, we looked at a few jewelry shops for matching rings that we ended up not getting but Emily found a ring the she fell in love with. After looking at all of the shops we stopped at the Bronze Boar which is a sign of good luck if you rub a coin on its nose. Another thing is when you rub a coin on its nose, you put it in its mouth and let it go and if it goes into the whole of the drain, it means that you will come back to Florence. I did it and didn’t make it but I plan on going back anyways because we didn’t get to see the statue of David. We did get to go to the Gucci Museum and see a bunch of designer wear. After that we went stopped at Foot Locker and all three of us fell in love with shoes there but only Emily could get a pair. The shoes that Alyssa and I both loved weren’t available in our sizes so we saw that as a sign that we didn’t need them.
After Foot Locker, we headed back to the hotel to drop off our shopping goods and grab a small bite to eat before we headed back to the train station.
After our aperitif, we grabbed our bags from the hotel, and went to the train station to go back home to Rome. The train ride was fine except for the fact that it was 2 hours longer than what it was supposed to be. Thankfully, we were smart enough to grab some food before we got onto the train, Italian McDonalds. I had a Bacon Big Mac and oh my golly gosh, it changed the game. I ate that burger on the train like someone who hadn’t eaten int YEARS. It was so good I left no crumbs.
After we arrived back in Rome, we booked an Uber that would take me to my apartment first then drop Alyssa and Emily off at their apartment since they live in the same building. After I was unpacked I had the best facetime anyone could ask for with my big brother Casey and his beautiful girlfriend Ashley. We talked for an hour or so and I showed them my apartment, my room and some things that I had bought since being abroad. While on facetime, I snagged a few photos of them that I will hold for safekeeping and future use of course. I got to see my little puppies which is something I wish I didn’t have to say goodbye to because it hurt having to leave them. The day I left, both dogs laid with my on the couch and licked my tears away. I did use Teddy’s ear to wipe away some tears but he honestly didn’t mind because I was giving him some scratches. It really just hurt most of all to say goodbye to Hattrick because he is my little baby and I honestly spent the summer dreading the day I would have to leave him for 4 months. I will just say that I was so happy to see both of them on facetime and so glad to see them perk up when I called them by the nicknames that I gave them.
After talking to Casey and Ashley for a while, we ended the call so I could get a few things done before I could think about going to bed. It was already 1 AM by the time I called my parents to talk to them. I didn’t get off of facetime with them until 2:30 AM. It always makes me so happy when I can talk to anyone in my family because the time difference is killing me. Usually at school in Fredonia, I can call my mom just about anytime but here I can’t because when I think I can call her, she should still be sound asleep.
Should I explain the Prada purchase? Before I left to study abroad, I made a deal with myself that I would buy a luxury item while I was here. I am already a little bit of a Prada girl because I wear the Prada Paradoxe perfume so I wanted to add to my “collection” and I think that for how much I paid for the wallet, it was a great purchase. Does it make me want to buy more Prada items? Yes. Should I? No of course not but it’s cute so if it is a reasonable price for the product, uh yeah I won’t say nada to Prada.
Thank you for reading this new update on my life. If you want to get constant updates about my travels, which obviously you do, you should follow me on Instagram at moshererin.
Picture Captions:
The view from Ponte Vecchio
Me at lunch at Pimm's good
Piazza Navona
Behind the Duomo Dome
コメント