Day 27

       Today was our last day in Firenze. This morning we took our Italian language final, which surprisingly was not too bad. For the first time ever, I was really sad to end class today. Even though, Italian was difficult, I really enjoyed getting a taste of it. At the end of class, we thanked all the staff at the school and showed them our appreciation with small presents. You could really see how much the staff cared about us, for they were all sad to see us go. The feeling was definitely mutual and felt across the room by both parties. While, I am very sad to leave Firenze, I am starting to get excited for the Euro trip I am about to partake in. About 5 of us from the program will spend an extended two and half weeks in Europe, hitting 3 countries and 6 cities. I have a lot of exciting things ahead of me!

        For my last day in Firenze, I made sure to get a grande cup of gelato and indulge in a nice grande pizza. Hopefully, I will still have room for our farewell dinner tonight hosted by the school. This pretty much sums up my day.

        I wanted to take the time in this post to thank everyone who has actively been reading my blog this past month. I would not have a successful blog without the support of my followers. Ya’ll kept me going and made me eager to write more! I hope I kept ya’ll entertained and interested in my life here in Firenze. Unfortunately, this will be my last post being that I do not know when I’ll have internet access over the next few weeks and/or much time to write a blog everyday. I will try to leave updates on Facebook when I can. Thanks again for everyone’s support! 

Regina and I with our homestay mom, Signora Anna! 

Day 26

       Today was our last official day of Italian class. Over the past few weeks I have really grown to love my professor. The Italian language itself, is another story… I already have difficulty with languages, so the class was fairly difficult for me. However, my professor was great and always willing to teach/tell us all about Italian culture and relate it to real life occurrences. I am glad I got the experience I did in that class. After class today, we had the afternoon free, so a group of us decided to make the trip to Pisa and snap a few pictures with the leaning tower. It was about an hour-long train ride and a 30-minute walk from the station in Pisa to the actual tower. The city of Pisa was kind of ugly and sketchy. There is definitely a reason people do not stay there too long. When we got there, it was very exciting to finally get to see the leaning tower! I am pretty sure we spent roughly a good hour taking pictures with tower, making sure we got the perfect angles in each picture. We only stayed in Pisa for an hour and half, but I was really glad we made the trip! It was one of those things that you just have to do in your lifetime. I can now officially check the leaning tower of Pisa off my list! Sadly, tonight is our last night having dinner with our homestays. I know that I will really miss these amazing Italian dinners and the company that comes along with it. Hopefully, I will not lose the little Italian I picked up, for the next time I come back! Tomorrow marks our last day in Florence, this trip has been way too short. However, I am walking away with great friends and an experience of a lifetime! 

The Leaning Tower of Pisa!

Day 25

         Today was a field trip day! It brought me back to the elementary school days… However, this time it was a high class field trip to Siena and San Gimignano. Our day started in Siena with a quick tour of the city. Siena was small and cute, very medieval timesish, I really liked the city itself! The best part may have been that it was far less touristy than Florence. I felt like all of the shops, café’s and restaurants were homey and not designed to bring in tourist. You could tell from the smell of food walking down the streets, that everything was true homemade Italian food. For lunch, we went to a kid on our programs, family friends restaurant. I personally, did not enjoy it too much and wished we walked around the main piazza and had lunch at a café there instead. I might be too spoiled from my homestays mom’s cooking, to enjoy anything that is satisfactory. Afterwards, we boarded the bus to San Gimignano, where Italy’s best gelato is found! The entire day all I thought about was this gelato, so I was very relived to finally be able to taste it. The city itself was so tiny; it felt like there was only one main road that consisted of the entire city. Although, the city was gorgeous! I couldn’t believe that Sam Gimignano actually had residents, it didn’t seem like there were enough resources for the city to be livable, but they did have the BEST gelato and I could possibly live off that! Speaking of gelato, I made sure to get a huge cup with pistachio, yogurt and hazelnut! It was so delicious and definitely worth the trip!

        We made it back to Florence just in time for dinner with our homestays. I was so full by the time I was back in Florence, but I knew our host mom had cooked a huge dinner and expected us to enjoy it all. With that being said, I managed to eat everything served to me, but did feel like I was going to die in the process. It was a good thing I took off my belt before dinner, needless to say. After dinner, I had a huge pile of laundry I was planning to hand wash. Now, let me tell you, that is some hard work. I have so much respect for anyone who ever has to hand wash their clothes on a regular basis. That was definitely a new experience. 

Voted Italy’s best gelato!

Day 24

         This morning I definitely had a case of the Monday’s. I was struggling getting out of bed for my 9:00 class this morning. Today, Italian class flew by. I honestly do not have much recollection of it at this moment. That means either I did not pay attention the whole class or I just absorbed every single bit of information and cannot process a brief summary. It’s probably the first one. Anyway after class today, I met up with an old friend from Dallas, whom just moved to Florence to go to school. We went to a restaurant near the Duomo for lunch. It was so nice seeing a familiar face and getting to catch up with here. It definitely brought back some great memories from when we were younger! Towards the end of lunch, she had mentioned that there was a Gucci Museum in Florence, so needless to say that was my next stop. Because I had the rest of the afternoon free, going to the Gucci Museum was a no-brainer. This museum contained everything that depicts my image of a perfect museum. I would best describe it, as Gucci puking all over a three story building, it was Gucci everything! As I walked in, I was greeted by the nicest man, whom was wearing the official Gucci uniform, a black suit with a brown tie. When you see that combo, you know it is Gucci official! The museum was three stories, which showed the history of Gucci itself. I was fascinated by it all! It was so interesting to see at what point certain Gucci trademarks made their appearance into the Gucci signature look. I had no idea that Gucci was so diverse. Besides designing bags, luggage, clothes and jewelry, Gucci also created sports gear, dishes, furniture, etc.  For some reason, I really enjoyed seeing the Gucci of the 1970’s, some of the bags that were displayed, our definitely something I would wear today. However, one of my favorite exhibits was the red carpet attire. There were four dresses designed by Gucci that were all worn at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010. It is one thing to see these red carpet dresses on TV, but to see them up-close and observe every single stich and Swarovski crystal (yes one dress was made with Swarovski crystals) embedded on the dresses, was absolutely incredible. Overall the entire exhibit was fabulous! I loved living in the Gucci world!

          Afterwards, Gucci had inspired me to shop! This was great for me, but not too great for my credit card. I did make a couple great investments today. I learned you have to go with the classic neutral accessories. If you are going to buy something nice in Italy, you want it to last a lifetime, so classic and neutral is the way to go! Today definitely ended up being way better than what I had anticipated it to be. I cannot believe I only have 3 more full days left in Florence. I don’t want this experience to end.

“Quality Is Remembered Long After the Price Is Forgotten” – Aldo Gucci

Gucci Museo!

Day 23
         Great news! I woke up this morning feeling a thousand times better than I have the past week! So today got off to a fantastic start. Around 11:00 in the morning, I met up with one of my professors and a student on the program. We ventured out to find the Synagogue in Florence. I was not expecting the Synagogue to be that big! It definitely took me off guard. The three of us went inside to see the museum and the actual Synagogue itself. The synagogue was built back in the late 1800’s, roughly 150 years ago. I felt that if I just touched something, it was going to break. The synagogue was very pretty; I found its dome structure to be the most interesting. Supposedly, the Jews of the late 1800 era, wanted a dome shape to signify that it is a holy place within Florence, similar to the churches here. Next to the synagogue was a small kosher restaurant, where we decided to dine for lunch. I will be honest, it kind of smelt like the dinning hall at the Jewish sleep away camp I attended for many years. However, the food was way better than the perceived smell. I ordered a salad, which was not anything too special, but my friend and professor both had falafel and pita, which they thought was pretty good. It was definitely an interesting experience. Later, on I had my daily stop for gelato. However, this place was AMAZING! This time I really think I found my favorite gelato place! The place is called Grom and everything is advertised to be all-natural! If anyone knows me, they know that I am all about organic and natural products. The flavors were so true to their original origin, that it almost tasted like eating a crushed up version of that food (fruit, nut, etc.), without anything else added. On my last day in Florence, I have already decided that I am going to get the large cup with 4 flavors! Just talking about it, is making me hungry. The rest of the day consisted of a stop at the San Lorenzo market and an attempt to get some work done for class tomorrow. Today was pretty low key, but hopefully tomorrow will be fun and interesting, considering we have an entire afternoon free! 

 Synagogue in Firenze! 

Eating kosher in Firenze

Day 22

        Today started off late, being that I wanted to sleep in and try to sleep off my sinus infection. In the early afternoon, a few of us went shopping in the markets again! I wanted to buy a few more gifts, however I ended up finding a bag and splurging a little on myself… that’s basically my life story. It happens. After the market, we had a couple hours to kill before going to our cooking class. With that being said, I took a nice long nap! I can’t remember the last time I took a nap and yet alone that I decided to take one while in Italy. Anyway, around dinner time about 12 of us from our program went to a cooking class in someone’s home. It was so cute! It was an Italian woman, who taught us how to make homemade pasta. Initially, I thought it was going to be very crowded and frustrating with all 12 of us in a small space, but it turned out great! We all had such a fun time making the pasta! Between the 12 of us there was enough pasta to serve about 20 people, therefore it was the perfect amount for all of us! We made regular pasta, tricolored pasta, long noddle’s, bowtie! Just about everything! While we were making the pasta the chef (teacher) began to make two sauces. One was a basic marinara, with canned tomatoes, olive oil and garlic. The other one was a butter sauce with some seasoning that I cannot remember. Both were so good! I fully enjoyed myself tonight! After dinner, we made a stop for gelato. I decided to make the best of my gelato and I went for a cone with 3 different flavors. It was worth every penny (or euro). I will post pictures of our cooking class. Words cannot really define how good it actually was!

Cooking Class!

Day 21

       We had an early start today with Italian class at 9:00AM! Today consisted of four straight hours of Italian. Fortunately, our teacher took us to the market half way through the class to learn and enjoys the foods. The market was America’s version of a Famers Market, but with fruits and vegetable that were a thousand times prettier and fresher! I wanted to buy and eat everything I saw! Inside “the food court” there were pasta, meat, fish, cheese and pastry shops. I had never seen food look so good before. A majority of our class got some fabulous paninis and I got a small piece of carrot cake on the side. Both were worth every bite! After Italian, we had our leadership class, where we presented our second group projects of the semester. Both classes would have been a lot more manageable if I didn’t have a sinus infection… Oh ya, today I finally did something about my “cold”, which has been bothering me this past week. It was my first experience going to a doctor outside America. He was English speaking, so there really was no difference at all. However, I was surprised how fast the pharmacy gave me my prescription after the doctor prescribed my antibiotics. It was in a matter of seconds and I am not even exaggerating.

          The best part of the day was eating dinner with a group of friends on top of the Michelangelo Piazza that overlooks all of Florence! We all went to grocery store and picked up bread, cheese and wine to dine with as we watched the sunset over Florence. It was little foggy out, so I am sure it could have been prettier, but the atmosphere and the people I was with made it a great night! We all sat their eating, drinking and laughing. It might have been my most enjoyable night yet! 

Piazza de Michelangelo! 

Day 20

         I cannot believe that I only have one week left in Firenze! Where has the time gone? I feel like I just got here and I don’t want to leave anytime soon! I have enjoyed this trip so much and have grown to love most of the people I am traveling with! I went in knowing no one and am coming out with just about 24 good friends. Anyway, so today was a very long day. Nothing too interesting happened in Italian class today. I still have my cold so I was getting up every 5 seconds to blow my nose and didn’t pay too much attention in class. My morning/early afternoon remained consistent, with lunch at the Oil Shoppe and a quick stop for gelato at my favorite place! Of course I got pistachio, but I decided to try a new flavor as well and had a little bit of the simple plain vanilla. Both were delicious! Tomorrow, I have a quiz in Italian and a presentation for my leadership class, so I spent a good few hours working away on my presentation and studying. Later today, our school in Florence led a hike to the top of Fiesole, an area in Florence. It was lead by Lorenzo, one of the head people at the school. Our hike consisted of many college students from all different schools; it was fun to interact with more than just Northeastern students. Let me tell you, this hike was beautiful! It started right near a very famous upscale hotel, which was originally constructed in the 15^th century. They were preparing for a private wedding, which we heard through the grapevine was someone very important. We went with Justin Timberlake’s and Jessica Biel’s wedding. The hike itself, felt like it was deep into the woods as we hiked up steep hills surrounded by trees and on a rocky terrain. Periodically, we stopped at high points to admire the view and take thousands of pictures. Eventually we ended up in an area of civilization, where we continued to walk through the streets and look admire the views along the beautiful terrain. We walked up steep streets and had fun running up them occasionally to get in our exercise. Fiesole was truly beautiful! It felt similar to Chianti, but without the thousands of olive trees, grape vines and vineyards. The hike consisted of good company and beautiful sites, so what is not to like!

            At dinner, Regina and I were introduced to our new roommate staying at our homestay. She is from Mexico City and is the nicest girl ever! She mentioned that four years ago she studied abroad in Florence and kept in touch with our host mom, and now has made her way back here for a month to study photography. She is fluent in Spanish and English and is almost fluent in Italian. Therefore, we were able to have some great conversations at dinner. I can’t wait to get to know her more over the next week! Its great to have a new face at our home :) 

Hiking in Fiesole! 

Day 19

      Today started off with a little bit of a debbie downer… We were informed that due to the earthquake in Northern Italy the previous day, we have to remain in Florence during our last weekend here. Many of us had already scheduled day trips and were really disappointed to learn that we could not go. However, while trying to stay optimistic, we did find a cooking class for the weekend. So hopefully that will take away some of the pain. Italian class was again combined with the other class, due to that the other teacher was in a fender bender on the way to school. Good news though, she was not injured at all. Class ended early this morning, because the lead person from the emotional intelligence conference in Bologna a couple weeks back, came to speak to us and follow up on the conference. We only met with him for a brief period, before going to a pharmaceutical production company in Florence with him. The pharmaceutical company, Lilly, actually is based out of the US, but has branches all over the world. Our visit consisted of a tour of the production building and a small informal meeting with representatives from their human resource department on their personal experience with emotional intelligence. Surprisingly, I found the tour to be very interesting. Because I do not have a strong interest in pharmacy, I initially did not have much interest in seeing the production of drugs. However, after walking in and being able to the process first hand, I suddenly gained interest and became very engaged. I feel that having the opportunity to get an in depth look at other health professions will help me in the long run during my career. In contrast the, sitting in on the emotional intelligence meeting, which focused more on the business aspect, I feel was very beneficial. Today I saw two very different parts of one business and was able to see the amount of work and people it takes to make one thing run efficiently. It was a great introduction to the real world and the work field, which I am about to walk into. 

     In addition, dinner was really fun tonight. It was just Regina and I, the Swedish student staying with us, and our host mom. Towards the end of dinner we started talking about all these different types of foods and had fun try to translate them between Italian, English and Dutch (which the Swedish girl speaks). It was fun and interesting! 

Lilly Pharmaceuticals 

Day 18

         Today I walked into class only to learn that about 20 minutes prior to class there was another earthquake. At the time I was sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast with Regina and did not notice ANYTHING shaking. Supposedly, the earthquake was a 5.0 and killed 15 people in northern Italy. Hopefully, I will still be able to make it to Venice and Milan in two weeks. I did hear that the train system got a little messed up due to the earthquake. Anyway, the day began with Italian class as usual and then I went to the Oil Shoppe again for lunch. However, today I got a jumbo veggie sandwich. There was just about every vegetable you could think of inside with a feta and cheese and a pesto sauce. You seriously cannot go wrong with any sandwich on the menu. In the afternoon, we had another site visit. Our visit today was at the Red Cross in Florence. We were surprised they held their appointment with us, after the earthquake that occurred in the morning and the rush they made to be of assistance in Northern Italy. We sat in on a presentation about the Red Cross organization and its specific presences in Italy. Previously, I thought I had a broad idea of what the Red Cross does, but hearing a clear explanation and specifics about the components of the Red Cross was very informative and interesting.

         After our visit at the Red Cross, we had a few hours to kill before we had to be back at our homestays for dinner, so a few of us went to the Academia Museum where Michael Angelo’s statue of David is. The museum itself was very interesting; they mixed a lot of old pieces of art with modern art. Personally, for me I enjoyed that aspect, because staring at old paintings and statues of naked people is of no interest to me. I appreciated the dynamic of artwork they had, combining “the old school, with the new school”. Let me take a moment to comment on the statue of David itself. The statue was huge; people are really not lying when they say that seeing it up close is amazing! It truly was! I was fortunate enough to snipe a picture before a security guard caught me J I almost forgot, the weirdest part about the modern aspect of the museum, is that they spontaneously had runners, running around the museum to show the modern art of the body. I thought it was weird too, but it was different and interesting. The Academia Museum was definitely a fun experience.

         Tonight, dinner was joined by our host mom’s friends. It’s cute to see three little Italian ladies prepare dinner together. They are always giving us more food and not eating themselves. I don’t think I will even understand why Italian mothers just don’t eat, but want to make sure everyone else is completely full. Most of dinner was spent talking about the earthquake from this morning and ended with us all sitting around the TV watching the news coverage on the earthquake. 

The one Statue of David we were actually allowed to take a picture of @ the Academia Museum!

Day 17

        Well, today was not too exciting. It was basically a recovery day from Rome, this past weekend. Last night I went to bed with a cold and woke up with it again this morning. The first stop of the day, was the dollar store or in Italy I guess the “euro store”, to get a huge thing of tissues, before Italian class. Our Italian teacher was actually sick as well, so we joined classes with the other class (our group is split into two classes). I honestly did not enjoy this teacher as much as our teacher. It may have been because I was sniffling and blowing my noes a good 90% of the time, but she really did not explain herself well and it was difficult to understand her/pay attention. After class, it was back to the famous Oil Shoppe for lunch! I got the most delicious smoked salmon sandwich ever! Even the girls around me kept on saying how good it looked and they don’t even like fish! While eating my fabulous sandwich, Regina and I took a second to write in the Oil Shoppe’s guest book. We had to leave our mark at that place! The rest of the day was spent at school trying to finish our final projects while in Florence. We have two group projects left and I have learned that working in a group is definitely not the easiest thing to do. Today we did not make much progress at all, so hopefully tomorrow we can buckle down and finish things up.

            In our leadership class this afternoon we finished presentations from the previous class on our group papers. The group that spoke, compared both the US and Italian healthcare systems. There presentation lead to a heated argument on if the US should have universal healthcare. There were many different opinions thrown around, but I personally think universal healthcare in the US will decrease the quality of care and people will begin to take advantage of the available resources, leading to overcrowding in hospitals. I believe the discussion lasted longer than our professors anticipated, it lasted the majority of the class, so thats basically all we did. I can't complain.

            After class, Regina and I came back to our homestay to get work done before dinner. My work consisted of watching the new episode of the Kardashians from last night. It was a good episode, so it was definitely worth my time. However, dinner was great tonight! The food was great as always, but tonight I was actually able to converse a little more in Italian with my host mom! It was a great feeling to finally feel more apart of the Italian culture. Hopefully, I will become more confident in speaking the little Italian that I know, over my final two weeks here! Ciao!

The Oil Shoppe!

Day 16

       Today was our last day in Rome and we were given the entire day to do whatever we pleased. Breakfast at the hotel ended at 9:30, so I had to get up in time to eat, which made me get up earlier and start my day so it was a good thing! After breakfast about half of us went to the flea market in Rome, while the others went to get the Pope’s blessing in St. Peter’s Square. I followed a group of girls to the flea market. The flea market in Rome, is supposed to be the largest in all of Europe. I had to admit walking through it was very overwhelming. There were so many clothes, shoes and accessories. It felt like I was just looking at piles of clothes on top of each other and I personally had no interest in climbing over people to dig through the clothes. Luckily, Regina (my roommate in Florence) saw the cutest dress just as we walked into the market. We both ended up getting one and were able to bargain for a cheaper price. I guess, you could call that a success trip, but I did not last too long in the market.
       After the market, me and a couple other girls on the program who are Jewish walked over to the synagogue in Rome. Being that it was Shavuot, we weren’t allowed into the synagogue (services had already ended), but that did not stop us from admiring it from the outside. Being in a predominately catholic city, I had the lowest expectations for the synagogue in Rome. However, I was completely wrong, it was gorgeous! I wished I had gotten the opportunity to see the inside. However, it was fun to see a glimpse of all the members enjoyed Kiddush outside in what seemed to be a garden type setting. While we were already in the Jewish ghetto, we continued to walk around and get a feel of Jewish life in Rome. There was a long strip, which seemed to have many kosher restaurants. It was fun to look at their menus and she the Italian twist to Jewish food.

       Our train did not leave till later in the afternoon, so we just spent the rest of the day walking around the city and stopping for gelato. Overall, I have come to conclusion that I like Florence a lot better than Rome. Rome was too big and seemed not to have as strong of an Italian culture as Florence, but that could also be because I was only in the tourist areas of Rome.

       Coming back on the train to Florence was great! This time, I stayed awake most of trip and was able to admire the beautiful view of Italy. Italy is truly one beautiful country!

       We made it back to Florence just in time to have diner at our homestays. I do not know why, but diner was so delicious today. It was really simple, just pasta with spinach, a while fish and potato’s in olive oil with salt and pepper. But I enjoyed all of it! It must be something about homemade Italian food; there is just nothing better!

The Jews at the Synagogue in Rome!

Day 15

        After getting a great amount of sleep, we woke up to find a large assortment of pastries, bread, yogurt and fruit for breakfast at the hotel. I can’t say that this was the best breakfast I have had in Italy, but I sure ate like it was. I am pretty sure my goal was to eat at least two of everything they had and I know I succeeded. Its something about the food being “free” that make me eat more, I guess. In the later morning, we had a reservation to tour the Vatican City. I had absolutely no idea what to expect here. Basically, all I knew of the Vatican City, is that the Pope lives there. Before entering the city, our tour guide informed us that on average 20,000 people visit the Vatican City daily. That blew my mind away! However, based on how long the line was, I guess I could have predicted that. Walking into the entrance, I personally have no connection to the Vatican and did not have too much of an interest in visiting it. After walking through the Vatican after I while, it is hard not to be amazed at all of the architecture and artwork put into this city. Just from an outsider’s perspective, I thought it was beautiful. I had never seen anything like it before. Every painting was painted with such precise detail and care. It seemed as if there were no flaws throughout it all. In the Sistin Chapel, it was incredible to think that Michael Angelo had painted something that stood right before my eyes. I feel like that is something you just hear about in the history books and is just a story from the past. In addition, St. Peter’s Cathedral was very impressive. I believe it is the biggest church in the world and it definitely shows. It was amazing that the entire church was built by hand; no machines or anything of that kind was used. Then it was out to sit in St. Peter’s square, while we waited for the rest of the group to gather. I have to admit, it was pretty cool standing right in the square and looking at the balcony of St. Peter’s church where you always see the Pope come to stand, on the news during big occasions!

        Unfortunately, today ended a lot like yesterday, with a nap after touring, then diner and then back to bed. Today I think I started to develop a cold so I really just wanted to rest. Me and the roommates that I stayed with in Rome, all went to a random restaurant, which was actually really good. I honestly, do not think that there is a bad restaurant in all of Italy.

St. Peter's Square

Day 14

         The day started bright and early. I woke up at 6:30 to make it to the train station by 7:45 to go to ROME! The previous night was a very late night. So needless to say Regina and I both overslept a little and ended up getting a nice morning sprint in, while heading to the train station on time. Don’t worry, we made it just in time J We arrived in Rome at about 10:00 in the morning, dropped off our luggage and then headed out to start touring Rome. Our first stop of the day was the Colosseum. This place was ginormous; I would like to consider it to be the old version of Cowboy’s Stadium. It was insane to think that I was walking in a stadium that was over 2,000 years old! It just did not seem real. While, in the Colosseum I started to get a really bad stomachache, which unfortunately lasted the rest of the day, so it was a pretty big Debbie downer for me. However, I did not let it stop me from enjoying these amazing landmarks. In the Colosseum I really wanted to lie on my stomach so I found a big rock and decided to lie there in a plank for a couple minutes. I had to make the best of it! After the Colosseum, we met up with a tour guide, whom them brought us to the area of ancient Rome. This is where part of the Roman Forum stands today. To be honest, by this point it had gotten very hot outside and my stomach was killing me, so I basically just took a bunch of pictures to say I had been there. I was not in to the history of ancient Rome. After walking around the city, we found our way to the Trevi Fountain! I had seen the fountain in one of Mary Kate and Ashley’s movies many years ago and was so excited to finally get to see this! Unfortunately, it was really crowded, but I made sure to get many pictures and throw a coin into the fountain and make a wish. I cannot tell ya’ll what my wish was, but it was a great one! For your wish to come true you have to throw a coin with your left hand over your right shoulder, with your back turned towards the fountain and after throwing the coin you can’t look back. The chances of my wish coming true are not too high, because right after throwing my coin in, someone asked me to take a picture of them and I felt bad saying “no”. Just my luck!

         Then, it was a quick stop at the Spanish steps, which neither I nor anyone else had any interest inn climbing, because all of us were basically exhausted. The rest of the day I went back to the hotel to take a nap until diner. For diner, I actually went out to eat with one my professors, the staff member from the school in Florence and a peer of mine. We went to this smaller brick over pizza restaurant that was delicious! The company was great as well! For some reason I always really enjoy dining with people older than me, I guess it’s a sign of maturity. I got to know one of my professors really well and I love her! We had some great conversations and enjoyed some fabulous pizza! After diner it was time for bed and I could not have been happier about it!

The Colosseum!

Day 13

     Today I took my first quiz in Italian. Lets just say that it was ok... Grammar has never been my strong point; so trying to understand grammar in another language has been a struggle. However, I was sitting next to a kid that speaks Italian fluently, so lets hope his knowledge was passed to me for those good 15 minutes or so. The rest of class was good though. I am starting to really like my Italian teacher! She always keeps things real and is willing to tell us more about Italian culture and why they do certain things, from which we may have observed on the streets of Florence or in our homestays. Today we learned that Italy is a very masculine country, which lead to a further discussion on the many ways to call a female a prostitute. It was definitely interesting, not something I was expecting to learn here, but that is what makes this experience that much more fun! After class, it was back to the same sandwich place as we went yesterday. Which I learned it actually called the “Olive Shop”, it was delicious again! Then I took a trip across the street to the most fabulous gelato place there is, not the same one as yesterday. It is Vestri, one of the first places I went. Today it was exceptionally good! About 10 minutes later my roommate, Regina wanted to try a different gelato place she had heard a lot about. I didn’t want to be rude and not join her in enjoying her first gelato for the day, so of course I went with her and had some more gelato! This place was overwhelming; it was way touristier and had so many flavors to choose from. I am pretty sure my stress level shot up after standing there for 5 minutes deciding what to get. In the ended I got a small cup of banana gelato, which actually was really good. With in the past two days I have been eating an average of two gelatos a day! I couldn’t be more pleased with myself.

       Afterwards, it was back to the markets to look around. I had absolutely no intention of buying anything, but an hour later I purchased a beautiful leather/suede tote bag. I learned that you cannot go out and look for a specific style, shape or color; the bag has to find you! Following my spontaneous successful shopping trip, it was back to school for leadership class, where we gave presentations on the papers we had just written. We were all split into three groups and assigned to one paper per group. The best part of this story is that is complete and our presentation went well! One of the other groups discussed health informatics in the US and Italy and brought up HIPPA’s regulations. This brought upon a very interesting discussion on how their regulations are preventing healthcare professionals to be more compassionate towards patients and giving off an unsympathetic vibe. It was a great class to be apart of today. After class, we all sat in on a lecture on social media, which was held at the school and given by a professor from the University of Florence. I have never realized how many sources of social media there are in this world, its insane! Finally, by 7:00 we made it back to our homestay just in time for diner. Our host mom had three friends over for dinner, which at first made my really nervous, because I knew they only spoke Italian. However, between Regina and I (most Regina), we were able to understand the few questions they asked. Diner was great again, we had the wonderful quiche made in a philo dough along with tortellini and grilled eggplant. It was interesting our host mom and her friend’s barley eat anything and meanwhile I was stuffing my face.

      Tomorrow we our off to Rome for the weekend and I am very excited!!! Ciao!

The good luck pig near San Lorenso Market! Supposedly if you rub its nose and drop a coin in its mouth, you will return to Florence again! 

Day 12

        Today it was just Italian class in the morning and then we were given the rest of the afternoon to whatever we pleased. In Italian, we did not learn any new material; we just reviewed for our quiz tomorrow. Surprisingly, the review actually made me feel better about the quiz; I guess I actually know more Italian than I thought. That’s something that never happens! After class I was starving and went with a few girls to a new sandwich place near our school. I believe it is called Olive Oil, or something like that. This place was a little hole in the wall, but it was AMAZING! There were so many sandwich’s on the menu (including many vegetarian sandwich’s), that I had to do “ene mene mine mo” to choose which one to get. I ended up getting a sandwich on with pesto, regular and sundried tomatoes, lettuce and ricotta cheese (I think that is it). It was perfecto and may have been better than Pino’s… Then it was time to visit the San Lorenzo market. Me and another girl passed up the museums for shopping! On the way to the market, we came across one of the many areas in Florence, where the gelato festival was being held. Of course we made a stop there, but didn’t stay long once we realized there was not that much gelato and it cost six euros for five tastings. However, I did manage to walk away with a jar of a nutella like spread/cream, which was made from real pistachios! I bought it with my grandma in mind, I know she would love it and can make something great with it! After a few signature pictures with the festival signs, we finally made it to the market. I only ended up getting a couple gifts, but I guess you could say it was a successful shopping trip. Then it was to the other side of the Ponte Vecchio. This is when the search for a leather jacket began, as my friend and I walked into a leather store just to see what they had. We did not end up buying a jacket, but we did find one of the best gelato places nearby! I have learned that the best gelato is when the gelato is covered and not stacked in huge piles behind glass and also when the pistachio is true to the actual color of a pistachio. The gelato at this place was covered and the pistachio looked exactly like pistachios! It was a huge success! After walking around a bit more, we ended up on a street, which had leather shop after leather shop. In a store called Gabi, I did find a jacket I really liked and it even had half my name already sown into it “Gabi”! I want to say that it just might be meant to be.

        After a long day of wandering around Florence, I am completely exhausted. Hopefully, tomorrow I will be able to go out and tour some more. Right now I am thinking about visiting the synagogue here! Ciao!

Gelato Festival!