Day 22 - July 21

 Thursday. So I wake up (miserably tired) and drag my but to class. We watched a movie called "The Big Night" about these 2 Italian brothers trying to run a restaurant in America. My teacher cooked some risotto for us that was in the movie, and it was of course delicious. Afterwards I talked to Marco about whether or not he has heard of Di Berardino wine. He immediately says yes and tells me where they are located, well the region they are in, and how they are becoming more popular and spreading more throughout Italy!! I was so excited!! He gave me the name of a really good wine shop that he thinks should sell some Berardino wine too so I am going to have to check into that and maybe bring home a bottle or two!! Photography class was also good today. Two days in a row is pretty impressive. We went
to these art shops and watched 2 artists paint and took pictures of their studios while they were working. I barely even got pictures because I was so enthralled with how the artist was working on such amazing paintings. She was really nice too, and painted my friend who was talking to her the whole time. I was so jealous! She gave him a free portrait that she painted of him and she did it in like 7 minutes...we timed her. So after class I came home to watch 2 of my roommates get ready for an opera! I wanted to go so bad, but the tickets were sold out and I didn't want to go hoping to find one then be disappointed. So instead Jon, Liz, and I went out for some dinner. Mexican food. Florence has one Mexican restaurant
and it is awesome. I got some chimichangas and nachos. It was exactly what I needed...a break from carb/olive oil filled food. I loved it and probably will go back again tomorrow. Going to bed was definitely on my mind too. I have to be up at 7am tomorrow morning to meet to go wine tasting at Chianti!! Need some sleep!!

Day 21 - July 20

 Wednesday. So today is July 20th...which means...I come home in 10 days!!! I cannot believe that at all! It seemed like I would be here forever, but now I just have one weekend left!! It is so crazy!! Anyway...in food we made PIZZA!!!!!!!! The best pizza I have had so far I might add too. I got to make the dessert pizza, but it was the same dough with different shape and different topping so I think I could do it at home also. Today's food was so amazing that when we were done eating there were zero leftovers. Usually there is enough for some people to take food home, but not today. My dessert pizza was made in miniature circles then cut in half, stuffed with chocolate, put together like a sandwich, white chocolate drizzled on top, and sprinkled with cocoa. Oh yea. The pizzas were the main event though. We made four pizzas which were amazingly good. My favorite had red peppers and prosciutto ham. The crust was just perfect, the sauce was fresh, and the toppings were just enough with not too much cheese that you could taste everything in the perfect amount of proportions. Loved it!! Other than the pizzas and the dessert we also had eggplant parmesian (I will make that again, so good) and potatoe suffle. This entire day was probably the best food we have had so far, as a whole. We have made some really good stuff, but everything we had today, I want to make when I get home. I really, REALLY love this class. When that was over I had to do some errands for class and then I went home to sleep. I was exhausted even
with a decent amount of sleep!! 2 hour nap...felt much better. Photography class was also pretty good too. We went to this park and took some outside, nature pictures. Too bad I was like the class idiot and could never get the sun and my camera to cooperate. It was funny after a while because my teacher would keep asking me if I got the picture...and I would keep saying UGH NO. Good thing he has a little "crush" on me so he just laughed it off. Haha I'm just kidding...he is just really nice. When I got home it was time to change and head off to dinner. Bus2alps (the program I used to go on my Amalfi trip) organized a get together at this amazing restaurant for everyone that went on the last trip. So my roommates and I got all dressed up and headed out. Gatto de Volpe. Best dinner I have had so far. It
was like an all you can eat, all you can drink magical feast. We paid 15 euros for about 7 different appetizers on a platter passed around, 3 different kinds of pasta, and an endless supply of white and red wine. It was the best money spent. The penne vodka that we were served...WAS...TO...DIE...FOR. I will be going back for that again. We had so much fun talking with the guides that went on our trip again and drinking with everyone that we decided to go out to a bar after that. It was called Central Park and it was a 45 minute walk. Ugh. We ended up having to call a cab although half way through we realized that none of us spoke Italian so it was a little difficult to explain to the cab where we were. Then they wouldn't drive us because we were trying to fit 9 people in one taxi van. Ha luckily some guys saw us struggling near by and helped to talk to the taxi drivers for us and got 2 cabs to take us where we needed to go. They were the first guys that weren't creepy, and were genuinely nice. Amazing that I have been here for over half my time and those are the first nice guys I've met. Anyway...I get there, have a little fun, and head back in a cab. Get a little lost while walking home, forgot my key inside my apartment, and my phone wasn't working. Good thing one of my roommates was already home and heard my voice from outside the apartment and let us in. It was a fun night, but probably my last time going out while I am here. It is exhausting...especially when I get back from the bar and talk on facebook for a few hours before falling asleep on the couch. I can't really function on 2 hours of sleep very well.

Day 20 - July 19

 Tuesday...in food class today we made the best pasta I have had so far! It was the easiest thing to make too. It was fresh pasta that was thick and cut with this cool guitar spaghetti maker thing. Then you boiled it, and then put it into a pan with olive oil and a little bit of butter. Saute the pasta together while adding a ladel of the starchy pasta water and a ladel of regular cold water. You add one of each then saute it by flipping the pan around...no utensils needed. I am getting good at that too. Then you add quite a bit of fresh ground pepper, 3 good handfuls of cheese, and continue to saute with the two different kinds of water until you get a creamy sauce mixture. That's it. It was amazing!! That is for sure something that I am making when I get home. Everyone loved it and my teacher said it was perfect :) We also had some other things but I made the pasta and it was such a big hit that I can't even really remember what all we made. Haha no we also made some potatoes that were delicious and so easy too. Then we had lamb chops and roasted tomatoes, and for dessert there were these little ameretti cookies. They were pretty good, but not necessarily my favorite dessert we have made. I am so amazed by how simple all the recipes that we make actually are, but they have such great flavor and taste! My recipe book is covered in notes, and my notebook is the same. I try to write as much as I can so I can make it just as well at home as I do in my class. After class I came home to nap. I was exhausted and running on 2 hours of sleep. Besides shower, I didn't really do much between classes, but it was nice. Then photography it was time to finish printing my film pictures in the dark room. It takes so much time to print a picture!!! I was happy I got to try it all out though because I don't know when I will get a chance to work in a dark room again. I also found out that I think my teacher has a crush on me! Haha he was encouraging my classmates to print out the portraits they took of me (we all took them of each other). When I laughed and told everyone not too, he told me that I am under estimating my beauty...ahhh haha. This is like the third
time he has said something awkward like that, although he has said it to other people in the class too. He is kind of the stereotypical, artsy photography guy and gets really into pictures. Whatever I guess. He can think I'm pretty...I mean gees...I'm basically gorgeous and practically a model now :) Haha but anyways, I got my pictures done finally and then we had to edit the portraits that we took digitally. I didn't really feel well and was tired of being there, because it was past class time so I just sent my pictures in with very little editing and left. Hopefully my grade isn't suffering because of my laziness. Its not a good combination...lazy and the fact that there are soooo many other things I want to be doing besides working on homework or studying for class. When I got home my roommates and I were all so tired and it was about to storm outside so we all stayed in. Ate some plain butter noodles for dinner because my stomach hurt and then laid on the couch reading a book for the rest of the night. I went to bed at midnight. That is the earliest I have gone to bed this whole trip. JJ had to work later than normal so I didn't even get to talk to him today. And trust me, that never happens so that REALLY shows how tired I was. 8 hours of sleep...here I come :)

Day 19 - July 18

 Monday...back to real life. Well I guess as real as life can get when you live in Florence that is. Food class starts off with my midterm. There is a written part and a hands-on part that have to be completed in one class period. The written part was kind of hard!! There were 9 essays and they all consisted of me having to explain entire recipes and the ingredients that go in them and the techniques that are necessary to make each dish. It was a lot more detailed that I was expecting, but I think, or at least I hope, I did alright. The hands-on portion of the test was a breeze. We were all to make something to be graded that we have already made. My table decided to split up into appetizer, main course, and dessert. I was on the dessert with the chocolate cake and raspberry sauce again. When my teacher, Marco, tasted it he said it was perfect! Everything about it was done right and he couldn't have done it any better!!! That made me happy. So then I head back to the apartment to start uploading pictures, updating this blog, and do some laundry. I had to wash my towels...it was a little gross that I went 2 weeks without washing them. Photography class was next where we learned how to develop film strips, contact sheets, and the entire process of printing out the photos. It was really cool, but the process is very long and has to be done perfectly. I was a little overwhelmed to be honest. We will be able to actually see our finished product the next day, so it was all the setup that we had to do today. We also had to take more pictures for our assingment that is due Tuesday. Portraits...5 images. Two of them are from my film pictures and 3 are going to be digital. When I got home nobody was in the apartment so I started to get some things for dinner. Jon (my roommmate) and I went to the store when he got home and we cooked pasta with chicken and pesto sauce with a salad. When I say that "we" cooked, I really mean "I" cooked though. It was alright because he had to do the dishes. Then we went out to this new bar that we haven't been to before called Flow. It was a really cool place that was right by the Piazza Michelangelo which was where we went before to watch the sunset. The bar was all outside and we had to lie about our age to get in. You were supposed to be 25 or older, so we argued a little bit and they let us in...even though they thought we looked young. It just was funny because I have not needed to show my ID anywhere since I have been here, but now we find a bar that wants me to be older? Interesting I guess. It was fun and we stayed out way too late, but I guess I am used to getting no sleep by now. Tomorrow will definitely be nap time between classes.

Day 18 - July 17

 Sunday! Yesterday was fun, and is going to be very hard to top. But I will say that what we saw was pretty cool as well. We went to see Pompei, the city that was destroyed by the volcano eruption and was preserved and uncovered years later. It is still intact today, somewhat, and I got to see it first hand! We got there in the morning and had a little bit of time to look around before going on our guided tour. Weirdly enough I found a lot of souveniors that had penises on them. I'm really sorry but I was super confused and it was a little disturbing how many there were all around. Come to find out, in Pompei it was was a sign of fertility and they played it up very much so. It is still weird, but I guess it makes a little more sense now that I know the meaning behind it. So the tour was amazing. We had the best tour guide who was funny, gave us great information, and spoke pretty good English, which was the best part. We saw all the artifacts that were found and saved from when it was first discovered, statues, people's casts, and a lot of pots/vases. Our tour guide related everything in the city to what we have nowadays also, which was very interesting. There was a part where he was like, "Does anyone like Taco Bell?" Obviously I am the first to laugh and say DUHHHH YES. He showed me where their form of "taco bell" was and how it worked. I took pictures with it. It was their fast food that they would serve for people to just come in and out of. The pizza ovens were there for Pizza Hut, the spas were there which was a lot alike to what we have now. I guess the idea behind it is a lot alike, maybe not the look. There were large bathing areas, and pools, and changing rooms, and even a brothel. The people of Pompei were apparently very interested in fertility, and the making of babies...to put it nicely. Haha no but really they had penises carved into the streets and walls of the buildings to point people towards the brothel. I have pictures. It was soooo weird to see that and to think that even back in those days...men were gross. Haha. So we continued walking to see the theater, which is older than the Colleseum actually and even to see where the people drew Roman graffiti! There was a griffin carved into the wall at one place! I was excited because obviously they were thinking of Fontbonne Griffins when doing that...it basically was like a preminition or something. So when the tour finished we got some pizza. Some really good pizza, too bad it took an hour and a half to get. After our long wait, it was time to go back to Florence. 7 hour bus ride...here I come. I have never had so much fun in such a small coast like Amalfi, but it was worth every euro spent! I hope someday I can go back with family and friends so I can show you all everything that I got to see. Because hearing me talk about what I saw, is nothing compared to seeing it for yourself. Great...great weekend :)

Me at "Taco Bell"

In front of the ruins of Pompei!!!!

Day 17 - July 16

 Saturday. Beach day!!!! We get to sleep in a little bit to wake up and get ready to go to the beach :) YES!! The place we are going to is called Positano and it is unbelievable as well. I have found that everywhere here is so amazing to me because the midwest doesn't exactly have anything to offer like these places do. Even the California people were impressed because their ocean and vies are nothing like the ones we saw this whole weekend. So we take another short bus ride after breakfast just so we can walk all the way down a mountain to get to the ocean. Not kidding my legs were literally shaking from all the walking and steps that we did combined with yesterday's amount. Being sore was not even a
question. Seriously, uncontrollably shaking. It was a litle humorous. Anyway after walking through the whole little beach town we get there and it is a small part of the beach with black, rock shores. There is no sand. It was scalding hot, but it was really nice because the rocks just brushed off you...it didn't stick like real sand does at the beach. The water was as clear as it could be. Like if you needed to readjust your swimsuit...everyone will see you because that is how clear the water is. Just beautiful though. So we hung out there for a while soaking in the sun with nice breeze and some fresh fruit from the really good panini shop next to us.

Literally paradise, but it only gets better. At about 1 oclock it is time to go meet to go....CLIFF JUMPING AND CAVE DIVING!!!! Yay!! We took a boat ride around the mountain a little bit to find a spot where we climb up the side of these rocks and, well, just jump off! I was terrified. Absolutely scared to death, but I knew I would always regret it if I didn't try. The first jumping spot was about 10 feet high so it was the baby one in most people's eyes. In my eyes...I was having a heart attack. It took me a good 10 minutes to convince myself to actually jump. AMAZING!! I loved the adrenaline rush and couldn't get enough of how it felt sooooo I immediately got back in line to do it again, but from a higher point this time. There were so many people that I only got to jump twice but that was more than enough. All my roommates went up together the second time to the next highest point, which was proabaly around 15-18 feet above water. I was on the high side and was freaking out again. I seriously am so happy that I got to do it though because it really was exhilerating just to fall into the water. So, cliff jumping can be crossed off my list of things to do before I die...YES!

Next is cave diving. Which was crazy because the boat just brought you up to this little cave, you jumped off the side of the boat and just swam in. There were no floatation devices, there were no life jackets, no rocks to hold onto. They said if you aren't a good swimmer don't do it, so obviously I was like the first person to jump into the water. I mean I was a swimmer all my life and a lifeguard...I was practically a professional cave diver. It was so cool...literally. It was cold, cold water in that cave. We swam through until we got to this little rock where you could stand up and climb through a hole in the cave to get out on top of it. I was barefoot and in my swim suit climbing up this hole and all over the rocks. I felt like I was about to do a model photoshoot when we got out though because it totally had rocks to lay out on and the waves were crashing in behind us with the sun coming down and nothing but ocean in the background. Too bad I didn't have an underwater camera!! Dang it!! Someone else did so we took one picture, hung out there but then had to go. The boat was taking us back to the beach for the rest of the day. It was sooooooo worth the 15 euros I paid to do all of that because I may never get to do that kind of stuff again. It was such an amazing experience.

Once we got back to the beach we slept...and I got burnt. Oops. I applied sunscreen like 4 times to my shoulders, but it was inevitable that I was getting so much sun and I was in the water so much that it could never stay on long enough. Oh well...I wasn't all that bad to be honest, but I was a little red. We eventually had to leave :( and went back to the hostel. I was so covered in salt that my shirt was stuck to my back, I mean this quite literally. Shower, get dressed, and then dinner and bar at the hostel. We hung out there for the night. At midnight it was one of my roommate's birthday, Liz. She turned 20 at the most beautiful place in the world...jealous!! They were also shooting off fireworks and sending up lanterns into the sky while we were on the rooftop so it was such an amazing view after the sun went down. I love this place and it was a lot of fun, but sleep was definitely on my agenda. I went in early so I could update people about my trip, let mom know I was having a blast, let dad know that his catcher didn't hurt herself cliff jumping, and let JJ know that he totally is missing out and should have come to visit me like I said!!!! Haha but I did get to bed and got to sleep for like 7 hours. That was huge compared to normal sleep time here. I was as happy as can be. :)

Day 16 - July 15

 Friday!! After arriving in Sorrento at about 3:30am and getting about 2 hours of sleep it was time to explore the beautiful island of Capri! We took a short bus ride then had to walk about a mile to get to the ferry. And for those of you that know that I get carsick...well bus sick is even worse. The ferry ride was awful and there were probably about 10 people that were throwing up all around me. I didn't get sick but I didn't feel good the rest of the day either. We eventually get off the ferry and walk just to get on another boat. Great. No, but this time we were sitting outside and it was a smaller boat so it was much better. We took a tour around the island. OH MY GOD.

I have never seen anything more beautiful in my entire life. The island was so cute and built right along side the mountains and the roads were all on the very edge of all the curves that went with the landscape. We saw romantic caves, and an archway where you are supposed to kiss someone when going through it, and crystal clear blue ocean for miles, and small statues sitting throughout the rocks that have been there for years, and Georgio Armani's house built into the side of the mountain, and the Blue Grotto which is one of the 7 most beautiful natural wonders of the world. So obviously I was overwhelmed with everything and loved it all! Unfotunately the tide was so high and crazy that we weren't able to actually go inside the Blue Grotto, so I just looked from the outside. Once the tour was over we headed onto the actual island of Capri. Then...we walked. And walked. And walked. And walked. I can't even tell you how many stairs and steps I took to get everywhere this weekend, but I am positive that I burned off every calorie that I ate in the entire weekend just in the first day alone. Anyway...we set off to explore the lemonchella tasting, which is a lemon/vodka smoothie type thing that they are very famous for. Gross. I was very unprepared for a shot of vodka when I tried it, so it was not my favorite. Then we also got to see a man making handmade shoes in the street where a lot of girls bought some, but I did not because they were not only kind of expensive, but they were pretty flat and if I was going to pay that much I want something a little more comfortable. We had some lunch where I got my first thing of gnocchi also! Delicious...of course. The next stop was Ana Capri where we could take a chairlift to the very, very top of the mountain to see the most amazing view you could ever dream of.

Words are impossible to describe how awesome it was to see the ocean and sailboats and everything. Everyone needs to go there, and everyone needs to see this place for themselves. It is the only way to really understand the true beauty of the place. Even my nice camera with great photos don't do the place justice. The view literally took my breath away multiple times. Especially while going up and down a single person chairlift along side the mountain, dangling over nothing but the city and a bunch of rocks :) I survived though!! When it was time to go, I was exhausted seeing that I had no time to sleep,  but the day was far from over. We headed back to the hotel we first were in, but had to switch over to the hostel so we could be rooming with our group. THANK GOD FOR THAT HOSTEL!! It was so much nicer than any of the hotels I have stayed in so far while being in Italy. It was one of the nicest hostels in all of Europe so I guess you can say I have been spoiled now. It was called Seven Hostel, there was a restaurant, lounge, and rooftop bar where you could have happy hour while watching the sunset. So awesome. As a group, there were about 80 people that booked this trip through the same program called Bus2Alps, we went to dinner. I thought I ordered pasta with Italian sausage and broccoli. I didn't. I got baby broccoli, which is so not the same thing, grounded up sausage that looked white in color, and little circular noodles. It wasn't what I was expecting, but it was good all the same. We also had a little wine...ok we had a more than a little. But I mean what else are you supposed to do when in Italy? Eat...drink wine...and enjoy!! Afterwards we went to this pub with the entire group which was in the middle of the downtown area. It looked a lot like some cities at home but it was much friendlier than downtown St. Louis and people everywhere. Only thing was that it was 45 minutes away from our Hostel...walking. So we left early to leave with the guides to go back. At night, however, the place is not as friendly. That is why we walked with our tour guides or people took taxis. Italian men just are not very trustworthy and pretty much are sleeze balls. So it is nice to have people that speak Italian with us to steer them away too. Finally after a long, exhausting day I get to lay down in my top bunk bed with 10 other girls and get some sleep. Air conditioning and quiet rooms...best sleep I have had since I have been to Italy. Hands down.