Rome (A pitstop to Greece)

Hi again everyone! I need to preface by saying that this post is one that I never expected to write, but sometimes stories come from the most unexpected situations, so here we are. My next post was supposed to be about my trip to Greece, but instead I will begin the story in Rome. Caroline and I went to Rome on Thursday night, so that we would be able to get to the airport in time for our 5 a.m. flight. We arrived at our hotel that was outside of the Roman center, basically in the middle of nowhere. We wanted to have dinner inside Rome itself, so we asked the front desk staff at the hotel if it would be complicated to get there. He assured us that it would be a quick bus ride, and that the bus stop was a short walk from the hotel. Long story short, we never could find the bus, so we went to a train station instead, and took the train in to Rome. Even then, the train station was not quite in the city center, so Caroline and I did lots of walking until we found the bustling streets full of restaurants we were looking for! We had a delicious dinner, and I had what was seriously the best potatoes of my life. This is what has begun my now obsession with Italian potatoes... I can't get enough of them! I have no idea how, but they are so much better than any at home, and they are so simple. Just some olive oil, salt, and rosemary. 

Okay I'm sorry, food just gets me super distracted. Back to the trip...Caroline and I took the train back to the stop by our hotel, planning to take a taxi back from the station because it was dark, late, and there were no walkways to get home. Well, as we learned after our Cinque Terre trip, there is no such thing as a plan here in Italy. As it turns out, there were no taxis within miles of this deserted train station, and it was getting later by the minute, and Caroline and I both had phones that were about to die. With no other options, I knew that we had to just walk back to the hotel before it got too late and our phones were dead. Thus Caroline and I began a 25 minute walk on the side of what was basically a highway, with cars whizzing by, probably not even seeing us because street lights are apparently optional in this part of Rome. I never thought that I would want to go back to walking on the side of the highway like that, but once we left I wanted nothing more than to at least be around lots of other people. The road we turned on to after the highway was completely deserted, pitch black, and full of aggressive and ominous wild dogs barking. If my description isn't doing it for you, think the opening scene to any horror film with a street abduction. (Mom, if you're reading this, please appreciate the melodrama, and don't forget I survived! 😅). Caroline and I spent this last leg of the journey with our phone flashlights on, arms linked together so tight the jaws of life would have had trouble separating us. Finally, we recognized the street for our hotel, and despite our totally insensible footwear, we all out sprinted until we made it to the hotel doors. We survived!!! 

Okay, enough of that, next time you hear from me it will be about the beautiful Santorini, Greece! 

Cinque Terre (Week 1 Part 3)

Hello again everyone!! I know I have been really slow going on the blog posts the last couple weeks, but it was all for good reason! I have been traveling like a maniac, and am finally home in Florence for the first weekend in a couple weeks, so I am dedicating time to posting about my last few trips! This post is going to consist of more photos than words, because Cinque Terre is quite literally too beautiful for words. This will go down as the trip of a lifetime for me, because the natural beauty of this place is something I never expected to experience in this lifetime. I feel so blessed to be seeing the wonders of the world like this, and I will be thankful every day for these experiences! (okay, sappy part done, I promise...this trip just makes me emotional I miss it so much! 😅)

Most people did this trip through a guided tour program that buses you over to Cinque Terre and takes you on the hikes, but Caroline and I decided to do this trip ourselves. By taking the train we were able to arrive at the beach earlier, and stay later than the tours that had to leave at 4:30. (ironically this did not work in our favor in the end, you will understand what I mean soon).  Caroline and I got off the train at Monterosso, which is the part of Cinque Terre that has the best public beach. The water is a crystal clear blue, almost turquoise color, and incredibly warm. The entire beach is surrounded by beautiful cliffs and mountains, and by noon the beach was packed down to the very last inch of sand. We were lucky enough to have a sunny and hot day, which of course called for the buckets of frozen daiquiris you see us holding below 😋. After spending the day with all of our other Providence College friends enjoying the sun, Caroline and I left to do the hike from Monterosso to the town over, Vernazza. This hike was about two hours long, and it was up a long set of stairs THE WHOLE TIME. By the time we made it to Vernazza, our legs were shaking our muscles were so tired. It was all well worth it though, as the views were absolutely stunning. After our hike and earning our calories, Caroline and I enjoyed a delicious meal with a view. We had a pesto-themed meal, because this is considered Cinque Terre's specialty. Needless to say, it was delicious! The best part about our restaurant was that it was right on the water, so we were able to watch the sun setting right in front of us the whole time! It was the perfect end to a perfect day.

After dinner we went to the train station to start heading home, only to find that we missed the last train back to Florence! Luckily we kept calm and researched other ways to get home, and through a very indirect route that required 2 train rides and a bus, we finally made it back home at 3 o'clock in the morning! We found a wonderful American husband and wife along the way who happened to be in the same position as us, so we ended up teaming together to make sure we all made it back to Florence safe and sound. There really is never a dull moment while we are here! Even with the traveling fiasco, I will always look back fondly on this day, it was truly an amazing experience!

Week 1 Part 2, Mantua and Verona

Hello! Welcome back to my blog! I hope that you enjoyed my first post since arriving here, and I am thrilled to share this next installment detailing my first week here in Firenze! I left off my last post detailing my apartment and first night out, and I will be picking up here to tell about my program field trip to Mantua and Verona. The trip began bright and early by meeting at the Santa Croce promptly at 6 o'clock in the morning (mind you, this is only my third day in Italy, and having not adjusted to the time change, that felt like starting my day at midnight 😟). All the students in my program were divided into three groups, and we boarded the buses to start making our way to Mantua. There was a stop at a rest area for breakfast along the way, and if you were a local stopping by when we all got there, you would have thought it was the apocalypse based on how many of us flooded the entire place. Many students stopped to get snacks, but all the options were in Italian and unfamiliar packaging, so everyone just ended up buying the one recognizable snack, which was Pringles. The rest of the bus ride wasn't so bad, and before we knew it we were in Mantua. 

If the name Mantua sounds vaguely familiar to you, it's because you must have read some Shakespeare in your educational career. Mantua is mentioned a few times in Romeo and Juliet. For example, it is where Romeo is banished to after killing Tybalt to avenge Mercutio's death, and it is where Romeo receives new that Juliet is dead, which is the reason that he decides to buy poison and thus sets the tragic ending of the play in motion. Pretty neat huh? Shoutout to my sophomore English teacher Mrs. Benton, because I was actually really excited to be traveling to Mantua and Verona after reading Romeo and Juliet in her class, which is where I started my affinity for Shakespeare.

 Okay enough of a literature lesson, I'll get back to explaining my trip! The entire day in Mantua was guided tours, so we began by touring the "Palazzo Ducale", or palace of the Dukes. This palace was built by the Gonzaga family (yes college basketball fans, that is where the Gonzaga name comes from) between the 14th and 17th centuries. This was an amazing tour because of how much the Gonzaga family valued art. Every single room was ornately decorated with gold and paintings and intricate architecture. It makes HGTV's hot trends look boring and dull! After the tour of the Duke's Palace, we were able to go off on our own for lunch, which is where I got the pumpkin ravioli in a butter-sage sauce pictured below. I had never had that dish before, and it was such a treat... I loved it! Overall, this was a great day, and I was glad that this was a trip that my program booked, because this probably wasn't somewhere that I would have gone on my own. 

The second day of this trip was spent in Verona. I am sure this is another familiar name to you, if not more so than Mantua, because Verona is the hometown of Romeo and Juliet. This was another fantastic day. It began by walking over a gorgeous bridge with beautiful views, which is pictured below. This was an immediate indication to me that I was going to love Verona, and I was not wrong! After the bridge we moved on to walk through the amphitheater of Verona, which is actually 30 years OLDER than the Roman colosseum! After visiting the amphitheater, we moved on to visiting Romeo and Juliet's houses. The spots that are claimed to be Romeo and Juliet's houses are a tourist attraction of course, considering the fact that the story of Romeo and Juliet is fictional, but it was fun to do nonetheless. There was a tunnel that we needed to pass through in order to get in to Juliet's garden (which is where the view of her famous balcony is), and the tunnel is filled with initials of couples and love letters stuck on with gum. I think that since not many people carry paper and pen with them when traveling, the bandaid became the most common medium used for this love messages. Not sanitary, but definitely innovative! After walking through the tunnel we entered Juliet's garden, which is where the statue of Juliet is located. It is said that grabbing Juliet's breast will bring good luck, and so many people have been grabbing it over the years it got so worn down it actually had to be replaced! 😳 Visiting Juliet's balcony concluded our official tour for the day, and all that followed was a delicious lunch and then we loaded back onto the buses for a four hour ride home.

That is all I have to tell about this mini trip, and next up I will be writing about my visit to Cinque Terre!

 Ciao for now!

-Julia

Florence, Week 1 Part 1

Hello! 

Welcome to my first blog post coming to you live from Florence! I am just finishing up week one of my journey so far, and it has been an amazing and memorable experience already! I will be writing this post in sections corresponding to the photos posted, so it will be clearly marked what activities the photos go with. 

 On Sunday, August 27th I drove to Logan airport with my Mom and Dad, and quickly said good-bye to them and headed through security. I met up with a lot of girls from my program once through security, and we all waited for the plane together. I was lucky enough to have a window seat, and as is included in the picture below, you will see my seat mates, two very funny german men. They sat down and immediately told me that they were thrilled to have me as their seat mate, as I was small and didn't look like an old man who snores. They also saw me snapchatting my friends and told me they wanted to take a selfie together, and that is how this hilarious photo came about....Never a dull moment even from the start!

The first two days of my trip were spent in a hotel outside of Florence with all the other study abroad students, and it was difficult sitting through information sessions all day while dealing with the time change and jet lag! No photos from those days, but a very entertaining lecture was given by a U.S. consular representative, where he explained the theft problem in Florence by saying, "Unlike in America, the thieves here are very athletic...they're like Spiderman, except this time Spiderman is here to steal your things instead of save the city". 😂 Overall, a difficult first couple of days adjusting, but on Tuesday, August 29th, we were officially transported to move into our apartments!

I cannot say enough nice things about my new apartment here in Firenze! I share a room with one of my best friends from PC, Caroline (she is the blonde pictured below), and then there are two other girls from Fairfield sharing the other room, named Lauren and Casey. The apartment is very spacious, and has a kitchen, living room, and the two previously mentioned double bedrooms. We also happen to be THE ONLY apartment in our program that has air conditioning...woohoo! The room that Caroline and I share is set up a little funky, because in order to make the room work for two people, the landlord put two twin beds against the headboard for a full size bed, so Caroline and I are sleeping on two beds pushed together the next three months 😅 I guess you could say we're getting close on this trip! Once we dropped our bags and tried to organize a little bit, we went out to do some exploring, and eat with our new roommates for our official first night out in Florence! The picture below is one that I took of the Duomo, which is a three minute walk from my apartment. I can't believe I live in such a beautiful, historic place! We shared bruschetta as an appetizer, and I had their seasonal vegetable risotto as my main dish, and naturally this was all accompanied by some Italian wine 🍷. After a night out at dinner we enjoyed the night life by going to a few clubs, and got to watch some hilarious karaoke at the bar across the street from us! We quickly learned that the night life in Florence does not even begin until midnight, and we did not return to our apartment until 5 a.m.! Italy sure knows how to keep a party going! All in all, it was a wonderful beginning to my trip, and I am excited to update you on what else I have been up to! My next post will detail my program field trip to Mantua and Verona.

Ciao for now,

Julia

    

tomato bread soup, a tuscan specialty! "Pappa al pomodoro"