Travel Ideas!

I planned out some of my travel plans for the semester! Let me know if you guys have any suggestions!

February 18 – Venice Carnival

March 1-4 – Interlaken
March 9-11 - Rome

March 17-20 – Amalfi Coast with Nicoco

March 29-April 1 – Amsterdam

April 5-9 – Barcelona

April 12-16 - Sicily
April 26-29 Croatia 

I'm here!

Ciao everyone!

I’m here, I’m safe and I’m loving everything about this city!

It was a bit of a rough start at first… turns out I booked the wrong flight and I was actually supposed to be leaving on Tuesday night, but of course I didn’t realize that until Tuesday morning. Great right? So I freaked out for a while and my dad tried to get me on the right flight, but we had no such luck. But it was just as well because mom took me out for lunch (food solves everything) and I had another day to calm down before I left.

So eventually we made it to the airport and after moseying around for a few hours it was finally time for me to go… to another country… by myself.  I was really nervous but everything ended up going smoothly. I had my red eye to Zurich, Switzerland and then it was on to Florence. That flight was one of the coolest parts about this trip so far solely because we flew right over the alps. I was awestruck to say the least.. my face was glued to the window the entire flight. I wanted to grab the lady who was studying next to me and make her look out the window. It’s one of those things that you can’t fully understand until you see it, and flying over them left such an impression on me and I can’t wait to go back and snowboard there. These pictures don’t do them justice, but you can at least get the sense for how massive the mountain range is.

I arrived in Florence at 2 PM (6 AM at home), found the taxi stand and headed to school, where I was assigned a new apartment. I am in love with this apartment. I even love climbing the 4 & 1/2 flights of stairs (65 stairs to be exact, my roommate counted), and my legs are gonna look damn good by the time I get back home.

Our bedroom is a loft!

My side of the loft

Michelle's side with the skylight

Our teeny tiny kitchen... but it has a dishwasher so no complaints here!

Armoir that I'm in love with

View of the living room from the stairs

Another view

Our marble bathroom!

This is what I see when I walk out my door everyday. Unreal.

So besides exploring my apartment, I’ve also spent my time exploring the city, eating and shopping. Florence itself is relatively small, but the architecture makes it seem MASSIVE. There’s a lot of small streets that randomly end, and I have an awful sense of direction, so I’ve been getting lost A LOT. But I can now make it to the Duomo and to my school all by myself! Other than getting lost I’ve just been in awe. Everything here is just unbelievably beautiful, the buildings, the statues, the people – this city is perfection.

The Arno River

Ponte Vecchio

Ponte Vecchio

The Duomo

Piazza di republica

The food here is also perfection, as expected. There are open markets, bakeries, pizzerias and wine shops everywhere. Everything is so fresh and delicious, and I have no idea how all these Italians stay so skinny. I went grocery shopping for the first time and got myself some fresh fruit & veggies from a cute little stand, some prosciutto, cheese, pasta, panini bread – do I sound like an Italian yet? Cause I almost felt authentic when I was out shopping for everything.. minus the fact that I can’t really speak Italian. So last night we tried out this restaurant called Ganzo, and it ended up being my favorite meal so far

The first course was some tomato based cold soup with eggplant chips, 

mozzarella & pesto. All of this is prepared by culinary students and we get 30 meal vouchers to the restaurant!

Pork loin with an orange sauce and a bunch of veggies

My first homemade meal! Just a salad haha

And then the shopping.. oh the shopping. Or oh the leather I should say. There are leather shops EVERYWHERE. From street stands with wallets, bags, belts and notebooks to high-end boutiques with more of the same, everything is leather and beautiful. And expensive. I treated myself to a beautiful sketchbook that I’m going to fill while I’m here, but other than that I’ve done a surprisingly good job at saving my money and not buying things.

And finally, last but not least, the nightlife. Last night was the first night that I went out and I had a lot of fun. First we went to a bar called “Scottish Pub,” so unique right? Turns out that the bar was full of Florentines, which we loved. We were literally the only American’s in there but we ended up meeting a lot of cool Italians, and I got a rose from a really cool rasta man hah. Then it was onto the Red Garter, which felt like P&G’s (Hayyy New Paltz). It was packed with Italians and Americans dancing on/with each other, and in the next room over there was an amazing cover band. Overall that place was too crowed so we left and found another bar. I couldn’t tell you the name of this one but it had bartenders flipping bottles and a DJ that played Empire State of Mind, which we all belted out (horribly). So overall an awesome night and I can’t wait to find some more cool places.

Wow, okay that was really long and if you read through all of it bravo. If not just look at the pictures at least. They’re worth a thousand words right? Here's the link to all the other pictures if you wanna check out some more here

Pre-departure Jitters

So in three days I am going to be leaving for Italy where I'll be studying for the next four months. I honestly can't believe how quickly it arrived never mind the fact that I am ACTUALLY going to be living in another country. But nonetheless its just about here. As far as packing goes, I've been keeping true to myself and procrastinating to the bitter end. I mean I have lists of everything I need to pack and I've even started to make piles of things to pack but that's about it.. but I still have two days to finish all that right?

I'm going to be attending Florence University of the Arts where I'll be studying what else but art. I've somehow managed to create a schedule that looks more like an extended vacation than studying abroad, but I'm very okay with that. I'm going to be taking courses in art history, photography and Italian language and culture.. so basically I'm going to be wandering around Florence taking pretty pictures, going to museums and immersing myself in their culture. I don't think it could get much better than that.. unless I was taking wine tasting, but that's okay cause I'll do that on my own time.

In addition to studying and spending time in Florence, I'm going to be traveling as much as possible. I don't know if I'll ever have four months to pick up and move to Europe again, so I'm going to take advantage of it while I have the chance. So far my list of potential trips includes Switzerland to snowboard in the alps and eat massive amounts of chocolate, Spain to learn how to salsa and use my spanglish that I use way more than Italian, Germany to go to Springfest in Munich, Amsterdam... for the bakeries, the Amalfi Coast for spring break with Nicole, Sicily to visit the homeland, and just about everywhere else in Europe. I know I can't go everywhere, but a girl can dream right?

So as far as this blog goes, I decided to do it so that I'll never forget what is probably going to be the best four months of my life, and so that you can all live vicariously through me and hopefully be inspired to take a trip of your own. 

Wish me luck and I'll see you all in four months!

-Liza