p.s.

i may have failed to explain that i often crave salty things for breakfast in this country because all they eat before 1pm are biscotti and cake and others very sugary things. 


this means that when i really need salt i eat the following: very dry, unsalted, tuscan bread with very good, yet unsalted butter.... sprinkled with salt.


sad. i know. but pretty tasty!!! 










off to sicilia i go! 

a day spent with dinos and rocks

aka the greatest day ever.

around 2pm, breana and i met alayna and lenora at san marco to go find the dinosaur museum, otherwise known as the museum of geology and paleontology. we could not find it. anywhere. we even knew the general area it was in and asked three different people: the first two looked at me like i was abosolutely insane and the last guy says, "OH! We have a GREAT paleontology museum.... where is it? oh.... well i don't know...." and then proceeds to look in the phone book and find nothing. at which point i call my host mother who says she will call me back after looking it up online.


guess where the darn museum is. on the street i take to school. every day. i pass this museum not once, but TWICE a day. we knew it was affiliated with the university of florence but we didn't realize it was  IN the academic building. whoops. anywho. we got there. finally. AND! that great pass we bought the other day for 4 euros which we thought was only for the four special exhibits at the science museums is also for all the university of florence affiliated museums (anthro, zoology, minerals and rocks, etc. etc. etc....) AND it was for sale for 10 euros here...... meanwhile we bought it yesterday for 4! 


needless to say, we wandered amongst huge dinos, most of which were FOUND IN TUSCANY!!! and the more complete ones were named - pippo, marta, linda and pietro..... very cute. 


then we strolled across the courtyard to the rock and mineral museum which was AMAZING! and beautiful. and sparkly. (there are about 1 million pictures of said dinos and rocks on facebook.... how embarrassing! http://www.facebook.com/album.php aid=379250&id=500755531&l=23c5298291)


anyway! at this point i am in bed with warm milk, mostly packed for SICILY in the morning! how grand!


my next update will be from down south nearby the ocean and basking in weather 10 degrees warmer, although perhaps rainier, than here!


ciao a tutti! baci e abbracci!

a brief rundown of a grand friday adventure (which runs a bit into today)

after waking up around 11am (so nice.....) breana and i attempted to make some delicious plans for the day. upon deciding to go to the zoological part of the natural history museum over by pitti palace, we realized it closed at 1pm and it was already 12:30pm. whoops! we then decided we would go to the history of science museum instead. i hopped on the bus, naturally giving breana directions to the wrong bus stop, so i got there a little before here, only to find out that most of the museum was closed except the "florence science" exhibit in the basement. it was pretty cool, all sorts of instruments and galileo-y, newton-y things. we had not a clue what anything was and the little labels such as "electrical apparatus" didn't really help a whole lot. we did find a huge spark chamber, a large electro-static machine and a model of squash fertilization though! the cool thing about this exhibit is that it is linked to three other science museums in florence and you buy your one ticket and can get into all three until may! after spending all of an hour in this charming basement, we headed elsewhere.

we first stopped in the sede to try to cheer up all the ladies still writing papers and grab a yummy hot cocoa from the macchine, and then we popped in to our favorite panini place, i fratellini (which for some reason we always have called due fratellini but theres nothing really about there only being two little brothers.... i guess we just say that because there are always two men working there?) anyway, we had some yummy goat cheese and spicy salami sandwiches and wandered off in the direction of the photography museum. 




very cool. old cameras, old negatives, super old photo albums, tons of black and white photographs, lots of cool pictures of italy in the 1800s. very neat. 


at this point we still had over 2 hours until we needed to be at a little book reading/immigration literature/aperitivo thing at a cafe over the arno so we stopped by one of the other museums with a science exhibit. this one was way cool: one of the medici palaces whose science exhibit was kinda funny, mostly architectural sketches and portraits of science-y dudes. but regardless! the palace was great! we got to see many many chandeliers and couches and tapestries and a tiny little marble museum full of marble statue heads. it was pretty great.


with at least an hour still to go we first wandered around rinascente, a big department store, looking at all the things we didn't need that were on sale. then we went over to the old stove pub in piazza del duomo and had a pint of strongbow cider. at which point we were much more ready to face the oh-so-exciting book reading thing.....


which had no aperitivo i might add. only a bowl of potato chips. which we definitely took advantage off. but it was hard to hear what the speakers were saying, and it was loud and crowded and we were hungry and worn out. after waiting for an hour and a half we finally parted (after chatting with giovanna and two of our adorable professors who were there, naturalllyyyy) and headed over to dante's trattoria for dinner. it was decently good and well priced, the free wine was gross, and there were a lottttt of dumb americans. 


after dinner, breana and i were not quite ready to head home so we popped into kikuya, the english pub, where we a) saw (but didnt bump into, thank god) antonio, a creeper from week one in italy, and b) met two really cute american girls from south carolina and their way less cute annoying friends from tennessee and worcester, MA. we exchanged numbers with the cute ones and vowed to teach them things about florence, etc. in fact, we are inviting them to hang out at braumeister this evening! 


i would say we had an extremely successful day! 


this morning i woke up at 9 to make pancakes for my family, very cute as always. 


as i write, i am chatting with breana and making grand plans to go to the dinosaur museum later! after packing and painting my nails of course. packing for what, you ask.... SICILIA!!! we leave tomorrow. the taxi arrives at 11:30am, flight at 1:30pm, arrive there at 3pm, drive somewhere and proceed to spend 6 nights in various places around sicily - two hotels RIGHT ON THE OCEAN! and if not sunny, it will at least be about 55 degrees the whole week, far better than our 43 tops! i absolutely cannot wait! pictures and blog will be updated as much as possible! 


for pictures of lovely friday (and i think some of , check out the facebook album! http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=378979&id=500755531&l=2d9201d064


i hope everyone has a FANTASTIC DAY! i think all this relaxing is doing wonders for my whole person - try it out!


baci galore! 

un giorno worth a blog

today was my first full day off without any commitments, assignments, classes, appointments, or any other kind of require thing. it was grand.

9am. wake up (unfortunately to an alarm but it was soooo very worth it)


10.30am. head over to the stazione leopolda to meet claire and breana to go to a trunk show of sorts, all different italian vintage stores showin' off their goods.


11.00am. find a chandelier that i absolutely must have in my future apartment..... 3,000 euros....


11.20am. explore all sorts of wonderful vintage things including crazy sunglasses, gorgeous felt things, bright patterned dresses and funky homemade pins (i bought two as presents.... you better hope its for you!)

1pm. wander over toward santa maria novella with miss breana to find some lunch. 


1.30pm. munch said lunch in the freezing, brisk air of the piazza, sho-ing (how do you say that?) away the vile pidgeons.


2.30pm. hop on bus 17 toward home.


3pm. sip some tea and share a delicious italian donut-thing with silvia.


3.15pm. tidy room, change sheets, refold clothes in closet. get nice and comfy on bed, wrapped in blue snuggie.


3.30pm. commence afternoon of doing anything i want on the computer EXCEPT opening word to write or wordreference.com to look up words in english. talk with bestie from home, bestie from here, boyfriend, mamma and padre. think about spring break in barcelona, and other various little trips. order valentine's present for parents and have it shipped home. desperately try to think of boyfriend presents for 4th valentine's day.... still stuck on that one.


8.00pm. re-emerge from room for dinner. eat DELICIOUS fried schiacciata aka amazing dough fried into puffy little disks which are then cut in half and stuffed with prosciutto and various amazing cheeses. also broccoli and romanesco and cauliflower. and a kiwi. and some red wine. and a delicious almond cookie that i bought the other day.

9.00pm watch tv with enrico.... aka watch 20 minutes of soccer games and another 30 of grease. in italian. just me and him. it was fantastic.


10.00pm. return to the beloved bed and computer to settle in for a nice evening. load on episode of one tree hill, talk to boyfriend and bestie in florence while munching some chocolate with almonds and raisins.


11:20pm. after much distraction (what else is new....) get in pajamas after very merrily having decided to go on a science museum crawl with breana tomorrow. followed by a literary aperitivo with some other girls and giovanna. a nerdy day, indeed! how i cannot wait!


11.40pm. finish the list of muse-see museums for this semester including not only anthropology and archaeology museums but a carriage museum (by appointment only), the old pharmacy at santa maria novella, the porcelain museum, the synagogue, and the photography museum. it's on, florence, you just wait. 

11.44pm. find out from bestie that tomorrow is national lady gaga day... that must mean i need to find an outrageous outfit and tie my hair into a big bow.


11.45pm. finish blog, snuggle deeper into bed, and watch one tree hill. then fall asleep dreaming about valentine's gifts, museums and travelling.... 




it's going to be a grand semester.




bacione! 


11.54pm. find out that boyfriend is driving home to freshly-snowed-on vermont and even worse, he is stopping for buffalo wings in northampton on the way.... i miss you all... vermont, northampton, wings.... boyfriend.... too bad italy is divine! <3 

celebratory post on the way!

one more exam and BOOM - done!!! 




<3

a beautiful performance

tonight as i was watching italian mtv with my family, i was hit by how absolutely incredible it is how the entire world is helping haiti right now. tonight mtv hosted a concert in honor of haiti and it was presented at the same time throughout the entire world in all the languages in which mtv exists. it was beautiful and powerful and uplifting... more than i can say for anything else i have ever seen on mtv. wyclef jean, who is from haiti, put on an especially wonderful performance. 

Wyclef Jean - MTV Shows

please watch this and consider donating anything you can

https://www.hopeforhaitinow.org/Default.asp

things you learn when you stay home and have a great night with your florentine family

1. your host parents, although they appear extremely young and beautiful, are actually normally-aged parents who were married at age 33. 

2. your twin bros, although they only weighed 4 pounds each at birth, somehow managed to be uber chubby and adorable as babies.

3. your host parents honeymooned for 25 days.

4. at which point, upon sitting down on the plane, your host mother starts feeling ill and realizes she is pregnant.

5. and then after the 25 days of san diego, san francisco, santa barbara, las vegas, los angeles and fiji, realizes she is a) pregnant with twins

6. and b) has been pregnant for about 2.5 months

7. your host dad was incredibly handsome and rugged as a 25 year-old.

8. your host mom, although gorgeous now, was stunningly gorgeous 15 years ago.

9. your little brothers, at the age of 4, used to be upset about the size of their penises and didn't understand why they were so different.

10. and your little brothers are still embarrassed about this and alude to the unfairness infront of 7 other people, not all family members.

11. and then you realize that you really missed your host family over christmas and you will really, really miss them when you leave in 4 months......

12. and therefore it is time to stop being so shy and embrace all of this wonderful experience for all its worth. starting right now. no more being timid with speaking italian, and no more hiding in your room working all day long.

[13. also nice to mention that before this grand evening, perhaps you left allllllll of your art history materials that you needed to study A LOT this weekend at the smith center and therefore will just have to deal with studying on monday.]

14. finalmente. it is important to realize that sometimes, even when you are sad because no one will come out to aperitivo with you and your best friend because they are lame and "over-stressed," things work out for a reason and those pesky friends allowed you to have a PERFECT night at home with your host family who you love.

15. you get to go to spain for a week at easter. 

16. you will probably, after retuning from sicily, easily get to see milano for a concert, venice for carnivale, pisa with your best friend from home, livorno and cortona with your boyfriend, and hopefully some natural hot springs in there somewhere!! not to mention how you will face said best friend from home in london and will hopefully go to bruges and vienna before you leave in may!

17. and then you learn that you are a huge nerd and should never write another blog in this weird 2nd person narration ever again.

i miss you all, and i love you all, and thank you all for being so supportive and putting up with me when i was sick and had bedbugs and was stressed and homesick. i owe each and every one of you. i should just give a very profound and moving oscars speech..... speaking of which did anyone watch the concert for haiti tonight on mtv? it was great....... wyclef jean, who is from haiti, was incredible. maybe i will go donate some money right now...... 

baci e abbracci a tutti!! a dopo! 

p.s. amazing risotto con spumante tonight aka risotto made with literally an entire bottle of sparkling wine. plus spumante to drink with dinner. and dessert spumante. and not to mention the little fried bits of dough we ate, which were actually a little stale but i understood how delicious they could have been, with that cheese, stracchino, and some delicious prosciutto. FINALLY, and maybe the best part aside from the delicious spumante (a rare occurrence because my host dad has horrendous taste in vile red wine) was the dessert. orange soufflé!  delicious. served still steaming, fresh out of the oven, with the zest of three sicilian oranges in it! buon appetito! 

aiutami! (help me!)

I am struggling to come up with ideas for spring break traveling (march 31-april 7) as well as various little day trips and weekend trips! Ideas? Suggestions? Help finding good cheap accommodations/trains/flights? Here is my brainstorm:



SPRING BREAK
**spain/spagna
prague/praga
greece/grecia
egypt/egitto


WEEKENDS/MAY
brussels/bruxelles
bruges
austria 
switzerland/svizzera
paris/parigi


APRILE
**london/londra




<3 Baci! 

vermont cheddar.

Tonight Silvia made her delicious torts and used my Cabot cheddar that I gave to them as a gift! We had one with artichokes, cheddar and stracchino (still not sure what to call this kind of cheese in English..... but the dictionary defines it as a soft cheese from Lombardy..... ) and one with cheddar and prosciutto cotto (like sliced baked ham only a million times better!) And we had yummy beans. And then I ate a banana in hopes that the tryptophan will help me sleep before 3am tonight - also adding a mug of warm milk with honey to the agenda for later now that I think of it! 


This week started off nicely, nothing too exciting. Just working all the time.... At this point my literature presentation is done, my literature paper is pretty much done and my fashion paper has been turned in.... which leaves me with three exams and two more papers..... and a week to go! And then Thursday, Friday and Saturday off, followed by a week relaxing in Sicilia where it could be getting up to 60! Grand! 


Breana and I are planning great things for this weekend including aperitvo with all the girls on Friday and some raspberry lambic at the German pub Saturday night! Expect photos! 


I must return to literature.... but I will resurface relatively soon!


Baci a tutti! 

after almost a week.....

This week absolutely flew by..... and two weeks from tomorrow we will be heading to Sicilia! I can't wait!


Things were very hectic given we have a billion assignments as I explaine last time, but the good news that my fashion paper is almost done! I am about to finish it and start doing some literature! Has anyone read Io Non Ho Paura, or I Am Not Scared in english? It's a great book! I have to give a presentation on why is was written, for what motives, for who and speculate on its purpose as a literary work.... Hmmm.... Aiuta? 


I haven't had time to take any pictures for ya'll but you should all know that its gorgeous here this week.... Chilly but clear and very sunny! 


Also, everyone should check out the Putumayo Italia CD (grazie, Breana - a little motivation!!) 


Last night I went out to Be-Bop (http://www.myspace.com/bebopflorence) with Breana and some other girls and we had the pleasure of seeing a Janis Joplin cover band - The Rose (http://www.myspace.com/therosetribute). It was pretty much incredible. The lead singer had an incredible voice! None of them could dance, but they were GREAT! So much fun! Tonight we are thinking of going to the German bar, but we'll see what happens! 


Anywho. I'm sure I will be back soon. 


Baci e abbracci a tutti! 


P.S. At this point it appears I will be taking either Social or Economic Geography at the University of Florence and it will be Mon, Tues and Wed from 9am-11am...... And since its kind of in the anthro department here I am hoping it will kind of be in the anthro department at Smith.... But regardless! The latest I should be home in June 4th!!! Then again, we're in Italy, so things could change in 30 seconds!!! xo

back in the saddle

smith really wastes no time throwing us right back into academic inferno.....


by 5pm yesterday afternoon, i was back in my apartment with the host fam. at 9:30am today i was in literature listening to presentations. and then in fashion studies.... and then 3 hours later, in stylistics. tomorrow i will find myself in literature yet again, followed by art history.


in the final 2 weeks of this semester i have to write two 8-10 page papers, and two 4-5 page papers. i then have two written exams, a presentation, and two oral exams..... plus a meeting with giovanna to discuss the class i audited at the university of florence..... 


but then!


i get a week in sicily. relaxing. and resting. in hopefully decent weather. so i guess i shouldn't complain too much. plus second semester is really exciting to me (and honestly, it will be much easier and less stressful....)


therefore i am sucking it up, hopping on the horse, and gearing up for this final stretch! 


in bocca al lupo! 


p.s. i promise more exciting posts as soon as something more exciting occurs! 

Almost home!

I am a terrible blogger. I am so terribly sorry!


As you can imagine, spending three weeks at home was crazy! Appointments, dates, visits, things to do, people to see, places to go, errands to run - it was just go go go the entire time! And of course we got a Wii, so that had to be scheduled in as well!! Needless to say, I guess I didn't put blogging on my list of priorities where it should have been! But fear not because I have returned with full-force blogging!!


I am now sitting in the airport in Zurich, waiting for my gate to be announced. They changed my flight to Florence from an 12:15 flight arriving in Italy at 2, to a 2:55 flight arriving at 4:05.... And I got here at 11.... So I am just sitting. And waiting. And they have created this great little "Transfer Zone" which happens to be a random cluster of 15 chairs placed in the middle of the hallway in front of security. My gate should be announced soon... which would be great because I am hungry and would really love to get through the gate and find a sandwich!!!! 


Leaving home was hard..... saying goodbye to Gabriel was very hard.... but the GREAT news is that he is most likely visiting in 8 weeks for his March spring break! And these next 4 weeks will fly since I have so many papers to write and exams to study for, followed by a week in Sicily! And then second semester, which I am very excited for! History of Cinema, History of Opera, Translation and hopefully an anthropology course at the University of Florence! And once I know that course, I will know when my final exam is and therefore when I will be at home! And upon returning home, I will most likely be back working at the Reservoir in Waterbury, and perhaps a restaurant in Stowe as well! Then senior year..... WOW. 


Time flies when you spend a year in Italy, thats for sure!


Love to everyone! BACIONE!