Sorry I didn't post yesterday!

So... I was exhausted yesterday and the pictures were taking too long to load so I'm just posting yesterday's today and I'll do another one later tonight (hopefully).

To be honest this week is actually pretty terrible for me. I have a project, two presentations, and a research paper all due Wednesday and I am basically dying of sleep deprivation, so I sincerely apologize for not being able to write on my blog every day. It's just been a tiring week. I've had a couple exciting days though! Yesterday, I got to go to a wine tasting at Montepulciano. The wine was amazing and I got to see where they filmed the second Twilight. Now, I'm obviously not a Twilight fan, but it was still pretty cool to see where they filmed it. No there weren't any crowds of people walking around in red. However, FUN FACT, the fountain they had in the middle of the square in the movie isn't a real thing. It was added just for the movie. Kind of a buzz kill right? Nah, it's still beautiful. 

Of course we had our wine tasting after that and I learned how to properly tell what quality a wine is. Basically I'm coming back to America a total wine snob. 

As with everywhere else the landscape is quite wonderful.

I'm never getting sick of this beautiful landscape. Later on we all decided to go get ice cream, as we were walking to get ice cream we walked right through a marathon through the city. Let me tell you how bad you feel watching people run a marathon while eating ice cream....

So naturally I took a photo of the ice cream with the marathon running in the background.

It was a pretty cool day. :) 

The next day started with my first shot of espresso! It was an early morning... Therefore it was a necessity.

We had a long train ride to Venice. I didn't even fall asleep this time. Since I only have a little over a week left in Florence I realized I need to thoroughly enjoy every site I can while I'm here. I don't want to miss anything. Venice was beautiful, but sadly very crowded. Unfortunately, it was hard to enjoy the beauty of the city with tourists crowding every attraction. We were able to take a walk on some side streets, which were nice, but Venice was not everything I expected it would be when I dreamed of going there. I rode on a gondola, which was the highlight of my day. I didn't take any photos with my phone on that so I'll have to upload them when I get home. But here are some pictures of the rest of beautiful Venezia: 

 You're actually supposed to pay to take pictures of these people so I snuck it as I was walking by... Thank god they were turned away.

 This is St. Mark's Cathedral, I believe this is the second or third largest church in the world. (The Duomo is right behind it :D)

That's all I have to talk about. :) Now I'm running to the library to finish up my research paper! 

Ciao!

ALL THE COFFEE

So I had a lot of coffee today. And it was great. I forgot to take a picture of the first one but it was amazing. It was a nutella mochaccino latte and I will always ask for that when I go in from now on. The second coffee I got was the best iced coffee I've had in my life. So foamy and SOOOO sweet. :) It kind of tasted like Mama D's coffee punch. 

The place we got it at had a book that all of us signed before we left: 

The rest of the day I just spent working on my paper. I spent a good amount of time in our school library. Since this is Italy, of course it was renaissance, and beautiful. 

It was a good day. Now I'm going to bed to head to the wineries at the crack of dawn! Good night everyone!

FOOD FOOD FOOD

Remember that one day I said I had tons of food? Well today I had ten times more. We cooked in my sustainability class and I was in charge of cutting the tomatoes (with a dull knife).

Not too shabby for a dull knife right??? :) We made farro salad which was the best thing ever. I will totally be making it repeatedly when I get back. Then, we made our group dinner tonight (5 courses--yeah, A LOT).

Since we had left over money we all went out for gelato... Then we decided to binge and got more gelato. I HAD FOUR SCOOPS OF GELATO AND A HOMEMADE CONE TONIGHT AND I DON'T EVEN REGRET IT. I am pretty exhausted again tonight so I'm going to have to cut this real short. But I'll leave you with the view from my school window: 

Halfway There!

Today marks the halfway point through my program. Although there were some rough patches I can honestly say that I will be legitimately upset when I have to leave this beautiful country. I am already planning a trip back because I am already missing it. This country is beautiful and I don't think I will ever live in an apartment again that has a perfect view of a historic monument (the Duomo). I will always miss hearing the beautiful bells ringing down my street during the day, I'll miss my Italian espresso, I'll miss walking next to horse drawn carriages on my way to class, and most of all I'll miss the gelato (of course). BUT... It's not over yet. :) I am going to soak up these last days I'm here. 

Anyways... I got to see how pasta is made today! So I guess that's exciting! It's a pretty interesting process! 

They used all old age equipment so it was really cool to watch. FUA (Florence University of the Arts) paid for us to have a pastry and coffee after the visit (free coffee was probably the highlight of my day). 

I finished the pastry before I got to the picture taking... Whoops. We were in Chianti for all of this, which was absolutely beautiful! Yes, that is where Chianti wine is made, and yes I tried Chianti wine IN Chianti, and YES it was AMAZING. 

We finished off the day by getting all-you-can-eat apertivos later that night. Which was also pretty amazing. Of course, because how could all-you-can-eat NOT be amazing?

Anyways that's pretty much all I did tonight, I desperately need sleep now so... Arrivederci!

I'm in love....

With this amazing country. Yesterday I forgot to write on my blog... Sorry about that. I had two equally fantastic days. Yesterday I had a beautiful fruit cup to start out my morning. Probably the best decision all day. 

I had some gelato later from a place that is becoming a favorite of mine: "Grom".

After that I had a game night with some friends, it was a pretty regular day. :) But still equally fantastic.

Today I woke up at the crack of dawn to go taste test olive oil (gross right?). Exactly what I thought. It is. It looks pretty ridiculous as well. When tasting olive oil, you put a few drops on your tongue and then suck air in through your teeth--we all looked real weird.

During the tasting they served delicious Chianti wine. This was at 10:30 am. That was a little intense. 

Also, I don't know if I said this enough... But the view here is pretty great:

Later I went on a field trip to the fontanella (water fountain--yes we actually took a field trip just to see a water fountain). The water was pretty delicious so it was worth it. I made a few friends along the way...

The dog actually would not stop following me. It was precious. It had an owner or I totally would have taken it back to the US (sorry Mom). Some other dogs started getting close and he stood in front of me and growled at them to get away (seriously this dog was way too cute). I guess I should go ahead and stop talking about animals now because you know I could go on for days about these two cuties. Anyways, I found the flower of Florence or "Firenze" as it's called here.

Almost as beautiful as the city named after it. To finish off the day we had a delicious dinner later at our school's restaurant. We got the VIP seats on the upstairs patio... We all felt pretty special. Wait, I mean we all ARE pretty special. 

Just a pic of the rooftop area. (I didn't want to make everyone move for the picture lol.)

Leaving this place is going to crush me, but I just have to make a promise to myself to return pronto. 

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

... And these pictures don't even do it justice. 

I went to Cinque Terre (Five Villages) today. I have honestly never been so amazed by nature in my life. This place is incredible and I am putting about a million pictures on here, but I don't think there is any way to illustrate how amazing this place really is.

At first it was cloudy, chilly, and rainy so everyone thought the hike would be awful. It turned out to be perfect for hiking in. This is a view of the first village we started at about 30 min into the hike: 

We kept travelling to the next village where we stopped to have lunch, and of course take pictures. Our lunch was pretty extraordinary as well:

And yes I did try that, it was actually amazing. 

I really couldn't help myself...

We continued on the path, which got a little rough as the sun came out and we ended in the third village Monterossa. We stayed at the beach for a few hours. After a long walk the cool ocean water and the sand under your feet feel particularly wonderful. The water was so clear I couldn't get over it. There were many times on the hike I would just pause to take in how clear blue the water was. 

Just to get an idea the water  was up a little past my ankles in this picture and it's still a clear view. 

This is the drop off into the ocean, still clear blue. The walk was absolutely exhausting but completely worth it. 

This is the view of where we started from where we finished:

Of course it's actually impossible to see it so I zoomed in:

It's crazy to think that I walked through all of those mountains. I would have never thought I would be standing here considering myself a pro hiker now (lol kidding). For now I'm going to soak in an ice bath. In the meantime, enjoy some of these other pictures:

Florence=FOOD

I had SO MUCH FOOD TODAY. Since we had an early morning my friends and I decided to go on a search for a "secret bakery". These are all over Florence. They're open around 2 or 3 and you have to find them by following the delicious smells. We found one and I had one of the most amazing pastries I've ever had.

After that, we met up with our group to get on the bus to take a couple tours of food factories in Italy. This was our view leaving Florence: 

Spoiler alert: it gets so much better. First we went to the Modena to see how authentic balsamic vinegar was made and we had a taste test. I didn't take any pictures but it was completely unlike anything I've ever tasted. I bought a bottle of balsamic infused with fig juice. After, we went to Parmigiano Reggiano to see how cheese is made and taste some. Best cheese everrrr.

Then we met some cows. I tried to take a selfie with some of them... It didn't work out so well. 

She just really wanted to eat my hair.

This one was so cool and relaxed it was actually pretty adorable. :) He did NOT try to eat my hair. Next we went to the prociutto factory to look at how the meat is cured and eat some. Fun fact: when you look at how something is made it's not so great to eat it a few minutes after...

Sorry if that picture grosses anyone out... We had a delicious feast after, it was wonderful (besides the prociutto part). There was also forever flowing wine... I took some corks for you Mom, don't worry. The view where we were was amazing. Just look at these photos and be jealous:

We're about to go watch the game so Arrividerci!