HAPPY MARCH!

So I have not updated in a while since there has not been much going on since its MIDTERMS WEEK. I just took my hardest exam, Art History of Florence. I was forced to memorized information about the various churches and artwork through out the city. Which I will most likely not remember but I can try to show off my knowledge to my friends and family when they come visit in a few weeks. This semester is flying by I cant believe in two days I will begin my Spring break and the biggest excursion of the semester. Five room mates and myself will be venturing to Barcelona for carnival and then to Dublin, Scotland and ending in Belgium.

When I arrive back from spring break my best friend will be waiting at my door step for me, whichI AM SO EXCITED about cant wait to show her and Lauren this beautiful city and catch up on what has occurred this semester since when home we do spend every second together!

AND in other exciting news my parents finally booked their flights and will be gracing me with their presences for five days in the middle of March.

Be sure to check back in about 10 days for the longest post of my life about my spring break! Hope the girls in the states have a wild and crazy time in the Bahamas sorry I cant be there get extra tan for me, and have a strawberry daiquiri or two in my honor. 

love and miss you friends and family 

what a dam city also known as AMSTERDAM

Yet again another uneventful school week here in Florence The amount of school work has kicked in thought because midterms are next week. Wednesday night was a great night, it was Amanda's twenty-first birthday celebration. We started at our bar Naima and it was PACKED for a Wednesday night and then went to Full Up where we danced the night away. I think its safe to say that Amanda's birthday celebrate was a SUCCESS!!

Now onto my first adventure outside of Italy, to the wonderful country of the Netherlands more specifically Amsterdam. We flew out of Florence Friday morning. Let me say its nothing like an airport in New York, you do not need to arrive hours in advance. The airport security was a JOKE, they did not ask for my passport once; I could have easily boarded the plan with a fake name on my boarding ticket. We then had a layover in Munich where we got some afternoon snacks and then boarded the second plane to Amsterdam. Still had not shown my passport kind of terrifying? I guess Europe is more laid back.

Once we arrived in Amsterdam all the signs were in Dutch, which is honestly way to, complicated of a language to comprehend. I just went with the flow boarded a train and then a tram to the beautiful hotel of Hotel Pulitzer (the classiest place I will stay while studying abroad THANKS AMANDA'S DAD). The hotel has a bunch of old canal houses all together; it was beautiful to say the least. Once we dropped our bags off it was time to explore the city of Amsterdam. We found this cute Dutch restaurant, which was not that expensive after all there is a budget while studying abroad. I had chopped steak which I am pretty sure was a Hamburger. It was so nice to have meat since all I eat in Italy is pasta. After dinner it was time for some dessert, which was a chocolate cake at a local coffee shop. The coffee shop was nice and homey. 

                                                                 Chocolate Cake, YUM!


Once we were relaxed it was time to head to the infamous Red Light District. For those of you that do not know, it is a concentration of prostitution and sex-oriented businesses. (I could not take any pictures since its illegal and there are policeman patrolling the area to be sure no one takes any pictures since the women are selling their bodies). It was mind blowing to see this with my own eyes, and to know it was legal was just somewhat upsetting. One scene that was unreal and cant believe I saw with my own eyes  was a women opening her door and picking up a random guy who was waking the streets talking on his cell phone. They then went into her what could be called office and closed the curtain. 

After the Red Light District the next museum on our itinerary was the "Sex Museum" It was a collection of photographs that should be shown to the human eye for the price of four Euros. We lasted about maybe a half hour in the museum and then attempted to make our way back to the hotel. After an hour of not being able to reading a map and entering and leaving the Red Light District we found Hotel Pulitzer and snuggled in a bed that was honestly the most comfortable bed I have ever laid on in my life.

After a great night sleep we woke up and went to this local bagel shop. There were bowls on the table with sugar cubes and chocolate coffee beans, which were HEAVENLY. I had my typically bagel order of cinnamon raisin and butter. It was a great bagel felt as though I was at the bagel store in Croton!

                                                  Sugar cubes, and chocolate coffee beans

It was time to head to the Heineken museum where we got to see the process of making beer as well as the history of Heineken . Beer is not my choice of beverage normally but with the museum pass came two free cups of beer, which were amazingly fresh all for the price of fifteen Euros!

                                                          Products needed to make beer

                                                                Just making some beer

A trip to Amsterdam would not be complete without a visit to the I AM AMSTERDAM sign. There were way to many people there to get a clear photograph of the whole sign, since we went smack dab in the middle of the day but it was still a cool site.

Next on our itinerary was a quick stop at the pancake bakery, if you ever go to amsterdam I highly recommend the place it was AMAZING to say the least. I was in heaven I ordered apple pancakes with cinnamon ice cream. The flavors of pancakes ranged from bacon to a full blown italian style pancake with tomato basil and cheese.

                                                                          HEAVEN!

The last museum that was on the Itinerary was Anne Franks house, which happened to be on the same road as our hotel. The house was simply amazing I can’t believe that I was in the home where Anne Frank hid. I will have to read her diary once back in the states that for sure.

After a long day of touring Amsterdam I could have used a nap but there was no time for that it was time to get ready for the TRANCE ENERGY. I was a little nervous about experiencing my first rave in a foreign country but it ended up being the time of my life. We had to take a half hour train to the rave, once we arrived all I could do was pump my first jersey shore style and in take the beats that could be heard a mile away. I pushed my way through the crowd because I was determined to make it to the front and it worked! I was front and center in taking all the beats of Aviccii, Tiesto, and other djs that I do not recall. I knew of Tiesto but not much, once a song I knew came on I jumped for joy and just stood in awe as I watched the lights go along with the beat. 

                                                                   READY TO RAVE

                                                            LIGHTS LIGHTS LIGHTS


I left the concert at 630 AM, and arrived back at our hotel at 8AM. No time to sleep since we had to get to the airport and catch our 11AM flight, we made it with time to spare! I felt like a zombie all I could think about at this point was my bed in Florence. Anytime we sat down I feel asleep within seconds, we had a flight to Munich again and then Munich to Florence both flights felt like 2 seconds since I fell asleep before we had even taken off. Once back in Florence I took a run for my bed took a three-hour nap and now am back on track and functioning. The rave was well worth not getting sleep I would do anything to be back there... At least Sensation White is only 19 days away, another rave the roomies and I will be attending. I can’t ask for a better way to end my spring break then with a rave and the arrival of my best friend CYNTHIA CLARK!!!!

I did not know what to expect from Amsterdam, but after spending only 48 hours there I fell in love with it, it was way more beautiful then I had expected AND would love to go back

That all for now folks, missing all of you!

venice, short and to the point.

I think that I have done a good job of visiting all the major areas in Italy thus far especially after  the weekend of Feb 4. Emily Christine and I decided to be spontaneous and venture off to Venice for the night. Boy was that an adventure to say the least. Note to all don’t arrive in a city without a map, or else you may have to be directed to your hostel via telephone from someone in America being that is what happened to us. We walked around the maze of Venice for almost two hours trying to find where we were sleeping for the evening. Thanks to Emilys father for taking an hour out of work day to google map and direct us to the wonderful bed and breakfast Rota. We then had chinese food since that was the only thing open at 1130 at night. 

We woke up early to be sure that we see everything we wanted to. We skipped out on going to San Polo since we walked around there for a good hour the night before while trying to find out hostel. We did a walking tour real quick through San Marco. 

                                                      POSTCARD STATUS PHOTO!


After that we decided to venture over to the glass blowing island known as Murano, just what Venice is known for. We then saw a glass blowing demonstration which was awesome. 

                                                                     Demonstration 


The guy was able to make a horse in a matter of 3 minutes. All the glass shops on the island are beautiful, so much artwork! After we went to Morano ventured back to venice had some lunch. 

                                                                            HORSE

The last stop on our trip was this wine store that was recommended in our tour book. If ever in venice be sure to bring an empty water bottle and go.  There were kets of all types of wine and you fill up a water bottle, each liter is 2 euros.  WHAT A BARGIN. I bet a place like that would do FANTASTIC in a college town. 

                                                                    Kegged Wine?!

                                                     Me and the owner of the wine shop

thats all for now update on amsterdam to come in the next few days I wont forget! 

i will turn into a carbohydrate while here...

Last weeks school week was uneventful besides the fact that we have finally began planning trips. My bank account will for sure be negative when I return to the states in a few months. We have officially booked Amsterdam for next weekend for Amanda's Birthday. Also spring break has been booked after hours and hours of planning. We are going to four countries in nine days, which is pretty impressive. We will be going to Barcelona, Dublin, Scotland and ending in Belgium for Sensation White.

We kicked off the weekend Thursday night at Dantes, which is a restaurant that is known for giving free wine to students. They are also known for their pizza so we all ordered pizza and e ate our way through them. Here in Italy they eat their pizza completely different from America it was weird to get use to but I finally am. After we ventured to the best gelato place here in Florence. For those that visit its called La Carraia, must go and enjoy the amazing taste of gelato. Obviously a night would not be complete with out a drink at Naima, only our favorite bar here. 

Friday, I woke up at 8 for my first friday field trip. We went to countryside of Tuscany to a place called Salati Bene. For the field trip we were taught how to cook a four course Italian meal from scratch. There were four different stations for each course of the meal. We were divided in groups of five. I decided to work at the station where you would learn how to make pasta from scratch.  The recipe calls for 200 grams of regular white flour and then 200 grams of another less common flour semola. You place the flour on the table and clear an open circle to place four eggs in. Then we had to use a fork and mix the eggs and slowly take some of the flour and mix it with the eggs. Once all the flour and eggs were mixed together we had to knead the dough. 

Flour and Egg about to be mixed

We were told to knead the dough until it was as soft as a baby’s bottom this took a good twenty-five minutes. The dough had to sit out for twenty minutes and then placed through a pasta maker to flatten it. We had to place the dough through the pasta maker about 12 times in order to get it to be the perfect thickness for the ravioli. We then made the inside of the ravioli, which consisted of spinach, ricotta, salt pepper, Parmesan cheese, and a pinch of nutmeg.  Once we had the pasta rolled out and the inside of the ravioli made we were ready to make the raviolis.

                                                                        Pasta Maker!

                                                             HOME MADE PASTA

                                                           Home made Spinach Ravioli 

Unfortunately, it took so long to make the pasta I did not get to see the other parts of our meal being made. The other three stations consisted of the anti pasta, another type of pasta gnocchi and the dessert. I cant really explain how these three dishes were made since I did not watch or help make.

The first dish in a four course Italian meal is the antipasti. For this meal the antipasti was crostini, three different types. Eggplant, Bell Pepper and Bruschetta. They are served on a slice of bread.

                                                                            Crostini

After the antipasti comes the pasta dish, for this meal there were two pasta dishes. The Spinach and Ricotta Ravioli followed by the Potato Gnocchi with Tomato and Basil Sauce. 

                                                                     Spinach Ravioli 

                                                   Gnocchi with  Tomato and Basil Sauce. 

The third dish of the meal is the meat dish, for this dish we ate Arista al Latte, which translates to roast pork with milk. The roast pork was seasoned with fresh rosemary, and sage. The spices were picked form their garden which I was mesmerized by. In America you simply go to the grocery store to get your spices but here everything is fresh and picked the day you make the meal, which allows for the meals to be so flavorful its indescribable. 

                                                                  Arista al Latte

After those three dishes everyone was full but of course there was still room for the famous dessert of Tiramisu. Sadly I was unable to have it because of my allergy. I am yet to eat a dessert here, but they all look so amazing.

                                                                         Tiramisu

After reading about all the food that was prepared you all are probably thinking that I did not eat any of the food since I am by far the pickiest eater known to man but that has changed here. I tried everything we cooked and I actually loved it all! The gnocchi has a weird consistency but I am sure that in time I could get use to it. I think its safe to say that I may have finally branched out from the American meal of chicken fingers for once in my life.

That’s all for now, the adventure of my 24 hour spontaneous trip to Venice will be posted soon!

First adventure...

I haven’t upload since Tuesday but I may just have to fast forward to Friday cause I cant remember what happened between Tuesday and Friday therefore it cant be that important. Just one thing, the secret bakery has been found. Here in Florence you cant exactly call up wings over Storrs or Sergeant Peps to order late night food; instead you have to search for the secret bakeries. Secret bakery’s are a secret you don’t know where they are therefore you must search. Once found you are able to purchase croissants and other pastries hot off the press.  I got a chocolate croissant for ONE EURO. Such a bargin compared to wings over Storrs. Another amazing thing about the croissant was the fact that the chocolate was melting in my mouth it was to die for….

                                                                GREAT SUCCESS! 

Side note one of the reason I had such in interest in studying abroad in Italy was because of two movies I watched when I was younger. One was When in Rome featuring Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen and the other was obviously The Lizzie McGuire movie. Both took place in Rome, so I was so excited to see Rome with my own eyes. Now onto the adventurous weekend in Roma with the roomies.

We arrived at the train station for the 525 train…..oh wait nope not the 525 train due to a delay of about a half hour. We should have taken that as a sign that maybe this trip was not meant to be but oh well. 2 hours later we arrive in Roma, and set out to find out hostel. Luckily it was just a short walk away from the train station. We stayed at the Yellow, which had gotten good reviews by people who have previously studied abroad as well as on the Internet. We were given 2 keys for one room and 6 for another. We then decided to fix this and try to get us all together but that was impossible since the room was set up for only 6 guests. We then decide to go down to the front desk and ask to be rearranged the best she could do was 5 in one and 3 in the other so we took it. Only later to decide that sharing beds for two nights and squeezing would be the best option. Ideal situation was that no one random would be sleeping in the extra bed. We set out to get dinner we walk literally an inch down the road and a restaurant owner tells us he will give us a deal of 20% off the whole meal, free bruschetta, and a free bottle of champagne why not take that deal? After two hours of chatting it was time for dinner to come to an end. We then walked the inch back to our hostel to find out that someone was in fact going to be sleeping in that extra bed. At first I didn’t know what to expect but it turned out to be just fine. Our other roommate for the night was a boy our age named Nico who has been backpacking through Europe since Christmas. 

After hearing about his adventure it was time to explore Rome’s nightlife. We went to this bar called Gilta which was by far the classiest place I have ever been to. People were dressed so well and walked with such purpose. I almost felt out of place, once I went up to the bar I knew I was not in the right place one drink price ranged from 10 to 15 Euros which was simply ABSURD.  We stayed an hour explored and stayed FAR away from the bar.

Saturday’s wake up call was at 830AM since we there is so much to see in Rome. We went across the way to Vatican City, which was honestly beautiful. We went through the Vatican museum followed by the viewing of the Saint Peters Basilica, which will be by far the prettiest building I will ever lay eyes on in my life. I walked in and just wanted to cry, I could not handle all the beautiful artwork. I am still mind boggled by all the artwork that is here in Italy it just doesn’t seem real to me. Mass Saint Peters Basilica must be unreal and so crowded every Sunday. 

We walked around, and took photos to document our visit. Everyone was getting cranky and it was time for a quick bite before we headed to the Pantheon. While at the Pantheon it seemed only right to have some gelato. The night out was interesting to say the least. We ended up back in our hostel cause we could not find the bar we wanted to go to. We asked basically the entire city where a certain bar was and each person pointed us in the wrong direction.

Sunday we headed over to the coliseum and took a bunch of pictures, followed by a walking tour through the roman forum, looking at the ruins of ancient Rome. 

Coliseum 

Roman Forum

To me its mind boggling that part the empire is still there, it was so interesting to see and walk through. As I walked through all I could imagine was the ancient times that I learned about in history back in the day. The last stop for the day was the Trevi Fountain, where I threw a euro in hoping for my wish to come true. Time will tell if my wish does in fact come true. 

One last quick meal in Rome was much needed before we departed. This was by far the most interesting experience thus far. The place was called friends bar and you could get a plate of pasta for five euros a little too good to be true.  As we were sitting waiting for our food we saw a women dressed in a restaurant uniform. She had a bag of what looked like take out food in her hand. We all looked at each other and laughed saying that cant be our food. Two minutes later 8 bowls of pasta came out of the back, guess that was our food after all.

Overall, I really enjoyed the historic sites in Rome but everything else I did not care for. It was a little pricey, and dirty. Im glad I picked the homey city of Florence. 

286 stairs climbed...

This place keeps getting more interesting and beautiful by the second...sorry its taken so long to update 


Friday I didn't have class.. since the school gives us off on friday's which allows for us to travel and or go on field trips with our class. I was able to sleep in for the first time since being here which was a wonderful treat. It was too cold out to go anywhere, so we did not make it to the market for fresh food for the weekend therefore too many euros were spent this weekend on food. I finally found cookies that I can eat here that do not have hazelnuts in them which was the best find of my life, they love hazelnuts over here hence all the nuetlla that is in every store I go into. It was a lazy day to say the least we went to a pizza place that was right by us which was very nice and relative cheap for a study abroad college student budget. Emily and I shared a pizza since we weren't hungry. I tucked myself into bed at 1130 which is way early for a friday night..


Saturday, our apartment had our first trip to PISA. We hoped on a train at 930 in the morning for a total of 12 euros and head to the town that was only known for the leading tower of pisa. I was so anxious to go and see it with my own eyes. Let me say it was BEAUTIFUL. We had to make a few stops before we made it there. Our first stop was at the Chiesa di Santa Maria della Spina. 

                                                    Chiesa di Santa Maria della Spina


We then crossed the river to the other side with the hopes of finding the tower. The next stop was at the oldest botanical garden which was nice but it would have been better if the flower were present. While looking through the botanical garden we got our first glimpse of the leaning tower of pisa we knew we were close. 

We finally approached the leaning tower of pisa which is the only reason to travel to pisa. It would start to drizzle so we hurried and got the typical study abroad photo of you pushing the tower over. It took me a few tries but I was able to get it! 

After we got the photos we explored saw the duomo and Baptisteria. Then we decided it was only right to spend the 15 euros and climb to the top of the tower, by far the coolest experience I have had since arriving in italy. You could actually feel the leaning in the building as you climbed the stairs. There were 286 of them, I was sore the next day... I snagged some beautiful pictures then decided it was time to head home. 

                                    View of Duomo and Baptisteria form the top of the tower! 


On our way to the train we stopped and had by the far the best gelato ever at a place called La Bottega del Gelato. It was the cheapest I have paid for gelato since I got here. I got strawberry and chocolate... HEAVEN ON EARTH. Our nightlife on saturday was the normal first stop at Naima were Sergio loves us and then we went off to space, which is still bind blowing to me. 


Sunday we were the laziest we have been since we got here even worse then Friday. The cold weather has put a damper on our moods. Never wanting to explore in the bitter cold. We discussed spring break and after long discussions we will be taking over three countries and four cities in nine days. Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon, and Brussels. In brussels I will be experiencing my first ever sensation white needless to say I am so excited. Thanks emily for your obsession with house music!! 


Monday and Tuesday were both days full of classes the best part is I am yet to spend this week in the classroom, Monday morning for my food class we went to the market where my teacher had everyone try this unknown meat since I have an allergy I am hesitant to try things boy am I glad I didnt found out it was COWS STOMACH.. HOW GROSSS... we then continued our tour through the market seeing animals behind the glass window and I thought about becoming a vegeterain but that would just be absurd. My next class we went to the university of florence were we interacted with the students that were sitting on the quad we had come up with questions to ask them. I was shocked at how well they spoke english and how they answered our questions. We spoke about american politics, violence in american, and the social life here and in america. It was eye opening and so interesting to hear what they had to say. Today I woke up and went to Santa Croce which is a church in Florence. Then my second class we went to a cafe to learn more about the italian culture. My teacher treated us all to a cappaccino or a hot chocolate thank you sarah parker!! Needless to say I love the classes over here I hate to say it dad but I feel that I am actually on a vacation. 

                                                                          Sante Croce


For dinner monday emily and I were chefs another was added, ARI yet again this time we cooked Chicken Saltimbocca and Homemade Bruschetta, My mother would probs asusme I would never have tried such a thing, proving you wrong yet again..... It was tight but having Ariana in there definitely helped it go a  lot more smoothly and the division of labor was a lot easier to handle. For the bruschetta we bought fresh tomatoes, basil and a baguette. We "parboiled" the tomatoes...a phrase I had never heard of before last night. Basically you boil water and once it starts boiling you remove it from the heat and drop the tomatoes in for like two minutes. Then we removed them to ice water and peeled the skins off. After quartering them and removing the insides we chopped 'em up and added them to a bowl of garlic, oil, balsamic vinegar, chopped up basil and salt/pepper to taste. We sliced and toasted the baguette and voila! Delicious. For the chicken we needed the cutlets, prosciutto, freshly grated parmesan (that we grated ourselves!) and spinach. The recipe called for frozen spinach but why would we use frozen when we have the freshest market five minutes away from us. I don't know if they have them in the states but we bought these spinach balls. It looked like cooked spinach that had then been balled up and somehow stayed in that shape. We bought two, broke up the spinach with some olive oil and seasoned it. We seasoned both sides of the 12 cutlets with salt and pepper then laid 2 or 3 slices of prosciutto on top of the chicken. Then we spread some of the spinach mixture on top and then some of the Parmesan. Here's the fun part. We rolled up the cutlets so that they looked like little jellyrolls and threw them in the pan. We forgot to buy chicken broth so we had to improvise with the sauce a little but they came out SO delicious!! It was a great meal def bringing this recipe back to the states as well.


Tonight I am going out with three roomies Nisha Allie and Emily and we are finally going to meet up with ELAYNA at my favorite place NAIMA ! 


More to come later... hugs and kisses from italy 

First week of classes.. COMPLETE

I have now been in this beautiful city for a week now and have learned my way around and have fallen even more in love with the city. Emily and I have successfully walked to the market twice with out getting lost or needing a map which is an accomplishment in of its self.

Monday was the first day of classes my alarm was set for 8AM i have not woken up that early in what feels like ages. Its nice to get up early and start your day though. I live literally like a block from the school I got lucky some of the people on the program have a good half hour walk to school. My first class was History of Food, which I think it going to be really interesting. We learn about how history shapes the culture. After that I had cross cultural psychology which is going to be so interesting I can already tell. My professor is from Australia (I LOVE HER ACCENT). Then I had a break which is when Christine Emily and I embarked on our first ever trip to the market where we purchased 1/2 KG of bread at a price of 4 euros, 2 balls of fresh mozzarella for 4 euros and then a 1/2KG of sliced prosciutto. (MOM, you would be proud I tried something new, prosciutto and I am obsessed. )

                                                         Christine and I with are purchases
We then came back to our apartment and made the sandwichs they were so good!! While at the market we saw a gypsy that was begging for bread but on her cell phone, I believe that is a little hypocritical if you ask me.

                                                                      AMAZING Sandwich 

After lunch I had Italian 3 with David who is so presh... the class is challenging since I have not taken italian in a little over two years oh well hopefully I will somehow become fluent in the language. After classes Christine Emily and I then explored the city even more, we discovered we live in the ghetto of florence, there is an asian grocery store that randomly has a wall of american cupcake mixes. The day ended at Naima our new favorite bar where the bartender Sergio loves us!


Tuesday I had my other two classes which were the art history of Florence and Italian Literacy experience both were rather interesting. My art history course is never in the class room we are always out exploring the beautiful art that is scattered through out the city. My Literacy experience class is taught by my psychology teacher. The point of this course is to get us assimilated with the italian culture. I hope by the end of the course I am able to dress and act more european then american. For dinner Emily became a chef and cooked us this amazing meal which I  assisted in making. The meal was chicken seasoned with salt pepper garlic and parmesan cheese along with some grilled veggies all fresh from the market. (I will be taking this recipe home with me to use in my apartment next year).

                                                                   Yummy fresh veggies!

Again our night ended at Naima followed by red garter, I was hoping to find Elayna but that did not happen hopefully tonight we will finally reunite!

                                                             Naima with Christine and Em


Wednesday was just another day of classes which are getting more interesting by the minute. After class I went into a coma for a good two hours I think the time difference is finally catching up to me. In time I will be adjusted after all this is my home for the next 4 months. For dinner again Emily was the chef and Christine and  I assisted. We made chicken seasoned with salt pepper and garlic. We then added a caprese salad to the top which is mozzarella tomato and basil. THIS MEAL WAS AMAZING. We are being creative with our meals at home because it saves us money for all the amazing trips that we have planned. After dinner all the roomies sat down and planned out our semester of traveling. This is the list we came up with Pisa, Chianti, Rome Siena, Venice for the carnival, Cinque Terre and the Almafi coast which are all in Italy. Then outside of italy we plan to go to Moracco, Spain ( Barcelona, Ibiza, Granada) Portugal, Amsterdam, Belgium, Ireland, Interlocken and Greece. I think it is safe to say that I will be broke and need 209375 jobs this summer. But when will I ever be able to live in Europe for four months like I am now and travel, probs NEVER so why not take advantage of it!!

This morning my art history class was a trip to the Duomo I think that it is so cool that some of the classes are not in the classroom. It makes the learning experience completely different then if I was in an art history class at UCONN. I really would love to go to a mass at the Duomo, apparently they have masses on Sundays in english! Its on my bucket list of things to do while over here in Europe.

                                                                             DUOMO!


That is all for now, I must go to the market to purchase more fresh food!