Croatia >>>>>

This past weekend I went to Split, Croatia and Krka National Park with my roommate Nicole. Croatia was my favorite place so far; it is absolutely beautiful and not quite so touristy yet.

We got there Friday morning after a long bus ride, breakfast and settling in to our super nice hostel (each room got its own bathroom and the beds and pillows were memory foam) Nicole and I headed straight to the beach before canyoning. The beach was really nice, it wasn't super crowded and in the water you could see straight to the bottom about 20 feet out.

Also on Friday I went canyoning. Canyoning is basically where you get in a full length wet suit, life jacket and helmet and hike for a few miles into and down a river thats in a canyon. In Croatia we went canyoning in the Cetina river. It was gorgeous, the water was fresh, blue and safe to drink, we got to walk through a tunnel under a waterfall, jump off huge rocks and drift through tons of rapids. Canyoning was difficult and I'm disappointed that I don't have a GoPro so I couldn't take pictures but amazing all the same. Being me, I fell and slipped between rocks often and canyoning puts a lot of strain on muscles your not used to and your knees because your climbing from way up high into a canyon and trying to stay upright and not trip on slippery rocks and fast rapids but it was awesome. I definitely felt my legs for a few days afterwards, it was a workout.

Canyoning is something I had never heard of before this trip to Europe and i'm so glad I got to do it no matter how much it freaked out Mom :)

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On Saturday, I went on a 7 hour boat cruise to tour two islands and jump into the Blue Lagoon, it was wonderful, though it did come with some complications...

We first went to the Blue Lagoon to jump into the water because it was so hot outside and our captains dropped the anchor... as in the anchor wasn't attached to the boat and they dropped the anchor.

So the created a make- shift anchor out of a rock and a rope... it wasn't very effective but we all got to jump out and swim anyway :)

Then after we were all done swimming WE SAT ON THE BOAT FOR 2 HOURS AND DRIFTED AROUND while the captain called up his buddy and he and his 14 year old grandson came in a little skipper and searched for the anchor. He had flippers and an air tank on and everything, never mind the fact that we were swimming for about two hours so he could of came and looked for the anchor earlier.

The never found the anchor, after 2 hours of floating around our group leader had to call the boss to get the captain to move the boat on to the next island.

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After that we went to Trogir Island to get lunch and relax for two hours before we headed back to Split, we weren't going to have time to go to the third island after searching for the anchor for 2 hours.

Overall the boat tour was nice and the Blue Lagoon was awesome, I suppose I'll never know what I missed on that third island.

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On Sunday we headed out early to go to Krka National Park and explore the waterfalls, they were beautiful, I even got to swim out pretty close to them in the fresh water. The national park was really pretty and amazing for a little day trip on Sunday before our long bus trip back to Florence.

Things I Learned about Croatia:

1. Dalmatians were first bred there

2. Game of Thrones Season 5 was filmed there (awesome right!!)

3. Croatian limestone is everywhere and really easy to walk on (YAY! no cobblestones)

4. Everyone I talked to was really nice

5. Their currency sucks :(

6. I was surprised by how many stupid people on our trip asked the Croatians what language they spoke... Croatian... they speak Croatian.

7. Its not very touristy (thank goodness)

8. The guys there are really attractive and SUPER tall (YES!)

Rome, Naples, Sorrento, Capri and Pompeii

This past weekend was an eventful one, I went on a class field trip to Rome, Naples, Sorrento, Capri and Pompeii with both my classmates and my roommate Nicole.
I have been in Italy for quite a few weeks now but never before have I felt like such a tourist, I mean we carried around those stupid earphone tour guide systems ALL weekend.

Rome:

We took a train to Rome on Thursday night and had a wonderful 3 course meal at a restaurant near our Hotel after arriving there, I'm still not quite used to Italian dinner time but I'm working on it. It is normal for Italian's to not start eating dinner until about 8:30pm and then sit there for 3 hours and I'm just not used to that, its an interesting change.

On Friday we explored The Vatican, which was absolutely amazing. I could stare at the walls of the Sistine chapel and the inside of St. Peter's Basilica for ages. We had a pretty good tour guide that explained everything about the Vatican very well and I found it all interesting. After exploring the Vatican we visited the Spanish Steps, The Pantheon, The Trevi Fountain (which is disappointingly under construction until the end of 2015), Piazza Navona and Castel Sant'Angelo.

On Saturday we toured the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. I have always love Greek and Roman mythology so these tours were awesome, I just wish we would have had more time to explore a little bit on our own. We were on a time crunch because we had a train to Naples later that day so the tour was a nit rushed. I'm really glad I get to go back with my family when I meet them in Rome after my program ends, hopefully I will get to explore a bit more, Rome is HUGE.

Naples:

On Saturday after the Colosseum we took a two hour train to Naples to check in to our hotel, do a quick tour around the top of the city and eat some pizza for dinner in the city where pizza was born. All of us were completely exhausted at this point and though our tour guide for Naples was really cool and the views were fantastic, I wish we wouldn't have had to fit so much in one day. At this point we walked over 50,000 steps in just 2 days, crazy right!

On another note Naples definitely had the best pizza I have ever had, it was delicious and having a nice casual dinner was great.

Capri:

On Sunday, we got up really early at our hotel in Naples and ran to catch a ferry boat to Capri where we would be spending most of the day. Capri was probably my favorite place so far on this whole trip, it was absolutely beautiful!

Right when we got there we took a private boat tour to the Blue Grotto, the water was so blue it looked like blue kool- aid, it was awesome. From there we tour our boat on a little tour around most of the island to see the cliffs and look for mountain goats :)
The boat tour was lovely, I missed being out on the water, Florence doesn't really have any lakes or beaches.

After our boat tour we headed up to the main piazza of Capri, Piazza Umberto and took a bus to Anacapri to get on the chair lift that goes over most of Anacapri, the views were awesome and the 15 minute ride was really relaxing.

For the rest of the day we pretty much just got to explore Capri, it was relaxing and really beautiful. Just like most of the places I've been to so far I want to go back.

Sorrento:

After Capri we stood in line to get on a ferry boat to Sorrento... and we got poured on. Bythe time we all got on the ferry boat my whole outfit was soaked!

In Sorrento we had a lovely seafood dinner, I even had clams (which is a new one for me). Sorrento was pretty but we didn't have much time there so I didn't get to see much.

Pompeii:

On Monday we headed to Pompeii for a tour of the ancient city, the tour was super interesting and it was really cool to see Mount Vesuvius from so close, I hope someday I get to go back and climb into the crater.
I feel like I learned a lot in Pompeii, it was interesting to see how people lived back then and the aqueduct system that is all over Italy is insane. With some of the amazing innovations I saw I almost wonder if society has gone backwards slightly.

It was an exhausting but incredible weekend! I learned a ton and walks at least 35 miles in like 3 and a half days. I'm sorry if this post is rather boring in comparison to some of my others, we just fit so much in to so little time that there was a lot to talk about!

This weekend I am off to Split, Croatia and Krka National Park with my roommate Nicole. I plan on going white water rafting, on a boat tour and exploring the city of Split and some of the sites that Game of Thrones was filmed at, can't wait!!!

#PeaceOutPisa and the rest of the week

On Monday my roommates Nicole, Miranda and our friend Christina and I all took a day trip to Pisa to see the leaning tower. We got train tickets for 16 Euro and I honestly think this was the first time I have wasted money since I got to Italy.

It was great to go to Pisa and take the infamous leaning tower picture but the tower itself is rather unimpressive. It's actually not really that tall and its randomly in a the middle of a courtyard next to Pisa's church and that's basically all of Pisa. 

There is a church, the tower, some touristy shops and that's it. The town is not very clean and is infamous for pickpockets, you can pretty much see all of Pisa in an hour.

All and all i'm glad I took the day to go do something but I don't recommend Pisa to other travelers!

On the plus side once we got back to Florence (home sweet home!) I found a flower shop with my name :) you wish you were cool enough to have your own flower shop!

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The rest of the week was pretty relaxing, on Sunday Nicole and I randomly stumbled across a Fiat parade and a flea market and then went to the beach and then on Wednesday Nicole and I found a local community pool that's about a 40 minute walk from our apartment so we ventured out after class and swam in the pool for a few hours. The beach here backs up to the Arno River which is not swimmable so we were both eager to get in the water and swim.

Plus we met a guy who went to University of Michigan at the pool, how random I know! He saw my Saline Stingrays Swim Team beach towel and asked if I was from Saline, Michigan. Small world right?

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Tonight Nicole and I head to Rome for our huge weekend class trip to Rome, Naples, Sorrento, Capri and Pompeii. I can't wait to sleep in a comfy bed (yay were staying in a hotel!) and explore Rome and part of the Amalfi Coast. Hopefully I get to chairlift over Capri and explore the Blue Grotto. I'll post all about it when I get back :)

Cinque Terre

I went to Cinque Terre this past weekend on a bus2alps day trip, it was amazing!

We hiked over 84 flights of stairs (according to my phone) from Vernazza to Monterosso which was absolutely brutal but the view was totally worth it and when we got to Monterosso we got to go to the beach and jump in the water. 

The beach was pretty nice but the best part was the water, it was super blue and refreshing; exactly what I needed after a long hike.

Things I learned about Cinque Terre:

1. They have the best seafood ever. I ate the best calamari I have ever had from a paper cone...

2. The hike was brutal but necessary

3. Cinque Terre is probably the most beautiful place I have ever seen in my life thus far.

Overall, the day was exhausting but like so many of the other places I have been on this trip I hope someday I get to go back to Cinque Terre :)

Pienza and Montepulciano (plus a random concert)

Today I had a field trip for my class to Pienza, a small town in tuscany that is famous for it's pecorino (sheep milk) cheeses and renaissance architecture. We got to see this amazing view (me of course... just kidding, LOL), taste test some local cheeses and explore a little bit of Pienza.

My class also traveled to Montepulciano a town in tuscany famous for it's wine and that scene in Twilight: New Moon where Edward takes off his shirt and sparkles (ugh) BUT for shits and giggles I did reenact the scene (I mean.. I took a picture in front of the same church... but that's basically the same thing due to the lack of acting in all the Twilight movies)

Montepulciano was my favorite, though the climb was exhausting, the view was totally worth it.

At the wine cellar we visited, we tasted 3 different wines and had a light lunch with some local dishes which was delicious plus I've never done anything like it before and I even found a red wine I actually enjoyed (a first for me).

Overall this was a really great field trip and I can't wait for the one next weekend to Rome, Sorrento, Naples, Capri and Pompeii.

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After our bus arrived back in Florence around 5pm I went to get some gelato with two other girls who were on my bus, Christina and Alyssa. On the way there we randomly stumbled across a concert, weird right?

We stood in the crowed piazza for 10 minutes trying to figure out exactly what was going on surrounded by other tourists with the same confused looks on their faces and young middle school girls. It appeared we had found the Italian version of One Direction, oh joy. Let's just say we listened to one song, quickly decided that gelato was the better choice and kept moving.

Later, after googling it, I found out that the group we saw, Braccialeti Rossi, is actually a teen medical comedy- drama television series cast so I'm really confused as to why they sang... and I supposed I'll never really know why.

Today has been exhausting but I feel like I learned a lot about the tuscan region and overall just had a really great day. Tomorrow my roommates and I are off to Cinque Terre and I can't wait, I heard that you can go cliff jumping and kayak through a waterfall there so I hope I get to do both!

Week 2 and some side notes

Monday:

Rachel and I got in from Barcelona after both sleeping through our early 7am flight and though we both planned on going back to the apartment to take a nap instead I went to the beach.
 Nicole and I went to the small beach across the Arno river to soak up some vitamin D and relax... I probably fell asleep at least twice and burnt my shoulders slightly but now they're a nice tan color.
Overall the day was pretty relaxing and we didn't do much but after a crazy busy weekend in Barcelona, it was exactly what I needed.

Tuesday:

We ate cheese with flower infused honey today; it was weird and I still don't know how I feel about it.

After class, my roommates Nicole and Miranda and I headed over to Pitti Palace and The Bobolli Gardens for a day trip before the rain was supposed to hit later in the afternoon
The palace I could have done without, because there were a lot of little trinkets and nothing was being explained to me we were just walking through so I didn't find it all that interesting BUT the gardens were GORGEOUS and we all had a blast imitating the statues that are all over the place.

It was a long and exhausting day, and I'm pretty sure we walked over 15,000 steps just inside the gardens, but the view was 100% worth it.

That night all three of us plus Rachel and another girl I met recently, Christina, went out to have margherita pizza at this place called Gusta Pizza that is supposed to be amazing and its only 5 Euro for your own personal pizza (which in Italy is basically your own medium sized pizza)

It was delicious! and super cheap! (honestly, everything a college student could ever want or need)

We even got to write our names on our ticket and stick it under the glass on the restaurant's table

Wednesday:

For some reason, I still haven't figured out why but I'm not complaining, we didn't have class today. I actually got to sleep in (till like 10 which is still pretty early for me) it was amazing!

The weather was kind of unfortunate today so Nicole and I stayed inside watched movies and planned the rest of our weekend (she's heading to Venice on Friday with Rachel while I go on a class field trip to Montepulciano and Pienza and on Saturday Rachel, Nicole and I are all heading to Cinque Terre for a day trip through bus2alps)

Plus! Rachel made us dinner which was wonderful :) 

Thursday:

Today during class I got free gelato (pistachio and chocolate) so as sad as it sounds that was definitely a highlight of my day and then later after heading to Mercato Centrale to pick up fruit and sandwiches for lunch Nicole and I headed to the beach to meet up with 4 other girls from Central Michigan University and build up a tan.

I was the perfect beach day, not too hot, not a cloud in the sky and a light breeze, it was wonderful.

Tonight we (Rachel, Nicole and I) thought we were going to Gonzo for another fabulous six- course meal but the way they have you sign up is through email and they never responded to our email so that fell through. We were disappointed but decided to go to Hard Rock Cafe instead. I know that's lame I'm in Italy why am I going to a Hard Rock Cafe? 

BUT as much as I never ever thought I would say it I'm starting to get sick of pasta and I really wanted some good old fatty American food, like a burger or something.

It was ridiculously overpriced but totally worth it, yum yum!

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This week may have been a relatively relaxing week so far but it's about to get much busier!

Tomorrow I am going on a class field trip to Montepulciano and Pienza so look out for an upcoming post about cheese and architecture (oh joy!) and Saturday I'll be in Cinque Terre hiking through the five beautiful coastal towns, collecting beach glass and HOPEFULLY cliff jumping (it's on my Italy bucket list) so look out for a post about that as well :)

Ciao!

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SIDE NOTE: So do you remember that creepy bouncer guy from the bar that my roommate Nicole and I went to to meet up with her CMU suitemate Kate? 

Funny story, apparently Kate went back there roughly a day or two later and he gave her his number to give to me... 

According to Kate apparently "he's in love" 

I find the whole thing utterly hilarious and I'll definitely be avoiding the Atlantic forever and always.

Hola Barcelona! Dora the Explorer definitely didn't prepare me for this...

This past weekend my roommate Rachel and I ventured out of Italy to explore Barcelona, Spain and it was AMAZING, I already can't wait to go back :)

We arrived really late Friday night to our hostel the Feetup Yellow Nest and went straight to bed with plans to explore some of Antoni Gaudi's most famous works of architecture the next morning, Park Guell and La Sagrada Familia.

This was the first time either of us had ever stayed in a hostel so we were both a little nervous but I was pleasantly surprised. The beds were made of memory foam and you got a locker, a blanket, pillow and a sheet on your bed plus the staff was really nice and always available to help you with 24 hour reception.

On Saturday morning Rachel and I took the metro (by the end of this trip I became an excellent metro navigator) to Park Guell and made it to the correct metro stop without a problem, it was after that when we got lost for like a half an hour. you'd figure a giant park with mosaic tiles all over the place would be blatantly obvious but no such luck, we walked around trying to follow the sparse signs toward Park Guell until a shop owner took pity on us and helped us get to the right place.

The park was beautiful and huge! There was a lot to see and Gaudi's mosaic tile work is really fascinating. All throughout the main part of the park I recognized things from the movie Cheetah Girls 2 which was kind of ridiculous but neat at the same time. You can see all of Barcelona from the top of Park Guell, the view was beautiful.

After Park Guell we headed to La Sagrada Familia, a Roman Catholic church that was designed and started by Antoni Gaudi in the 1880's and still isn't finished to this day. Even though Gaudi is long gone the church is still set to be completely finished with construction in 2026 (hopefully I'll get to go back and set the church again after it's completion. 

La Sagrada Familia was absolutely amazing, there was so much detail both on the outside and inside the building that the beauty of it was impossible to capture in one picture.

It is one place that I suggest everyone should see for themselves at least once in their lifetime, it was truly breathtaking.

There was so much to see that I probably could have stared at all the stories carved into the walls for hours.

Later that night we met a bunch of interesting people from our hostel by participating in a pub crawl, we even met two guys who had just finished traveling for a year in Florence and they gave us some great insider tips about studying there. 

Barcelona is famous for their night life so we figured we would check it out and we definitely had fun and met some really amazing people, there was a group of 12 students all on holiday from Germany (hey Dad, I got to practice a little German before we visit the family), 2 girls from Australia who saved up 20 grand in a year so that they could travel all across Europe and South Africa in a summer, and two guys from Washington DC that had just finished studying for a semester in England. I heard some great stories, met some amazing people and had a blast.

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On Sunday Rachel and I took a free guided tour around the Gothic District of Barcelona and learned a lot (did you know there is an entire Roman city buried under Barcelona that is still intact in some places?) and headed to the beach with some girls we met on our tour Elise and Lauren (did you know that the beaches in Barcelona are actually made of Egyptian dune sand?)

It was a great tour I felt like I got to see most of the city in just a few short hours and I learned a lot of history behind the Spanish and Catalan culture dating all the way back to the Romans, plus we had a great tour guide who recommended a great place for lunch where I was able to get traditional Spanish paella, tapas (kind of reminded me of Aperitivo in Florence, it was basically anything you want served on top of bread in a buffet style) and sangria (I definitely recommend the sangria, it's delicious).

Later that night after the beach Rachel and I walked down the infamous tourist trap more commonly know as Las Rambles and headed to the Magic Fountain for some cheesy pictures and show of water and lights.

Barcelona was beautiful, I met some amazing people and learned a lot both about myself and Spanish and Catalan culture.

It was really hard to navigate the differences between being in Italy and being in Spain because though they are both very different there are similar things about them too, for example, the languages have a lot of overlapping words, and its easy to get lost in both places.

There was still a lot that I wish I would have had time to do but, I'm glad I went and I can't wait to go back again someday.

Adios!

Ganzo: Great People, Great Food

Florence University of the Arts has its own fine dining restaurant called Ganzo and this past week my roommates Rachel, Nicole and I went to check it out (May 20-21).

On Wednesday's Ganzo hosts and event from 6pm-10pm they call AperiGanzo. 

AperiGanzo is basically an appetizer event where for 5 Euro you purchase a drink (a glass of vino, or a mixed drink etc.) and there is a constant buffet of appetizers. This event is very common around Italy and goes by the name Aperitivo.
In Italy Aperitivo is merely a pre-dinner but to us cheap American college students it was a wonderful dinner buffet!

It was an interesting experience for sure, half the food I ate I have no idea what it was, and at this point I'm not sure if I even want to know (random fact: did you know the lining of the cow stomach is a delicacy here? ICK!), but it was delicious and extremely crowded with not only locals but a crazy amount of FUA students from all across the United States. 

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The next day my roommates and I trekked back to Gonzo for a free* six course meal! The theme was vegetarian (lets just say we were a little skeptical) but it turned out to be totally worth it! I tried foods that I never thought I would... asparagus puree...? (which was actually really good) and each course of the meal came with a wine pairing, the Italian's are right, food paired with wine makes wine taste so much better, I even managed to enjoy a Chianti (surprise, surprise).

Though there was one course during the meal that none of us enjoyed, it was some type of weird cheese sack thing. Overall, the meal was really good and I feel like I learned a lot about the importance of wine pairing and what gourmet food is supposed to look like. 

Plus my roommates and I managed to snag a secluded corner table and had a blast getting to know each other, we can't wait until the next Ganzo dinner and that's not just because our waiter was cute :)

*it used meal units so we didn't actual have to pay Euro for the meal, it was already included in our tuition

From Fresh Food to Fiasco (but not really)

My Food, Wine and Culture class began today (Tuesday, May 19th) and I'm so excited for everything that I will learn and be able to explore in this class. My class travels to Parma, Modena, Pienza, Montepulciano, Rome, Naples, Sorrento, Capri and Pompei while also traveling to local spots and learning about the history of Florence and how to pair food and wine.
 It may not be what most people consider a very educational class but I feel it will really help me fully immerse into Italian culture while I am in Florence.

During our first class we went over the syllabus and traveled to the local market, Mercato Centrale and sampled some traditional Tuscan bread, Tuscano Pane and walked around to all the specialized stands, fish, fruit, vegetables, meat etc.

Everything there was so fresh and colorful it was amazing. I got some strawberries and they were some of the best strawberries I have ever had, they were super cheap and very sweet.

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Later in the day 10 other girls here for the Florence University of the Arts Program and I all went across the Arno river to celebrate one of their birthday's and explore Piazzale Michelangelo, which basically the top of Florence over looking the city, it was beautiful and it was awesome to meet so many other people besides just the people in my class and my roommates, I am making amazing friends here from all over.
Piazzale Michelangelo was beautiful, we took touristy pictures and sat around fake David and just talked and go to know each other before we all headed out for an amazing dinner more towards the city center.

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After dinner my roommate Nicole and I went out to a bar called Atlantic to meet up with her CMU suitemate Kate and I reaffirmed my awkwardness... not that there was any doubt

I got hit on by the creepy 30 year old bouncer, he asked my on the way out for my number and after I said no, he yelled after me about using Whatsapp and Viber. I ran away... in the wrong direction and hilarity ensued as I had to turn back around and pass by him again.

On the plus side at least I didn't trip and the pina colada's were delicious, too bad I can never go back for another one.

Katia and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Stressful Day of Travel plus Day 2

Once Mom finally calmed her nerves enough to let me go through security to hop aboard my flight I couldn't contain my excitement, in T- minus 10 hours give or take a few I would be in Florence, in an apartment and starting what will be my most amazing summer ever. Let's just say it didn't exactly work out that way...

At first it all seemed to be going great, we boarded the plane and everything was running ahead of schedule, I saw my bright purple suitcase get loaded into the cargo hold and I had just settled in and grabbed my pillow when the pilot clicked on the intercom and told us there was some technology problem with our plane and they were trying to figure it all out before we could take off.

It was at that moment the guy sitting behind me said, "Just watch, were going to have to get off."

About five minutes later he was right.

My first flight was into Rome and like me most of the people on my flight had connections to other places, the sarcastic lady sitting next to me had connection to Sicily for a vacation with her husband and there were at least 15 people with a connection to Florence, just like me. 

We were going to miss our connection, it's departure time was an hour from when we were supposed to arrive in Rome and now none of us had any idea when we were going to get there. 

The airline had to find us another plane, have it go through all the necessary security checks, move all of our luggage and all of the catering for our international flight before we could board we boarded our new plane around 7pm and didn't take off until at least 8 o'clock at that point I was already supposed to be in the air for almost 2 hours and we were just now taking off. 

The airline couldn't tell me anything about rebooking a connection and told me to ask the people in Rome, I can't say I was to thrilled about having to deal with this entire situation oversees in a country where I didn't speak the language but I tried to keep calm, get some rest and just deal with it later.

We arrived in Rome with quite a bumpy start. The turbulance was so rough during our landing that our supposedly safer plane broke...

But no one was hurt and we all got off the plane safely so that was wonderful now our only issue was that none of us had any idea what we were going to do to get to Florence from Rome. We made it through customs and waited around for our luggage for what felt like forever, at this point there was a group of 13 of us all in the same situation, all attending Florence University of the Arts, and all stuck in Rome. 

There were no more connecting flights that day from Rome to Florence so for a while we were basically out of luck. Were told the best way to get there would be by train but first we had to get our baggage.

We talked to someone who told us our luggage would be in the lost baggage area so we walked a while to the other side of the airport to attempt to find our luggage only to find out that the person we originally talked to was misinformed and our luggage was just running behind so we had to go all the way back, which was an issue within itself because there isn't really a way to go back to baggage claim without going back through security, so we had to find another person who could let us in the staff way and that took a while, the whole ordeal was just turning into a huge mess. 

After being in the airport for an extra 3 hours we finally got our baggage and headed up to take a train to Florence but between all the stress and everything else by the time we went to buy tickets people were arguing over which train to take and how much money it was, they were complaining about how tired they were and at that point I just tried to stay out of it. 

I was basically to the point where all I wanted was to get to Florence and go to bed.

After paying 60 Euro for a train we finally made it to Florence and took a taxi to the university to get our apartment keys BUT, they didn't have our apartment keys, NO OUR keys were at the airport where they were expecting us to be EVEN THOUGH I emailed the university as soon as I found out I wouldn't be arriving at the airport.

SO we had to wait around ANOTHER hour after having waited around ALL DAY.

Finally we got our apartment keys, met the rest of our roommates, tried to get settled in because its not like we'd eaten anything since the plane food.

My roommates and I found a pizza place, got some pizza, ate some gelato and I was down for the count, I was exhausted! 

Overall I just never ever want to go through that again.

I was virtually by myself, traveling to a different country where I don't know the language AT ALL and with a bunch of strangers. We were connected through our troubles and I don't know what I would have done without everyone but it was WAY too crazy for my first day in Italy so lets not ever have to deal with it again.

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Today was much better, I'm making wonderful friends with my roommates, we had orientation today so I found out where all of my classes are, We ate lunch at a really cute Italian restaurant, took touristy pictures around the city and just overall had a good day. 

Our refrigerator isn't working yet but hopefully that will be fixed soon and my class starts tomorrow I can't wait!

The first day may not have been the best but at this point it can only get better, in fact it already has I just booked my tickets to Spain for this weekend! I'm going with my roommate Rachel to Barcelona and it's going to be amazing. We've already planned the Cheetah Girls scene we will attempt to reenact (LOL) I'm sure that'll be amusing.

STAY TUNED: There is honestly so much more I could've said but this was long already and I think I've ranted quite enough. Florence is beautiful and as posts continue you'll definitely get to know more about the city, my trip, my roommates and SO SO MUCH more so stay tuned!