Venezia!

Venice is incredible :)

Venice has definitely been my favorite place so far. It was so beautiful, peaceful, and adorable. We stayed in the cutest hotel with chandeliers and velvet bedspreads! On Friday after we checked in and got settled we went to lunch at this wonderful little outdoor restaurant. I ordered one of the best pastas I have had so far. Penne alla vodka. YUM

After lunch, we decided do a little shopping. I honestly think I bought the most random items in Venice but I am so happy with them! Friday night we walked around and found this nice little bar where we met the nicest couple visiting from Holland. They were so friendly and gave us great advice on what to do while we were in Venice. On Saturday, we went to the island of Murano. The glass island!!! It was amazing. 

When we first got off the water taxi we went straight to the glass shop to see a demonstration. It was so interesting to see how they make the glass. We saw two demonstrations, one man made a vase and the other made a horse. How fabulous! The second guy then blew this huge glass bubble and scared us to death by popping it on the ground. We then went shopping all day! All the shops were pretty much the same but we went in a ton of them anyway. The glass was so unique and pretty. 

Saturday afternoon, Jo Elle, Kyle, and I went on a gondola ride around Venice. AH so cool. Got a little scared that we were gonna tip over a few times but thank goodness we didn't. Our gondolier man had been doing gondola rides for about 30 years! He was a little quiet but he showed us where Marco Polo lived and where Cassanova lived too. It was so much fun to see the city from the water. It was a much better view than just walking through the streets. 

On Sunday we wanted to go see St. Mark's Square and go up in the bell tower so we would be able to see all of Venice. It was an awesome decision to say the least. It was breathtaking. 

YAY FOR VENICE

Pisa!!

One last blog for the day! On Sunday we had a free day to do whatever we wanted in Florence. A bunch of us decided to go with Kyle (professor/supervisor/trip leader) to visit the Leaning Tower of Pisa! We were so happy we decided to go even though it wasn't the nicest day out. It was hilarious seeing everyone trying to get fun and interesting pictures with the tower. But my computer is being extra slow so I just put these three pictures up! 

Now I'm hopefully off to bed soon to get some sleep! 

Firenze

Holy moly. I do not even know where to begin. Florence was absolutely stunning. This past weekend was definitely one of the best in my life. I do not think I have ever been somewhere so beautiful. We left for Florence on Friday morning around 7:30am (yikes) and got into Florence around 10:30 or 11:00am. I'll just say all of us were just a little bit tired. We had a little break once we got there to try to rest and get lunch. We had a tour booked for an art museum for the afternoon. That was definitely an experience to say the least. We were around some of the most beautiful art but could barely keep our eyes open at all. Oops. We were just a little too happy when that tour was over.

The art museum

We were all just so exhausted that we decided to save our energy and not go out on Friday night because we had an amazing day planned for Saturday. It definitely lived up to our highest expectations! It was incredible. We went to this old castle in Tuscany where we were able to taste extra virgin olive oil, wine, and we were able to help make our own pasta and sauce from scratch. 

The Beautiful Castle

 Dana and I

 Pasta!!

This was literally some of the best pasta I've had. We had meat sauce pasta and vegetable pasta. We were all obsessed with the vegetable pasta. It was absolutely delicious. There were fresh cucumbers, zucchini, and carrots. 

 The Vineyard

We were able to walk down into the vineyard and see all the baby grapes growing on the vines. So fun!

 Tuscany

The view was so amazing from the castle. We were able to sit, relax, and take in the view for about two hours after all of our adventures in the castle. 

 With my beautiful best friend!!

After our amazing day at the castle we were able to go out and enjoy Florence at night! All of the girls went out together again and we had so much fun. :)

First Week of School

Sorry it has been so long since blogging! I never thought this adventure would be so exhausting. But of course it is so amazing. School was so great last week! I honestly feel like it was a complete blur probably because we have not been sleeping at all but when in Rome right? I love my teacher! She is actually from New York and her husband is Italian. They met in Greece, how cute is that? She has been letting me do so much in the classroom and I am so grateful. The students are the sweetest and I love getting to know them more and more each day. I know this week of school will be fabulous and I am going to be leading the morning activities for the rest of the time I am here ! Hopefully I start getting some more sleep because I have definitely been looking like a zombie coming into the classroom in the morning. I'm surprised the students aren't scared of me. I'm planning on going to bed earlier so maybe I will be able to function a little better during the school day. 

First Day at School!

Oh my goodness. Today was so exciting! My third graders were absolutely the best. They all have the cutest Italian accents and they are so welcoming. My teacher (Mrs. Zappia) is so great! The school, Marymount International School in Rome, is so much more relaxed and easy going than in the United States. I was actually able to go on their field trip with them to the Vatican. We went in St. Peter's Basilica and it was so beautiful. I don't even think words can describe it. 

We were able to touch a statue of St. Peter and rub his foot. Apparently it is a tradition; the toes are no longer visible because so many people have touched it. All of the art and statues inside were magnificent. We were told a ton of information from our tour guide and I can't remember more than half of it...oops. The third graders definitely did not have the attention span for that. It was so incredibly crowded, so that was a little nerve racking with about 45 third graders. We were then able to go to this mosaic shop (one of the student's dad owns it!). The students were able to see how mosaic pictures are actually made and then we were able to eat. We had a hamburger patty and fries, it seriously made me laugh. There was no bun and I had no idea where to find ketchup, so I ate all of it with nothing on it. Then we were able to get granitas or gelato. Granitas are basically like a type of slushie. I decided to get coffee gelato and it was a little too strong tasting for me. But no worries after school a bunch of us went to get gelato at this place called Old Bridge. It was by far the BEST gelato we have had so far. I got chocolate, cookies, and nutella. YUM YUM YUM :) 

Hopefully tomorrow is just as awesome as today was!

Rome is Beautiful

I can't believe I've already been here for four days. Every day gets better and better. The weather is always so perfect! Yesterday we visited two different catacombs. It is so surreal to think how old these places actually are. It was also so chilly down there! The tours were great. In our first tour we found out that there were over 500,000 people buried there, and about half were young children. Our second tour was a little draining and it was also harder to understand the second tour guide so I'm not too sure what I learned about that one. When we got back from the tours my roommates and I went to the little grocery store. Now that was an experience. Thank goodness this one girl came over to us and asked if we needed any help because I'm sure our faces were saying that. We just got a few groceries to hold us over for a few days. I decided to buy mozzarella, and let me say it was absolutely delicious. It was definitely very intimidating checking out, the lady at the checkout was not so friendly. We were a little bit scared. 

Today was so great! We went to the Coliseum and it was so awesome. I think that was my favorite thing so far in Rome. I just felt that I was in awe the entire time. It was so crazy to think about the gladiator fights and animal fights that occurred so long ago in there. The Coliseum was beautiful, it is so incredibly big. We then went over to look at the ancient ruins of Rome. That of course was amazing too. 

By the end of all of us were starving and our helper/planner Max had reservations for us at what he called the best pizza of Italy. It was delicious!! We were all so excited to eat. We had about 7 different kinds of pizza from pepperoni, seafood, eggplant, and margherita. We also had the most wonderful dessert. I'm not sure what the name of it is but it was stuffed with nutella and marshmellow. YUM

Okay, I'm off to bed. We start school tomorrow and I get to go on a fieldtrip with the 3rd graders! Ciao

Ciao :)

I can't believe I'm in Rome right now! It is so beautiful! The trip was a little tiring but I am in this wonderful place so I cannot complain at all. Our apartment complex is absolutely awesome. We have this cute little courtyard out front and these huge beautiful windows that open up to it from our apartment. Once we all got settled in, our whole group of girls decided to go to dinner together. 

My roommates and I before dinner

We went to this cute little place and sat outside. It was such a warm night. I ordered this incredible gnocchi pesto pasta. Actually my entire table all ordered the same thing, so it was a pretty big hit. Even though we were exhausted, we also ordered two bottles of wine :) We got a white wine and a pink wine. Both of them were amazing. What we didn't know was that in Italy you have to pay for water and you have to pay for bread, so let's say we learned our lesson. Last night was such a great start to this lovely adventure in Rome!

Yum

Today was another wonderful day in Rome! Our whole group met up around 11:30am to go to lunch and take several tours around Rome. Lunch was absolutely the best. We were able to try 5 different pastas, two different wines, and 4 different desserts. Let me say everything was spectacular. I probably ate enough food for 3 people, but when in Rome!! So then we began our tours which were very educational but fun at the same time. One of our first tours was of the Galleria Borghese. It was absolutely stunning. After that tour, we went to visit the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon. At the Trevi Fountain all of us threw coins into it, I threw one coin in which means I will be back to Rome one day! The Pantheon was amazing to see. The art and the structure of the building was so cool to see in person. We also saw many other statues and churches (of course, we are in Rome after all). All of them were beautiful. We probably walked about 5 miles altogether but it was worth it at the end when we got gelato!

Laura and I

The past two days have been the absolute greatest and I am looking forward to this month so much! Hope everyone has a wonderful day. Ciao!