RATTTTT and dinner with professor woodyard

So tonight after real estate class my Professor took us all to dinner at Pizzaulio! I got a vegetarian pizza and it was so delicious. He is a big business man and has a circle of friends that work together and are all very wealthy. They told me how they know people all over the world and in all walks of business and careers and could hook it up. There were two guys in there thirties John and Adam who spoke to our class and came to dinner with us. John talked to me a lot of the dinner about his circle and how they have eachothers backs and how they party and run the world blah blah. He can talk forever and real fast. I dont find it that entertaining when they boast a lot. Anyways after they treated all of us to gelato and then to beers. My Professor Woodyard will be a great contact in Tallahassee my remaining three years. He can get me an internship pretty much anywhere and has a ton of great connections. I will be visiting him again. Anyways so I come home from my long day and walk up to my room and we have a RATTTTT! theres rat poop by my stuff and now i am just sitting on my bed praying that the rat will leave or else were spending the night in a hotel. UGHHHH I am so sick of the rain!

Switzerland 5/30/11

My foot is on the way to recovery and I was off to Switzerland on Friday. We lugged out bags int he ridiculous heat all the way to the train station and loaded up on the bus. The ride was about 8 hours and I did my usual magic and slept for about 7 hours and about 34 different positions occasionally opening one eye to check what movie is on. The rest stations in Europe are so cool and nice! They are like a maze but they sell paninis, coffee, meat, meat, meat, cheese, cheese, cheese, and so much more bread. Anyways we arrived to the Funny Farm Hotel and Hostel at about 4 am and our room looked like a 1970s trailer park with 4 bunk beds. The next morning unfortunately it was raining :(. I still wanted to get the best of my day so we went out and explored the streets and tried to find shops. We ate at a cute irish pub and met three brothers from Texas who were traveling around and staying at a hostel next to us. I looked around the shops and discovered they do not sell regular sweatshirts. There symbol really is the red cross sign, which i would assume the red cross took from switzerland maybe because theres so many adventure sports and people get hurt a lot. There were also a ridiculous amount of swiss army knives which i was so tempted to buy but realized i really probably have no use for. Anyways we tried to toastie (a grilled cheese sandwich) instead of the roastie (switzerland famous hash brown cuisine) on accident because the R looked like a T. At about 7 we went on a swiss chocolate tasting tour which of course was amazing reminded me of the good old days when i worked at Leonidas. We tried all kinds of liquor chocolates and i continued my made hunt for the perfect alps beanie. At night we went to Balmer's a close by hostel with a club, where the 3 boys we met stay. We had a great time dancing in the disco club! The next morning (saturday) I was woken up by the beautiful snow covered mountains and bright sun. You know me an early riser, i started to get excited and I guess i was shaking the top bunk too much because the bottom bunk was shaking and woke up not early riser Maddy. It was time for her to wake up and smell the roses anyways, not to mention i never learned the bunk bed courtesy rules. We went down and ate our free breakfast of huge loafs of bread and jam. I consumed a ridiculous amount of bread and cheese on this trip. We went to the canyoning office and got prepared for seriously the best day of my life. I was so enthralled with the mountains, crisp fresh non smokey air, and the humble friendly people with goofy aussie accents. We drove an hour into the canyons and loaded about 30 pounds of wet suits and gear on us creating the lard goofy smurf look, but hey I could be thrown around like luggage. We repelled down a 200 foot wall to start and continued to zip line, climp, jump, slide, swim and scream. At one point me and maddy literally could not breath because the water was so cold we had visions of the titanic in our heads. Check Out my pictures to see what a great time we had. To take the wet suit gear off our instructor instructed us to peel eachother like bananas. Me and Maddy took that literally and mad complete fools of ourselves dragging eachother across the grass stripping our wet suits off as Australian men laughed at us. After we were rewarded with fresh sandwiches and beer in the beauty of the alpine mountains. Our other friends decided to go canyon jumping and as we got back they were so nervous so we jumped in the van with them and rode along for moral support. I am soo happy I did not go Canyon jumping because you literally are throwing yourself off a cliff to swing? It lasts about 30 seconds and there is not enjoyment, great pictures, or laughter just pure adrenaline and preparation for suicide. Anyways we had a great time video taping everyone and having our own 2 person dance party on the cliff of the alps, we even found a secret trampoline and bounced in the mountains of the ALPS, have you ever heard anything cooler than that?  Anyways that about completed the best day of my life right after I finished a warm spinach soup and cheeseburger. By the way cheese fondue is the WORST smell in the whole world literally I thought the smell was coming from the Huge wet saint bernard hanging out in the foyer. The next day was just as beautiful and we headed up to Lauterbrunen to go hiking and we discovered lots of cows and waterfalls. We tried the roastie which was good but I felt so gross after so much cheese bread and potatoes. I learned Swiss people love adventure, bread, and to talk about sex. I have planned my next trip in the winter and my life as a doctor and adventurer in my new home!! i am in love!

Cinque Terre 05/24/11

At the end of the Rome trip, I talked to a few of my friends about spending Sunday (the next day) in Cinque Terre. I thought well I need to take advantage of every situation and so I decided to go. The Saturday night I got home from Rome (very long day) I decided to shower up quick and sleepover at Vespucci another FSU apartment so that I could catch a train at 6 am with the girls. I woke up at about 4:30 am and got ready fast so that we could walk and buy our train tickets at around 5:30 am. When we arrived to the SMN Florence train station, our train had been cancelled. We then decided to take a train to Pisa and then hopefully take a train to La Spiezza. We grabbed our tickets and ran to validate them jumping on the train by only minutes. As soon as we got there we begged the man at McDonald's to open a little earlier because we were hungry!! We nearly missed our second train to La Spiezza because of McDonalds but barely made it! When we arrived in La Spiezza we learned that the trains were on strike and would not be running to the islands until 9 pm. Therefore we had to take a ferry boat to all the islands to make it to the last and most beautiful one. This ended up being a great idea considering we got the best view of all the islands and about an hour and a half long boat ride with great weather and sun. Finally we made it to the fifth and decided to have lunch on the water. I ate a delicious panini along with some white wine and it felt like I was at home again near the ocean with mountains surrounding. The small beach city was so cute and colorful. We then found a cute corner to leave our stuff while we jumped into the Mediterranean sea! It was so cold and refreshing and we swam about 1000 feet into the deeper water to do front flips and back foots. As soon as we reached a rock that I could stand on, I stepped right on a Sea Urchin underneath the water on a rock. I felt it sting and lifted up my foot while swimming as my friends pulled the spiky spines out of my foot. The ones sticking straight out were pulled out but when I got back to the beach I luckily had tweezers, but the spines were just too deep in. I walked around limp for a while and then just decided to put on my sock and shoes to do a two mile hike hoping my foot would not hurt too bad. On the hike we climbed up a whole mountain in the heat but were rewarded with some of the most beautiful views. It really reminded me of hiking in malibu, and how lucky to live in a place very similar. We continued for about 2 hours until we spotted the next colorful little town. We talked of how we wanted to travel the world and start a healthy clinic, with great hiking and swimming, healthy food, and my soon to be medical skills! As we arrived our appetites were killing so we ate at what our tour book said the best restaurant in Cinque Terre was. I ordered mussels with vegetable and meat filling and were to die for when placed on a sourdough piece of bread with a zesty tomato sauce soaked up. We enjoyed champagne on the house and then had a dessert wine with square pasta and a moist cake with strawberrys. It was the perfect light italian meal. We decided we have had a long restless weekend so we wanted to catch the first train back when the strike was over at 9 pm. We went to wait for it but were delayed for 2.5 hours! By this point after the long day of Cinque Terre and Rome I was an absolute Zombie! After we finally got a train off the island back to La Spiezza then next train was not leaving to Pisa until 1:30, 2 hours later. We slept on a nasty, smelly, train station floor and played "never have i ever" to pass the time before passing out on the hard floor next to some snoring homeless people. Then our train to Pisa was delayed about 30 minutes until 2 am. You can just imagine how I felt. Finally we load the train and it is a night car, with basically no where for us to sit except the walkways where we keep getting hit by peoples bags. Then we are in Pisa and have to wait another hour and a half until 4:15 am for a train to Florence. I was hungry again and so exhausted because I had officially been up for 24 straight exhausting hours and only had 4 hours of sleep the two nights before that. We made some friends in the train station, bought some hot chocolate and toughed it out. By the time we finally arrived in Florence it was morning about 5:30 am and light out. I walked back to my apartment and passed out. The next morning i decided to deal with the spines in my foot which looked like about 20-30 splinters in my foot. Sue, our director, told me I needed to get them removed and made me a doctor's apt so that they would not get infected. I was very lucky I was not poisoned as well. So, today I toughed out walking all over the city to Art History (where hopefully got bonus points from my teacher) and then went to the doctor. He ended up using a razor knife and tweezers to remove the spines. I was not nummed so when he made the deep cuts in my foot it hurt very bad. He was able to get our about 17, but 3 are still stuck in there deep. He cut the skin around them and bandaged me up hoping they will come more to the surface by tomorrow morning when I get to go visit him again :(  GREAT!

Rome

On Friday we departed to Rome at 7:30 am on buses. The bus took about 4 hours to get there and we made  a rest stop. The rest stop had a full on buffet and cafe which looked great and very clean bathrooms, America could learn from these. I have also noticed that Italy is very environmentally friendly. They never have hand paper towels, instead blow dryers, and reusable cloths (kinda gross though). We continued on to Rome and arrived at about 12 pm. The hotel was not ready for us to check into yet so Paige, Maddy and I ate lunch at a salad restaurant. I had a very delicious seafood salad with all types of everything on it! As we went back to check into our hotel I found a Leonida's Chocolate store, same brand as the one I worked in at the Oaks mall. I took a few pictures there and had to buy a white chocolate bar which was my favorite when I worked there. We then checked in and our hotel room was surprisingly very very nice. It had three seperate twin beds, flat screen TV, very red royal carpet, and golden walls with wonderful drapes. It almost looked like a little royal palace structure. Quickly we shuffled downstairs to meet the group to start our day tours. We visited A big white castle looking building that they call "the wedding cake" because it is new in the center of the ancient roman ruins. As we walked we viewed what is equivalent to an ancient gym, people would lift boulders and throw them to work out. Then we toured the Roman colosseum where low class people would fight for there freedom to the death. Then we went to maybe the crusades it looked like a ton of rocks to me, NOT EXCITING, to a plazza that was pretty I don't know much more about it, and lastly to the Panthenon, the place for all the gods. We did all of this in one half a day! I then had to try a cappucino type drink with whip cream which was alright and continued to get ready for our group meal. We wined and dined starting with a pasta course along with bread. Then we drank wine, followed by a lamb and veal meat dish. Next was every fried thing you could imagine from vegetables, curry, fish, anything along with salad and lastly we enjoyed a strawberry and whip cream dessert. After dinner I went to throw a coin in the Trevi Fountain which was probably the most exciting part of the day for me. We continued to discover the night life with a friend in the program's cousin who lives in Rome. We went to a real Italian night club which was so crowded and full of smoke it was quite the experience i would not like to have again. Some boy kept following me around pulling my hair as well.
The next day after about 4 hours of sleep we woke up to view the Vatican. The Vatican is like disneyland on steroids with no exciting rollercoaster at the end. There was no air conditioning and it took  me two hours to walk through it without any lectures. It was hot and there were probably 1 million people inside. If you ask me, the sistine chapel is better in pictures. Next we hurried over to St. Peter's Basilica where the Rome Pieta is, the sculpture my midterm is about, and the line was nearly a mile long.  It moved surprisingly fast though and we viewed the inside for quite a while mostly looking for my teacher that I had lost. At about 3 pm after all of this art looking, our program thought it would be a great idea to also visit the catacombes, or cemetaries of ancient italians. It was very cold when we went underground to look at the tombs, where some people had been dug out to capture the jewels that had been barried with them. By this time my feet were filthy and I was an exhausted person, cranky and hungry too! I never got an opportunity to really explore Rome from a cultural stand point so that was very upsetting. I don't think I will go back!

5/15/2011 Sienna and Futbol game

So on Friday we took a day trip to Sienna which sounds exciting, but it really wasn't. We looked at I guess Sienna's Duomo which I did not know there was more than one, but apparently there is one in each city? I brought our my artsy side and took some cool photographs until the lady inside yelled at me telling me not to take pictures. Then we went to a museum and continued to the capitol building all leading up to a delicious group lunch we enjoyed. I was starving at this point so ofcourse I ate everything in front of me. We started with peach spaghetti pasta which was a little thicker with a red sauce and I had seconds of that. Then we drank red wine and the bottle had an owl on it. Next we had an interesting meat dish that had turkey pork and egg all mixed together in a spiral with salad and the only dressing used there is balsamic and olive oil along with bread and lastly we had a delicious dessert. It was a white creme pie with nuts and it was so good I had seconds of that as well and could barely walk after! We continued on for the second part of our day trip to San Jimato or something where we preceded to look at shops and take pictures in a pretty view. That night we came back and went to a club called twice where two boys heirs to big companies (real rich) bought VIP areas for everyone to hangout in and have free champagne! It was a great night to meet tons of italians and have fun being an important person.
Saturday we checked out the leather market again and found the cutest leather owl key chains. I fount a really cute sachel (side bag) thats leather and bargained down to 16 euro and it says made in italy lightly on the front. We found an awesome artist that makes beautiful paintings and great leather jackets, leather sandals and belts. I'm still considering what I want to buy as gifts and souvenirs so help me out with opinions. The funniest incident was when some somalian men came up to us and asked us to come look at there bags, We know it is illegal to buy them because that are pretty much the exact same as real louis vuittons and other designers purses, but we were just curious to see how real they really are. When he showed us I literally could not believe how real it looked, I think he probably stole it off of a truck or something. I'm so tempted to try and buy one now but i will have to be very sneaky!
Last night we went to a club called space and once again these two boys bought a vip area with snacks and champagne, it was another awesome night meeting italians and too many armenians. This morning we woke up to a rain storm which was unfortunate because the Futbol game was today. It was Florence versus some other region in Italy. After trying to wave down taxis for a while we grabbed one and beat all out friends who had left an hour before us walking in the rain. When we go in and sat down there was no watching the real soccer game all the entertainment came from the opposing team's fans. They were so crazy that the stadium had to enclose there fans in a box with spikes on the top. I was pretty worried for my safety after we heard about 3 bombs go off in the stadium. I have never seen such violent fans for such an unimportant game. They throw stuff, have smoke blowers, and literally the sounds of bombs. These people were vulgar, loud, crazy, but wow was it an experience and I am glad they were inclosed in a box so we could just watch. I don't think an American sports game will ever be interesting again after that experience.
As for now i'm cuddled up in my bed ready for a Grey's Anatomy marathon waiting for the sun to come out. Ciao!

5/11/11

Let me start out by saying the internet is terrible. I am very lucky if i'm able to get on and talk to anyone and the best times for internet connection are at 4 am. I had my first classes this week and I love my real estate teacher. I realize this class should be relatively easy where we take a quiz per week which are not cumulative and the first one is take home. Professor Woodyard gets me excited and makes me want to buy property. Whoever has the money to buy a house in this market really should. I hope the market will still be decent when I buy my first house in about ten years. Professor Woodyard took me and a few other students out to lunch to the best pizza I have ever tasted at a cute restaurant called Pizzaolio. My other class Art History will be a bit of a drag because I do not find interest in the subject, but way better than just staring at a book when we visit the sites for real life. I probably will have to sit monday and wednesday nights out if i want to survive. I have started planning the trips I will be taking and I'm really excited to go to Interlaken, Switzerland where the ALPs are! We are going to go white water rafting and take a chocolate swiss tour, my kind of thing! I have wandered around and found the leather market and started finding the good places to shop at prices that seem more reasonable. We even discovered a happy hour restaurant called Zoe where I pay for one drink and get to eat a buffet of different Italian foods for free. I am trying to upload my pictures now so that everyone can view my ventures with me! Ciao!

Day 3 of 42

So we woke up this morning after about three hours of sleep to take a tour to Fiesole. It was a beautiful town above the main city of florence that overlooked the whole thing. We entered into an outdoor theatre they used in ancient roman times and took many photographs of the city from above. Ill post them soon. Then we watched a couple come out of a church after there wedding ceremony and everyone threw rice and set off streamers as the couple danced around, it looked so fun! The drive up to Fiesole reminded me of  the LA canyon something like Laurel Canyon a little bit. I have decided I am going to drop Modern Italian culture and take Real Estate instead. I will be taking Art History with Nero in which we will only be studying in the classroom the first day and the final, so I will really be exploring the city as I learn. The other real estate class we will also be visiting real estate in Florence so I will never be sitting inside a classroom for class! How awesome! After our half day trip we were starving so we used one of our food vouchers ( we recieve 5 Euros a day to use at specific restaurants) at a restaurant called Golden View, sounds chinese but definitley is not. I got a pizza with capers on it (not knowing what capers are) and decided I am not a fan of capers at all...so fishy. We sat on a doorstep stoop and downed a whole pizza each and many italians passed by saying Bonapetite! A man from a leather store was outside and thought we were so amusing eating our huge pizzas so he took kodak pictures of us and tried to teach us new Italian words like good day, but I forget already. I have been saying arivedercci a lot! We laughed and tried on some leather jackets in the mans shop and they shared some secret night life and live music places to visit and told us the secret to staying skinny is to take a shot of limoncello after a big meal to lighten our stomachs. We went back to take a well deserved siesta nap and woke up and decided to excercise. We ventured a different way and found a less crowded more italian non touristy street to walk on and ended up finding a few more economical restaurants and a great view. We decided to cook dinner tonight because dinner is so expensive, but lunch is cheap so we bought chicken from our new butcher friend and fresh cheese. Then ventured to a new water fountain we discovered to fill up my water bottle with drinkable water and got real curious to wander down small streets. Best idea because we found smaller restaurants mom and pops that take our vouchers and a great tomato sauce, broccoli, and olive oil and made a great dinner. Gonna go enjoy the 27 hour blue festival tonight and get cheaper gelato! Ciao!

Day 2 of 42

So today i got up early... still jet laggged! and we went to orientation to learn about all the teachers! Im so excited to take Art History with Nero he seems like he could entertain himself for hours and even me about history...but I am switching out of Modern Italian Culture the teacher just seems like he would never understand my world(oblivous). So my plan is to switch into food and culture hopefully to try all the cuisine or Real estate because I like land. Then we learned we get 5 euro a day to eat so that is 205 euros to eat while I am here at about 7 great restaurants, so we tried a panini shop who made a great panini and i decided I would try a pesto one tomorrow, because I love my mommas panini and I want to see if this one tops it! We then took a tour of the city and learned about the four centers, what hole in the wall really meants, about the main families and a little about the cathedrals I think (I'm more into people watching and the Italian people's clothes). I realize I need a watch fast too! Then I wend to a market and bought some fruit to eat for breakfast and cleaned my room, shocker! We had a dinner tonight, but the Italians stay thin by eating in the opposite order from Americans, never knew this was the secret. First ravioli with mozzarella cheese and oil i think, then a whole platter of meat and plenty of red wine, Salad, then strawberry and fruit gelato, and finished with a shot of espresso. Then we discovered some bar that gives drinks 3 for 10 euro and knows americans and chi o secrets unfortunatley, then continued on to Lion's fountain to bond with some of our brave American Soldiers. Goodnight!

My Journey to Italy

BON VOYAGE! I have been accepted into the Florence, Italy study abroad program for Florida State University. I have always been an adventurous person and one of my biggest hobbies is traveling. Throughout my high school years I traveled around most of the West Coast visiting San Francisco, Palm Springs, Hawaii, Cabo San Lucas, San Diego, Monterey, Salt Lake City, Colorado, and so many more places. I made a life changing decision to come to Florida for college leaving my hometown of Westlake Village, California, a small suburb outside of Los Angeles. I have made so many new friends this year through the Social Justice Living and Learning Community and my sorority, Chi Omega. I am so grateful for the opportunities I have been given and in two weeks I am flying to Europe for my first time with two of my newfound sorority sisters. I am taking two courses, Art Architecture and Artistic Vision and Italian Modern Culture over a time period of six weeks. I have never been exposed to a different culture than my own so my older sorority sister, Sarah Paquin, has given me some tips to survive and places I need to see when I am in Italy. I do not know Italian so I will be learning to communicate by other ways than verbally and I will be conquering the cities of Italy with my Chi Omega sisters, Maddy O’Connor and Paige Beles. This will be an experience to remember, and I really have no clue what to expect. I will bring my camera everywhere and continue to document my trip. This English assignment was the perfect opportunity to start a blog on my expectations for my trip. I will continue to remember my travels and continue blogging to share my experiences with my friends and family at home. I am so excited for the amazing food and shopping! Ciao!

Rome

Hopefully, I will allow myself to spend a few days touring Rome. The Vatican is one of the smallest sovereign states located within the city of Rome. It is a religious center for the Roman Catholic Church and is the home of the Pope. The cardinals and Pope of the Church meet here. The Sistine Chapel is the big church in this city and somewhere I must visit. I am not a strict religious believer, but it will be interesting to learn the culture and discover the history behind the Catholic faith in this holy city. I will need to make a stop at the famous Ancient ruins and Coliseum, but I am most excited to view the fountains. I will see the Bernini and Borromini fountains at night when they are lit up and I will not miss the Trevi Fountain. I have always been a little superstitious and enjoyed making wishes on everything. At the Trevi Fountain I will throw a coin over my left shoulder into the waterfall of naked men and make a secret wish! Most people wish to return back to Italy, but I cannot tell you what my wish will be or it will never come true!

Florence

Florence will be my beautiful home for six weeks of this coming summer. I will live in a learning center in the middle of the city with other Florida State Students. I will visit the Duomo, a famous cathedral that I recognize from many pictures. It is about a 460-step travel and only costs about eight Euros. I hope it lives up to all my expectations. I will also need to walk up to the San Miniato, a church that sits on the other side of the Arno. The Arno is a hill that looks over the beautiful city of Florence, which seems like it would be amazing to sit on at nighttime to look at the city skyline. I have a major past time of sitting on big mountains at night to view over the Los Angeles skyline, my home town, so it should be exciting to experience a whole new city. The main road that my FSU study center is located on has some smaller must-see attractions. The Lions Fountain Bar, Ivi Saggi shots cafe, Natalino's Panini shop, Corona's gelato store, and Adams Leather. I am sure I will become a daily customer to many of these local shops. I will need to take a day trip to Cinque Terre; a beach town only one-hour train ride from Florence. 

Venice

The city of Venice is said to be stunning! It is a chain of islands that I hope to explore on water taxi because I love the water. I hear the nightlife is not that exciting, but it is great to visit tourist sights at night when they are not crowded. St. Mark's Square is a top priority on my list because just viewing the picture makes the square look amazing with the lit up, rare architecture, unlike anything in America. If I get to the top of the roof at St. Mark's Square apparently I will be able to view the Campanillie, or bell tower, and a the famous St. Mark's Basillica church. I need to take a gondola ride for a tour so I can replicate the movies and take a picture wearing a striped black and white shirt and wear a "capello" or hat in Italian. With some extra time I want to head over to the streets of Burano Island where all the buildings and houses are decorated with vivacious colors. 

Food of Italy

The suggestions I have gathered from friends and bloggers are simple but inevitable when it pertains to food. I must try the pizza! It is unlike any pizza in America. It is a thin-crusted pizza made from fresh ingredients and can be found anywhere and everywhere, and great too! I will need to make sure to order cheese on my pizza because they make pizzas with only dough and marinara sauce. Hole in the wall joints are the best places to eat because the locals eat there and know what is good. It was emphasized to me that I must eat at restaurants that have strictly Italian chefs and not immigrated American entrepreneur cooks with Italian recipes. I will be able to find these Italian chefs because they work at restaurants that are only open a few hours of the day because they abide by siesta, but they have all the secrets to an Italian feast. I will be trying tons of pasta in all shapes and sizes, as it is a staple to the Italian diet. It should be topped with clams and scallop seafood captured fresh that day. There are certain restaurants that change the menu daily depending on the freshest ingredients of the day. The dessert to round out my meal will of course be gelato either in a delicious tiramisu flavor or the rare Limón cello Italian favorite. When in Venice I have specifically been told to try cicchetti. Which are half eggs with anchovies, polenta (like corn porridge) with a meat or fish sauce, fried crab pinchers, crabmeat balls and baccalà mantecato, stockfish minced and cooked in milk. Sounds different but I am so curious to explore the foods and wines of Italy!

Dos and Don'ts for traveling in Italy

When traveling in Italy there are a few things I will need to know to survive. I will convert my cash into Euros at Triple A or my bank before I leave USA. When I arrive in Europe, I will use the ATM because cash gets the lowest exchange rate. People do not tip anywhere, but most restaurants will charge a sitting fee of around two Euros; so I will eat fast and stand. When at a coffee shop though, no one sits. Everyone drinks their coffee super fast standing up at a bar like table. Basically anything breakfast/ coffee is in a rush and if not I will be charged. When ordering water I need to make sure to say "without gas or still" to receive what I conceive to be normal water. Italians do not separate bills at restaurants so I will combine my money with my friends, which is easier with Euros because there are so many coins.

The dress code in Italy is something I need to be aware of. Italians do not usually wear shorts or flip-flops so they might look at me funny if I dress in Florida attire. I should always bring a scarf or cardigan if I am visiting churches, museums or baptisteries because girls cant show their shoulders or wear shorts and I will be visiting a lot of churches. When I go to the Vatican in Rome they are super strict on dress code. I can’t show my knees as skin above because this is the hope of the current Pope and Roman Catholic Church. I need to watch out for the Somalia men (black men) selling fake goods on the side of the road because I can be fined for doing business; up to 1000 Euros. When I go shopping in the markets it is critical to always bargain! Florence is famous for its leather, especially leather jackets, leather purses and pashmina scarves. I shouldn’t pay more than 120 Euros for jackets, 60 Euros for purses and 9 Euros for scarves. It will rain sporadically so I will bring an umbrella everywhere and dress like an onion in lots of layers because the weather is really unpredictable. I will walk everywhere, so I just invested in a pair of double layer supported rainbow sandals that I will wear everywhere while burning off all the wine and pizza!

Traveling by train or bus is the easiest cheapest way to travel. When traveling by train or bus, there are little yellow boxes for validating my ticket. I must validate my ticket because you security will come through the train and bus to check your tickets and it is a fifty Euro fine. I need to be holding my belongings at all times and will probably just wear a fanny pack because gypsies and professional pocket pickers are everywhere! The cars, motorcycles and bikes will run over pedestrians, this is not America. Last thing is a lot of places close for Siesta, the late afternoon nap and break time planning my schedule accordingly will be important.