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.