weather or not

If I have ever complained about Italy being too hot, I take it all back right now. The past few days have been lower sixties and rainy and it's absolutely killing me! It's literally gone from 80s and sunny to that basically overnight and I'm dying over here. I've totally forgotten how to dress warmly and have retreated to my winter wardrobe of men's flannels that I find at thrift stores and leggings or skinny jeans. Save me please! The only bright spot in my unbearably cold future is my trip to Barcelona next week which I absolutely cannot WAIT for! My roommate from last year and I are meeting for a week of adventure in Spain and I could not be more pumped for it. I've been reading just about every travel guide I can find for Barca and have been making a list (and checking it twice) of all of the museums and restaurants I want to try while I'm there. Does anybody have suggestions? I've never been to Spain before and I'm driving myself crazy trying to come up with a packing list.

i'm ragin'

...but not in a fun way.

Driving in Italy makes me so angry. I feel like all the stereotypes you hear about Italian drivers are actually 100 percent true. They drive fast, they can park anywhere, they use the horn too much, ALL of it. I'll be honest...I'm actually pretty new to this whole "driving" thing. I only got my license the summer before last and didn't have a car at school so my driving was limited to time I spent at home during vacations. All in all, that's maybe about 4 and half months of actual solo driving experience. Now take that and throw it into the craziness that is Italian driving and it's no wonder that this ish makes me shout at everybody who darts into space in front of me at the roundabout or at people who make two lanes out of a one lane road.  Okay fine...I'm being slightly melodramatic (jk I'm not) but there's something fairly nerve wracking about cars getting frustrated with you and passing you on a itty bitty tiny country road when you're already going 25 kilometers over the speed limit just to try and fit in. But you what what? If I can drive here, I can drive anywhere and you better believe that I'll be that girl honking her horn and driving too fast when I get back to the states.

plus it sounds way more badass to say "I'm driving 120 kilometers an hour" than to say "oh yeah...65 miles an hour. i'm craaazy."

turn up the bass

I have been loving Italian radio lately! I drive to and from post at least twice a day so that's a good hour a half in the car everyday and I go crazy if I don't have music playing constantly. I have like three favorite radio stations here and I go between them constantly. They all play a good amount of songs that I would hear back in the states, along with more Italian songs. My favorite part is that radio here has a bit more of a club-y, electronic sound than the stations I listened to in Maryland. Here are a few songs that I've been hearing everyday on my way to pick up the bro-seph from school. I feel like I'm going to get back to the States and have no clue what all the cool hip new songs are!

Cinema | Ben Benassi
Stereo | Stereo Touch
Still My Baby | Wolfgang Gartner ft. Omarion
The Golden Age | The Asteroids Galaxy Tour
Get Back | Alexandra Stan

Florence aka Firenze aka Flo-City aka Firendizzle

Hooray! My annotated bibliography is officially done and has been submitted! Can I just say, though, that I HATE APA style. I did MLA all through high school and then Chicago in college (those footnote citations do wonders for the length of your paper) so the last thing I want to deal with is a whole new format. I feel so sorry for people like my roommates who have been dealing with that ish for way too long.

But onto FIRENZE! Like I said, I went with one of the girls I cheered with and her 5 roommates and had a fun, super touristy time. Florence is only about an hour from Bologna by train and it was my first time dealing with a train ticket that assigned me a seat and...wouldn't ya know it....I was the only one in the group who got put on a different car than everyone else. I just sat in their car anyways and pretended I was asleep the whole time in case I was in someone's seat. Whoops. Since none of us have ever been to Florence before, we didn't know what stop to get off at and ended up on the very fringes of Florence. Thank GOD for a guide book with addresses and the Map app on my iPhone because after some minor stressing we were finally on our way, doner kebabs in hands. First stop was the Duomo, which is a super important church in Florence but I'm just not sure why. Churches in Italy are super strict and won't let you in if you're wearing shorts or they can see your shoulders. I, of course, had both. But at least this time so did one of the other girls so we had to wait for the rest of the group to go through and then borrow their scarves to cover our naked flesh.

We didn't really have much of a plan so we wandered across Ponte Vecchio, a super old bridge that leads across to the more historical section.

graffiti on the bridge. Vanessa
carlton's messages transcend borders

We eventually ended up at an old castle of the da Medicis which was super exciting to a history lover like me. It was also huge and crowded with people so I definitely didn't enjoy it as much as I could but all of the artwork was astounding. I still don't understand how paintings that old can look SO realistic and the marble work on the walls must have taken ages and ages.

no pics in the building but here's
an awkward kissy statue from out front

More wondering back across the bridge, bought some beers from a grocery store and settled into a little park we found to listen to a guy play the guitar and sing (#college) before attempting to find a restuarant for dinner.

i love the open container laws here

Even though, it wasn't your typical tourist trip to Florence since we barely saw any sights I had such a good time just wandering the streets and eating gelato. Definitely something I would love to do again so if anyone feels like visiting me and going on a trip to Firenze just say the word!

interpreting statues

we stumbled on a reenactment of some kind

il Duomo...beautiful even with that
awkward restoration scaffolding

couldn't leave without at least ONE picture
of a fleur-de-lis. sorry. it's the kappa
in me

my bologna has a first name

I might have mentioned that I have a few friends studying abroad in Bologna, Italy this semester. If I didn't, well now you know. A few weeks ago I decided that I was done with having no contact with anyone my age and hopped on the train to go see them bearing 2 five gallon jugs of wine as gifts. It. Was. A. BLAST. Literally, the most fun I've had since I've gotten here which, granted, has more to do with my current status of bored than how many exciting things we did. Thursday night, I spent the night with one of the girls in my sorority and went out on town. I'd like to tell you more but that's about all I remember...whoops. I do know that the waiter from the restaurant fell in LURVE with Juliana. And I do know we stopped by the apartment of one of the other Kappas studying over here and hung out and played drinking games with a bunch of people. Annnnnd that's when things get fuzzy. Don't judge! I'm out of drinking practice!

waiter putting his number in juliana's
phone...unprompted

happy couple

Friday I met up with one of the girls from the cheerleading squad and we went shopping in the market with some of her roommates. We were all looking for the college staple: a short, tight, black skirt which the market didn't have to offer so we had to hit up some real shops. After that, it was nap time o'clock. That night we went out the discoteca and got our groove ooooon. I think the DJ was going through some sort of time warp phase though because the majority of the songs were from like 8th grade but I dug it. Who gets tired of dancing around to Blink-182 and No Doubt and Good Charlotte?

SIDENOTE: omg like whyyy are guys here SO super forward? It's like "Hi nice to meet. Mi chiamo Taylor. You can move your hand out from under my skirt now thanksssss."

we aren't sweaty or anything...nope

Saturday was off to Florence for the day...or Firenze as the Italians say. And as much as I'd love to put off this stupid annotated bibliography I'm working on for another..oh...forever...I really have to go finish it like now. But don't worry! The sun'll come out tomorrow....on pictures of Florence

wherefore art thou juliet?

Went to Verona on Tuesday and took waaaay too many pictures! The city is only about a 45 minute train ride from Vicenza and it was only like 10 euros round trip. If you guys ever go down to Juliet's hood make sure you purchase a VeronaCard which for 15 euros gives you access to about 13 museums, churches and other attractions, along with the use of inner-city buses. We didn't get to go to all the places that were available because we got tired of walking around (couldn't figure out the bus system), maybe about half, but it was totally worth the money. Even just 3 of the places on their own would have cost more than the 15 euro fee. Some of the places were beautiful (Chiesa de Annabella), some more painful (climbing the thousand steps to the top of the highest point in Verona) and some were totally overrated but fun because of it (Juliet's balcony). Stopped by some random cafe for lunch where I had delicious tortellini ragu (with meat sauce) and a glass of moscato. I probably won't go back on my own anytime soon but would LOVE to take friends there when they come to visit.

view from tallest building in verona

molesting the juliet statue...
apparently its good luck to rub them boobies

church

juliet's tomb...sans juliet.
must be hard to bury a fictional character

graffitti in juliet's tomb

arena

juliet's balcony. so much hype...so little space

creepy painting from the 1700s

locks of love at juliet's balcony

wall of love at j-cap's place
(j-cap is juliet capulet...duh)

i can haz (goat) cheez?

Like I mentioned in my last post, on Monday I went to a goat cheese farm which was about as cool and smelly as one might imagine. I loved seeing the animals and sampling the different cheeses (which I forgot to take pictures of...whoops). We were able to try cheese from both cows and goats that had literally been made two days before along with fresh yogurt, which was surprisingly sour to my Yoplait-conditioned taste buds.

little baby cows

i watched this cat eat the entire rat...tail and all.
 it was surprisingly blood free

milking machine

cow with a nose ring amuses me more than it should

oh heyyyy goat

cheez

buon ferragosto!

Monday was Ferragosto, a national holiday here in Italy. Historically, it was a religious holiday as a large portion of Italians are Catholics (it's not called Roman Catholicism for nothing people). August 15th is widely celebrated throughout the Catholic community as the feast of the Assumption or the celebration of the Virgin Mary's ascension into heaven. Even though most Italians do still attend church on the 15th, it's become so much more...particularly this year since the holiday fell on a Monday. Most towns and villages took advantage of this fact by having massive parties with fireworks and craft booths all weekend long. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend any in the area but I bet they would have been super fun.

To add whipped cream to the awesome sundae that is the three day weekend, the entire month of August is pretty much one long vacation for Italians. Europeans get significantly more vacation time than Americans and they put it to good use by closing up shop (literally....a good 75% of stores and restaurants here are closed for at least two weeks of the month) and heading to the beach or tourist towns. Don't even consider going to Venice and Rome during August unless you get off on massive crowds and heat stroke. While it seems a little strange that an entire country goes on leave at the same time, it's also kind of nice...at least like this you wouldn't have to worry about missing anything at work or trying to make your vacation time align with your friends just to go away together. File that under "things I could totally get used to."

need for speed

I did it! I'm officially licensed to drive in the beautiful country of Italy! I took my test last week and it wasn't bad at all! Because I did it through the military, I didn't have to do a road test so long as my stateside license was current. I did, however, have to identify about 60 road signs and that was nottt easy, lemme tell you. Signs can have the exact same image on them but if one is blue and the other is red, they mean something totally different. I was only allowed to miss 4 signs in order to pass and I missed exactly four! They grade the tests right in front of you so I was freaking out when I got that fourth red mark!

Honestly though, I'm not sure how often I actually planning on driving while I'm here. I only got my license the summer before last and I didn't have a car at school so I haven't really had that much experience driving and the idea of driving here makes me more than a little nervous. Italians aren't really known for their understanding and patient nature when it comes to the road. Besides, with such a good public transportation system in place (these buses are so prompt and timely...and CLEAN!), I don't think not driving will be an sort of hardship and I'll always have the ability to drive should I need to. Either that or I will become a force to reckoned with on the autostrada, or the Italian highway, where the speed limit is 130 kmph or like 80-something mph!

another sign I just found...I did NOT have to identify this one for my test

mallrat

The fam and I ventured out to the Palladio centro commerciale, one of two malls the next town over, for the first time since we got here...well my parents have been there before but it was my first time. Needless to say, it was pretty similar to a mall in the States with a Sephora, electronics store and what seemed like an Italian version of Claires mixed in with shoe stores, several cafes and even a gym. The biggest difference was the lack of food court, although there was a McDonalds upstairs that my brother insisted we go to for lunch. Instead of a food court, there were a few sit-down restaurants, gelato shops and cafes throughout the entirety of the building.

The entire country of Italy has two big sales during the year: one to get rid of summer merchandise in July and August and one to get rid of all the heavy coats and sweaters around January. I'm so happy that we moved here in July because it means that I fully get to take advantage of clothes that are marked down some 70%. There are signs reading "saldi" posted in shops everywhere so I learned that word pretty fast. Unfortunately, I didn't snag anything good yesterday but, no worries, I have plenty of time.

Our last stop at the mall was the grocery store on the first floor where there was an entire aisle of gummy candies (my family and I are gummy fiends) so I picked these up

Gummy Smurfs!

There were also a full 3 aisles just for different types of pasta! Some other cool finds were...

Apparently, here in Italy, Uncle Ben does more than just rice

Case fullll of delicious mini pastries

Hello Kitty sandwich wraps??

I'll try to do another grocery store post again. I just felt really awkward taking pictures with my iPhone while people are trying to decide what kind of cheese to buy and whether they want salmon or pork for dinner...whoops!

party and bullshit

Kind of in line with my previous post, I'm in the mood for a party. I'm talking like music so loud I can barely tell what's playing, crowded keg rooms, red cups littering the floor and that glorified exchange of germs fondly referred to as "pong." Anybody know where I can find one of those on an Army base in Italy because, if so, let me knowwww!

Actually, I'm just kind of starved for company at this point. Military bases, especially overseas, aren't exactly known for their large populations of recently graduated college students...at least not ones that didn't sign up to wear that oh so flattering camo pattern. I have yet to meet anybody my age who's over here with their parents. I hope I don't sound ungrateful because I know that I have been given SUCH an opportunity but I do wish I had somebody to go museum hopping with that isn't in high school or already has children of their own. 

Although, you know, there is something to be said for exploring Europe on your own...

desecration of school property ftw

I found this image on tumblr a while back and it summed up my feelings so well. Is it too soon to say that I miss college? Or maybe it’s not college that I miss so much as everything that it stood for: independence, freedom to make mistakes, lack of real responsibilities and usually a perfectly ordinary day as an excuse to day drink on the quads. I just feel so unprepared to start life in the real world with rent, cell phone and utility bills, car payments and trying to figure out how to repay student loans. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to take this “gap year” abroad but will living with my parents while I’m over there make the eventual transition easier or just that much more difficult?

In Vino Veritas

I have already discovered my favorite thing about living in Italy. They have these little bitty shops that only sell wine by the liter. And I don’t mean just boring bottles of wine, these places literally have HUGE metal vats lining all the walls with a different type of wine in each one. It kind of looks like a gas station for super small cars, that’s how big the vats are. You can bring any sort of canister or container and they’ll fill it up for you right from the vats on the wall. I actually brought an empty 2 gallon bottle of apple juice there the other day and they filled it up for €3. And if you don’t have your own container, no worries. You can just buy one there in pretty much any size you want. And I do mean any size; I’ve seen things that were like keg sized. Literal casks of wine. It’s like heaven. Only problem (and it’s not even a real problem) is that the bottles actually cost more than the wine. A reusable one liter bottle to fill with wine was €2 and the wine it was filled with was only €1. I’ve actually never really liked wine but Italy has managed to change my mind in less than 3 weeks.

Something I was really surprised to learn: Italy’s legal BAC to drive is actually almost of America’s (.04 and .08, respectively)

Birthday Gurl

 It's hard to believe that I'll be twenty-freaking-two in less than a month (27 days but who's counting?). Not that I'm biased or anything but I totally believe that August is the best month to have a birthday. It's perfectly balanced between all major present recieving holidays, after all. I would hate to have a birthday in like December, close to Hanukkah or Christmas or something because I bet people would pick just one of those holidays to observe and that's just not fun. Plus, August is the one month that is lacking in national and federal holidays so my birthday fully gives people something to celebrate...right? These are the things on the top of my birthday wish list

A new wallet and this one is perfect to hold my euros

 

A DSLR camera like this Canon Rebel

Plane ticket to Copenhagen and a hotel room for when I go to Sensation in Denmark

Apparently in Italy, when going out for a birthday dinner, the birthday girl (or guy) is the one bringing little gifts for their friends. What sort of goodies would you guys want?