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

i am a bad bad blogger

i have been SO busy lately so I'm super sorry for abandoning you..AGAIN. When I finally get back to you guys (tomorrow maybe? keep them fingers crossed!) I can tell you all about my trips to Bologna to visit friends studying abroad, Slovenia to see some horses, getting lost in Florence and castle climbing. If you want, I can even tell you all about my super exciting grad school classes I'm taking online (hint: they're not exciting AT ALL). I promise I'm still here.

oh ps! I just got my g-little and I'm super excited about that too! I wish I could have been there for big-little night but I know the turtle fam will make up for it once I'm finally stateside.

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

go shawty itz yo burthday

happy belated birthday toooooo ME haha. Monday was my twenty-second birthday and I can't even believe I'm that old already. Like wasn't I just dancing around to the Spice Girls and watching Lizzie McGuire while wearing tie-dyed t-shirts...oh wait...that was last week? I didn't really do too much for my birthday given the fact that I'm still somewhat lacking in the people-my-age department (but I have made a few new friends so never fear!). It mostly consisted of a field trip to a goat cheese farm with my Italian class (pics to come...promise), babysitting and going out to dinner.

ALTHOUGHHHHH my parents totally threw me a surprise birthday party last Wednesday and I was actually totally surprised! The best part? I actually made my own birthday cake without even realizing what it is for. I tried making a cake from scratch for the first time ever and it actually turned out really well. I made that rainbow cake that's been doing the round on the interwebz and used this recipe from Martha Stewart and it turned out really well...even though I used containers of frosting instead of making that from scratch too (I'm only so ambitious alright?). They invited most of the people and families that we've met while in Italy and it was a really nice time, in a chill, family friendly environment that has come to define my time here.

hey batta batta batta

yum yum yolks

whoops...blue layer burnt in the oven

ruh roh

ahhh i'm sorry! i have no idea where time has gone and i totally apologize for this mini blogging hiatus.

We will now return to your usual bloggy programming