A Baby with a Spear? Only in Italy

Despite cold and fatigue, I am still enjoying my time in Italia!!

This past week I started my new classes, got a cold, and randomly found a parade...

To begin with classes: I love my new classes!! I can't wait to learn everything about grapes and restaurant beverage management!! Highlights of the week during my class have included my new teacher, wine tasting with Massimo, and learning how to properly open a bottle of wine!!

A cold? Why, yes. I am currently on death's corner, knocking on heaven's door, awaiting death to come and take me...haha just kidding. But being sick, having an insane cough, and being super tired certainly does put a damper on things...

This weeks craziest event: San Giavanni...Florence celebrates its patron saint (aka Saint John the Baptist) This week I found a random parade and enjoyed an hours worth of fireworks, which I have discovered are quite difficult to photograph.

The new roommates...oh gosh, I hate them. I wish I was with new girls, and our apartment totally sucks...haha just kidding!!!! These girls are amazing!! Two from Baylor and one from Louisville? How could you go wrong with a total southern dynasty?

This week's strange food/drink combo: hamburger with moscato (a sweet dessert wine...)

This week's yummy delicatessen: Sfizia? (question on spelling), delicious hamburgers run by a crazy, confused italian/australian man? Either way, so delicoussssss

This week's party spot: Club Twentyone!! Great drinks provided by Remigio (aka Walter) if ever in Florence, this is the place to be!!!

Ok, well gotta get ready for my Italian adventure to Assisi tomorrow!! More adventures to come!!!

This week's Italian phrase...amo cantare alejandro da lady gaga which means i love to sing alejandro by lady gaga (which has been my song for the past two weeks...video is sooo weird and totally inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18-thank you Marty Fallon for this assessment-but the song alone is fantastic)!!!!

Ciao a tutti!!!

R.I.P. Ferragamo

Ahhh, the end of the first summer session has come and gone.

This past weekend I have traveled to Cinque Terre, Venice, and almost died in Rome. Thankfully, Wednesday, I arrived back in my home of Firenze. To say I love it here is now an understatement for sure!! Between the people, the customs, and the history, I cannot/would not want to imagine myself anywhere else in this moment.

Just got my new roommates and they are AMAZING!! The new apartment is BALLIN' and I am sooo happy to be back!!! Thank goodness I finally got a rain jacket because these past two days have been rainnyyyyyyy!!

And speaking of rain, the true reason for this post is in memorial to a truly great pair of shoes that were lost in the middle of combat with the venetian streets.

During this past weekend, a pair of shoes, most widely known to my friends as my "gold flats," met their match. Their fight was noble, but eventually they just succumbed to the monsoon that took their life.

Now to say that these were just "any pair of shoes" is blasphemous. It is more like these shoes were my friends. After 7 years of loyal service, it only seems appropriate that they find their demise in the country from which they originally came into my posession...Alas, their time came too soon.

Their life had only just begun...They were with me through everything...the awkward years when I had no one besides my parents and my dogs, the first kiss I ever experienced under the pine trees in my front yard, the college football seasons that have meant everything to me during the past two years. Oh cruel wind of fate that took you away from me...life is so unkind and unfair at times. But we must press onwards through the fog. On to a brighter tomorrow, one that is full of possibilities and hope. A tomorrow in which I can walk down to the Ferragamo store where I bought those shoes, and hopefully, find a pair to continue out the legacy in which those gold shoes have left behind.

Yes, I will not forget you my golden shoes. I will simply try to walk on with the hope that some day, I can find an equally cute and comfortable pair of shoes that will help me fill my shoes.

R.I.P. Ferragamo, we hardly knew thee

06/2003-06/2010

Today's italian phrase is...scarpe...which means "shoes"

Good Thing I Didn't Bring a Rain Jacket!!

Ahh Florence, even when it's rainy and gloomy I still love you!! Despite the dismal weather we've been experiencing for the past few days, Florence is still AMAZING!! Everyday I see something new. I have recently been informed that Italy hosts 80% of the world's art, while Florence has 60% of that 80%, not too shabby!!

On this past week's agenda, there was gelato, a day off from school, and some light shopping. True life, there is nothing better than the smell of leather!! I think they need to create a perfume or cologne that smells like leather. I would buy it!! I'd spray it everywhere!! Not only does the leather here smell amazing, it feels amazing!! It is soft and beautiful. Plus the colors are unbelievable. How on earth do they get those colors over here, and we don't have them in the states? Soo ridiculous!!

Another thing I love is the food!! The ingredients are so fresh and vibrant. Perhaps one of my favorite experiences from this past week was going to the Mercato Centrale (aka the Central Market). Ok, it's a tad freaky when the chickens and ducks still have their heads on them so you can see exactly what you're buying, but the fruits and veggies are sooo fresh!! And the smell is crazy good!! Everyone should go there if you come to Florence!! Sooo fun!! AND there is this little restaurant that has this amazing sandwich with roast beef and salsa verde on it!! SOOO GOOD!!

This week's eatery of choice: The Oil Shoppe. For 5 euros you can get a DELICIOUS sandwich, french fries, and a bottle of water. To put that in perspective, in a bar, a beer costs 5 euros while a liquor drink costs 6 euros...yeah crazy!!

Ok well, gotta study for my italian class tomorrow!! Ciao bellas!!

This week's italian phrase is...nessuno merita le tue lacrime, e chi le merita non ti farà piangere which means no one deserves your tears and who deserves them will not make you cry (now imagine some gorgeous italian saying that to you, and tell me what is not to love?)