That's Amore

A long awaited, much anticipated excursion, the 10-day break in Italy finally happened this past week. This was one of the trips I knew I wanted to take even from before I was accepted to the abroad program, so as you can imagine, I was all over this one.

We flew to Rome on RyanAir out of Beauvais Airport just outside of Paris. And when I say airport, I mean a one floor, one hallway building next to some barns and open fields. On the way there I could have sworn we had somehow ended up in North Carolina because I kept seeing a Buffalo Bill's Restaurant, McDonald's, and a gas station always grouped all together on the side of the road. To get a picture of RyanAir, just think Southwest with international flights and no free pretzels. Despite the adventurous nature of the start to the trip, it was actually surprisingly decent and cheap to say the least.

Rome was incredible. I was expecting a big, dirty, crowded city filled with tourists, but it's surprisingly clean and easily accessible for being a capital city. Favorite things- the Coliseum, the Trevi Fountain, and Vatican City. We went to the Vatican the second day and saw/climbed St. Peter's Basilica (good lord that was a long way up), as well as the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel. And Pouli, you'll be proud that I got a picture of the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel since I was trying to follow in your footsteps from your trip there. I was even crazy enough to eat rabbit at a restaurant we went to one night just because it was on the menu and I thought, when in Rome...

Next stop was Florence for two days. Florence was much smaller than I had thought, especially coming from Rome, so we saw pretty much everything in about a day's time. The Duomo was beautiful and we got to see the sculpture of David in the Accademia, as well as the Uffizi Gallery and Botticelli's Birth of Venus. Once again, I snapped an illegal photo of David to add to the collection of contraband photography. The second day there we took a day trip to Tuscany which included a wine tasting and dinner in the Chianti region. The excursion was a lot of fun with amazing wine, food, and sights, but it rained the entire day we went there so we didn't get the full Under the Tuscan Sun glory. No matter- a few good bottles of wine and good company made up for it.

After literally running to the train station, getting our tickets with 1 minute left before departure, and sprinting down the tracks, we were finally on our way to the city on water. Venice was incredible and such a unique place. We got there on Halloween and got to go to Wake's house, Casa Artom, for their party. That place is gorgeous- former American Embassy, next to the Guggenheim, on the Grand Canal...enough said. Seeing St. Marc's and playing with the pidgeons was a great time, and after that we just wandered around the city and didn't use a map the whole time there. One of the great things about Venice is that you can get lost, find awesome shops and restaurants, and be back on track within minutes without breaking a sweat. The last day we were there, we went to Murano, the little island famous for glass blowing. While trying to return, we mistakenly took the water taxi that circled the island instead of going straight back to the mainland, after which I had to sprint across the whole city to get my bags and a bus to the airport. Nevertheless, I made it with plenty of time and it was worth every moment.

After that awesome vacation, I came back to Paris (and as always, couldn't wait to get back here) and started my internship on Monday. Let's just say, this week may have been one of the most ridiculous weeks I've ever had, in all my life. To recount the whole tale would take quite a long time so in brief my week has consisted of: waiting for directions for two hours in a hotel on the first day, getting a call telling me to take a train to a suburb of Paris, getting lost for 3 hours, sorting old magazines and loose notes from boxes for 6 hours, and hearing my boss' kids running around his apartment screaming. Needless to say, I've put in for a change and it's been a wild week and a great story at the very least!

Hope everyone is doing awesomely. I'll be seeing some of you in about a week from now (family you know who you are) but for everyone else, keep in touch and as always...

A bientôt!

"When you come to a fork in the road, take it." -Yogi Berra