Things I ♡ About Italy

1. Notte Bianca: Was the best. night. ever. There is just so much that went on. There was a whole group of us before it became me, Adriana, Piti and Andrea. Then what followed was free drinks, getting couples to kiss by chanting "Bacio! Bacio!", flash mobs, sexy bartending twins, dancing in piazzas, walking around all of Firenze, live music, pictures, running into old friends, more dancing and blurriness. It was Epic. Wish I could be here for the next Notte Bianca. :)

2. Hard Rock Cafe Firenze: I had never been to a Hard Rock Cafe before. I know we have so many back home, including one in SF but I just had never gone. So, when I saw one here in Florence I knew I had to go. It took me months but I finally got the chance to go with my roomies. The food was delicious. Huge portions, fried chicken and coca-cola. It felt just like home!

3. YAB: YAB is a club in the center of Florence. It takes me about five minutes to get there walking. They have great music, cute boys and good drinks. It has slowly become one of my favorite places. Mainly, because of the cute boys lol.

4. The Opera: My roomies and I went to see Carmen not too long ago and it was fantastic! It was set up in a small church but the performers were amazing. I fell in love with the role of Carmen. She was a charming songstress.

5. Lucy: My roommate Lucy is the perfect shopping buddy. She can, believe it or not, out-shop me. We can spend a whole day doing nothing but window shop. Most of the time she ends up buying everything while I go home with nothing but we always seem to have fun while doing it. Also, she happens to be the best makeup artist ever! I love it when she does my makeup! The amount of attention I get when she does my makeup doubles. She's a miracle worker! lol. Sadly, she leaves tomorrow to Mongolia. :/ I am so thankful I was able to have her as a roomie tho. I can't imagine my time in Italy without her. <3

An Unexpected Day in Empoli

My roommate Lucy planned a trip for us to go to Leonardo Da Vinci's hometown. In order to get there we had to take a 30 minute train ride to Empoli then take a bus to the Da Vinci's town. Well turns out the bus does not run on Sundays so we quickly had to switch plans. This little town had more to offer than we initially thought. I will return one day to Empoli. :)

These are my roommates Laura and Lucy on the train to Empoli. 

 Laura standing in front of the Empoli Train Station.

 This red is a rare find on a building here in Italy. I fell in love with it as soon as I spotted it.

 These vending machine markets are open 24 hours. There you can buy anything from milk, pasta, chips to condoms and toothpaste.

 I don't know about you, but this is how we dry our clothes in Italy.

Empoli had an event that day Citta dei Bambini  where they had activities for the kids to do. The kids were building things with wood, playing games and making art work. I love seeing family oriented events around Italy. :) 

We had to stop by the free Museo Civico di Paleontologia.

No day trip is complete without gelato. :) I strayed from my usual Mint, Stracciatella, Baci combo for Lemon, Strawberry and Yogurt.

Five Things

The five things I heart about Italy this week are:

1. Fiorentina Soccer Games:  Fiorentina, also known as Forza Viola is the official soccer team here in Florence. I had the pleasure of going to a Fiorentina soccer match last week. Sadly, my team didn't win but I still had a lovely experience. I was lucky enough to go twice this season. If I ever come back to Florence you bet I'll go to another match! (post about this coming soon)

2. Palestra Ricciardi: This is the new gym I go to. To be honest I had a rocky start with gym because a. it's farther from my apartment (10 min walk) b. the equipment is much older c. i havent warmed up to the people. Still, the more I go the more I like it. I'm starting to get comfortable. Soon I will have a routine like I did at Klab. What I like about Palestra Ricciardi is that they offer more classes. Some are really fun, like the hip hop class they have. I also like that the people who go to Palestra Ricciardi are younger. They are around the same age group as me as opposed to Klab that had much older members.

3. Amazon.it: I love this website. It is like the one back home but of course it offers all the Italian dvds/books/cds I could ever want at a lower price than the bookstores. Even though I had a rough time getting my package the first time around, I will be ordering again from them soon. Here is what I bought the first time. :)

4. Antica Gelateria Fiorentina: This is slowly becoming my favorite gelateria here in Florence. Although the I still prefer the gelato from La Carraia, L'Antica Gelateria Fiorentina is significantly closer to my apartment. How close? About one minute. This is dangerous because not only is their gelato delicious but it's also cheap! I typically get the 2 euro cup with Stracciatella and Bacio.

5. Italian Lessons with Adriana: Even though Adriana hasn't been learning Italian for too long (and I have been learning it for years) we are around the same level. Recently we have started practicing together the stuff we need to work on. Last night was the conditional, like would or could, and tonight we will probably go over it again and move on. I am glad we are doing this because it will better our Italian for sure. We are using this book by Claudio Manetta. 

February Night Life

I typically don't take out my camera on a night out. My friends smartly do the same, however, we lose the opportunity to take some pictures of our fun times. Every once in awhile someone does manage to take a few snaps here and there which makes me forever thankful. :)

 A night out with my favorite German Girls at Babylon.

The thing I like about Babylon is that there aren't as many annoying American girls. You know, the kind that get wasted and are completely obnoxious? Trust me, there is never a shortage of those kind of girls running around Florence. I also like that you get a drink included with the cover charge. The best part about Babylon? The music. They mainly play electronic stuff. Music I can just dance all night too. I don't go there as often as I'd like and writing this makes me want to go now! 

 The night ended with a stop at the photo booth. Sadly, I don't know what happened to those photos but I cherish the memory, and this pic. 

 Here, is a night at twice with Lucy, my ex roomie Kiki and Silja. Twice is a club that I love to hate. I hate it because of those American girls I mentioned before. Well, Twice is full of them. Even worse it is filled with desperate guys trying to dance with you no matter how many times you say no. I love it because it's free, the  music is pretty decent and because it closes late. Meaning, even when the plan isn't to go to Twice we go there after leaving another club for an hour or two. 

This is me and Vicky right before a night out of madness. We went to a few places around town and had ourselves quite the adventure. :) 

 Lastly, this is me at Salamanca. I was here with the lovely people of FACE and Adriana. Salamanca is my typical Thursday stop. Here you will find me chugging sangria and dancing on table tops. That's just what you do in Salamanca. The music here could do with some improvement. The songs are good but the DJ always repeats them. I can listen to a song three times in one night. Not cool.  The guys here usually know how to keep their distance here which is good. Although my roomie always finds someone to run off and have a conversation with. No really, she just spends the whole night talking. Where are the people I can do that with? lol.

Mia♡ 

Carnevale a Venezia

A few weeks ago I took a trip to Venice for the Carnevale there. It's pretty much a religious holiday bringing in the start of Lent. Everyone is dressed in elaborate costumes and out showing off their beauty. It's a holiday for people of all ages. 

This trip almost didn't happen for me. I had actually declined going because I have already been to Venice but I had that gut feeling you know that I was making a mistake. So, the day before the trip I searched for a reasonable priced hostel and got a train ticket. I am so glad I made that decision because I would have regretted not going for sure. 

I stayed at a hostel in the city center that was anything but glamorous. Finding it took two maps and two hours. It was an adventure that I experience with my roomie Adriana. Then hunting down a meal at a reasonable price was almost impossible. Shortly after we went site seeing all over Venice. I got to experience different streets from my previous trips and of course saw many people dressed in costumes.  At night there was a show on the big stage. It was dance and music from the 20's,30's and 40's. It was brilliant! We had a few drinks, pizza, took pics and just experienced the Carnevale to the fullest. The next day was pretty much the same. Of course we took plenty of pictures. Some of these are my favorite pictures of me in Italy period. I loved everything about this trip! 

 Beautiful Venice. :)

 These are the lovely ladies I went with Adriana, Lucy and Silja. Missing is Kiki who is taking the picture. 

Venice in a popular destination always but on the week of Carnevale there are ridiculous amounts of tourists everywhere. 

 Venice is known for their masks and on the week of Carnevale it is almost mandatory to be sporting one of these. 

 Venice never disappoints me. 

 This was my third visit to Venezia and I still have not been on a gondola. Maybe I would go on one if the gondoliers actually sang like in the movies. One day I will give in and pay the ridiculous amount required to have a ride on a gondola but not this year!

 Some of the streets are so narrow I almost don't fit through them. 

 Venezia bliss. 

 For me Carnevale was the Italian equivalent to Halloween. Sure most people were in full traditional costume but then you ran into characters like this. We didn't even know what this was!

Adriana and I went around asking "Man or Woman?" Because really, you couldn't tell behind those masks and some of those women were suspiciously tall. 

Loved spotting families in full costume. 

Black Angel

This woman had a live bird in her hair. True Story.

Me among the crowd.  

The had a gondola show with everyone dressed in elaborate costumes. There was music and tons of people crowded on the Realto Bridge desperately trying to get a glimpse of all the beauty.

Non vedo l'ora per ritornare a Venezia.

Mia♡

5 Things I Love This Week.

1. Klab: If you are my friend on Facebook then you have seen me mention Klab a few times. It is the gym that I go to at least 4 days a week. It is literally 2 minutes walking distance from my house and I love it! Sure, it is super expensive, I registered when I had a pretty good income. Now it is my escape where I love to go to to let loose.

 2. FACE: Florentine Association for Culture Exchange, aka FACE is a group that puts events together for foreign students. The club is also open to anyone who wants to meet people from other countries and practice different languages. It's pretty cool cuz my roomie and I go to practice our Italian, sing at karaoke and have met some pretty nice people. It's nice to make some new friends since I lost pretty much all of my Via Lingua crew, except for Vicky. Everytime we get together it is a good time for sure. :)  

3. Adriana: is my new roomie that I've had now for about 3 weeks. She is here from Mexico studying architecture and likes to have a good time. Like no seriously, last week we went out 5 days in a row.  Well, she went out with me 4 out of the 5 times. lol. I'm glad she is our new roomie.  

 

4. Bag Tax: Anytime you go to the supermarket here you have to take a reusable bag. If not you are charged for every bag that you need. It's not much but of course everyone is trying to save some cents so we try to take our bags everytime. This is a nice way to be eco-friendly and is something we should consider doing back home.

5. Clean Streets: You would be surprised how clean Italy is. The streets are washed every night by these big machines, men go around picking up any trash seen around. It is beautiful. Italians know that they get most of their money from tourists and tourists like clean streets. More than that, they like having a clean home. Every night, without fail the streets are cleaned. I love it!

Mia♡