warning, long entry ahead

This will be long, but worth it...I promise!

To cover in this entry: 

1. Gabby's birthday dinner
2. ROME
3. Chocolate festival

....So, here goes nothing! 

So last Wednesday night, me and 10 of our other girlfriends went out for Gabby's birthday dinner! We went to a fairly famous restaurant, Il Latini, which happens to be located directly next to my school. When I say I have never been so full in my entire life, I literally mean it. 

For a fixed price of 35 Euros a person, we each got appetizers, primer patti (first course), main course, dessert and unlmited wine/water. Having never experienced a full Italian meal, I was excited to sample some new and exciting foods and began to stretch out my stomach for what was sure to be a meal to remember. 

Appetizers consisted of tomato and mozzarella, prosciutto [sad to say that after 20 years of never having ham, I made a game time decision and tasted it...not a fan], chicken liver [yes mom and dad, I actually tried it and enjoyed it, aren't you proud?!] and bread with delicious olive oil. 

About 10 minutes later, they swiftly brought out the next course: penne with meat sauce, ravioli with tomato sauce, a vegetable minestrone that was unlike any other soup i've had before [apparently they add bread to their soups to make them a bit more thick - great idea for picky eaters like me], and a meat soup. I really need to work on pacing myself if I'm going to be spending the next 3 months of my life eating like this...I was basically full after this course.

But like a champion, I continued on. The wait staff emerged from the kitchen bearing plates of potatoes, spinach covered in garlic [if you know me at all, you should know that the prospect of huge cloves of garlic makes me giddy with happiness], and a HUGE platter of meat. 

                                     

There was roast beef, chicken, turkey, steak, veal, ham, lamb, pork...you name it and they had it. 

Overwhelmed to say the least, I piled my plate up with a small sampling of [kosher] meats and went to town. 

And just when I thought my stomach couldn't stretch any further, they brought out dessert, aka the ONE course I will never be able to refuse. After a small sampling of  italian flan, chocolate mousse, apple pie, fried dough and the like, I threw in the towel and called it a night. 

We were showered with dessert wine, champagne, limoncello and grapa [note to all of my loyal readers: do not drink grapa. while i've never had lighter fluid, I would imagine it tastes similar].


 3 hours, 6 pounds and 8 plates later we were FINALLY ready to emerge. The walk waddle home took twice as long as the walk there, but I left satiated and happy. 


Sidenote: I didn't eat a single meal until dinner the next day. I didn't realize it was possible to remain full for that long, but apparently it is! All in all, 35 Euros very well spent!!


Next Topic: ROME!

Friday morning, Devon and I made the trek to the train station circa 9AM to begin our first excursion to the lovely city of Rome. After a semi-close call making our first connection, we were relieved to finally be on our 3 hour train to rome [note: it's only about an hour and a half away but, being poor/stingy study abroad students, we decided to take the more economical option]. We made it to our hostel and met up with our other friends only to find out, gasp, our hostel is overbooked and we can't stay there ...cue slight panic attack. 

Luckily, they knew of an opening in another nearby hostel, so we headed there. Much to our surprise, we actually were put in a 3 bedroom hostel that was about 2 blocks from the metro. Devon and I had a room to ourselves and the other 4 were put in the adjacent room. Best part: each room had its own bathroom! Only complaint: the incredibly tiny size of the room [see above--> the room literally was the length of devon's wingspan]. After we dropped our stuff off, we were on our way, eager not to waste a single moment of our 2 day trip.  A few things I learned from my first hostel experience: 1) walls are deceivingly thin..don't expect to get a lot of sleep with noisy neighbors 2)PACK LIGHT - i didn't enjoy lugging around my >20 pound vera bradley duffel all weekend 3) bring a towel and a pillow because they will [and do] charge you extra for any/everything you forget. Oof! 

Having been to Rome before, I quickly adopted the 'fearless leader role' and led the pack, pretending to know where I was going. Whether it was luck or fate, I successfully navigated us to the Colosseum [we got there at 4 but it was already closed...wompwomp], the Trevi Fountain [pictured above], the Spanish Steps [pictured to the left], Piazza del Popollo [think the famous piazza with tons of pigeons and live entertainers] and then back to our hostel. The weather was absolutely incredible [65 and sunny] and we truly couldn't have picked a better weekend to travel. Later that night we went out to a popular area called Campo de Feuri [incorrect spelling, sorry] and I ended up crossing paths with a friend of mine that works as a club promoter at a late night club, Mood. Tired and delirious, we caught a cab back to our hostel and  promptly passed out in under 5 minutes.

Again eager to not waste a moment in Rome, we trekked back to the Colosseum and took a long and interesting tour inside. It's impossible to explain how massive the site is, but I enjoyed every moment of it. I found it particularly interesting that the entire Colosseum was built by Jewish slaves [pretty cool that it was built by my people but not so cool that they were enslaved]. After the tour, Devon and I decided to go back to Piazza de Popollo and eat/rest for a bit. We witnessed a 'flash mob' volleyball game in the middle of the piazza, as well as befriended a few authentic italians [who, for added detail, turned out to be incredibly creepy and started asking us if we wanted to get pizza or coffee with them]. 

Newly energized from a big Roman lunch, we set off to find the Borghese gardens. Lined with the most beautiful trees you will ever see [see above], we spent about 2 and a half hours wandering the pathways of this beautiful 'hidden' park. We also stumbled upon a duck pond and a miniature carnival. It was a great way to spend the afternoon and our last full day in Rome.

  

Next we  got a great dinner and then headed back home to get ready for the evening's events. We decided to check out Trestevere, a popular going out destination for people in our age group.

 It was awesome and we had a great time, but we were all so exhausted from the days events that we turned in early.  For our last day, we headed to a Vincent Van Gogh exhibit that we had seen advertised all weekend.  To say the least, it was absolutely incredible. Sadly we weren't allowed to take photos, so I don't have anything to share.  But some of the most memorable pieces were a few of his self portraits,  4 aging men and this unbelievable cypress tree painting . Even though I'm not very knowledgeable about art history, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing his paintings in real life. His style was so unique and unlike any other paintings I've ever seen. After a few hours there, we headed back towards the Coloseum to wait for our 6pm train. We found some steps to relax on and sat in the sun, enjoying one last serving of Gelato and taking in the beauty of the colossal building before us.  Devon and I didn't get a chance to visit the Vatican or St. Peter's Basilica, so we'll definitely be going back for another Roma adventure at some point during the semester! 

 Ciao Roma!!

Almost done...hang in there!!

So for the past 2 weeks, everyone in Firenze has been raving about a Chocolate festival. Anybody that knows me knows that I'm utterly in love with ciocollate, so the prospect of a whole piazza filled with it excited me immensely! Conveniently enough, it's located in Santa Croce [5 minutes away from my apartment] and so after class today, Devon, Brigit and I went over to check it out. HEAVEN...not sure how else to describe it. Chocolate covered bananas, nuts, jellies, peanut butter [ew]..you name it and they had it. This festival brought new meaning to the phrase death by chocolate...take a look below! 

I'm salivating just reliving it through the photos....

so basically, firenze is incredible. i enjoy every day more than the last and i can't believe that i've been here for a month [on wednesday!] having said that, i miss everyone at home a lot and i'm ineffably excited to show my parents around florence this weekend. lots of love to everyone and thanks for reading, as always!!