Day 9!

Hello everyone!

Today we had drawing class and learned great things. We made our first drawing with ink. We each copied a postcard and then inked our drawings so that they were our artistic rendering. I love mine!!!

After that we went to the oil shoppe again and I had another bosco sandwhich. Which consisted of prosciutto, mushrooms, and truffle sauce.

After that I went on a wonderful run across the river to a lookout where we could see all of Florence. I went with Remington and katrina. It was such a great run. I would love to do it again. We also made our way to a tour guide office where we signed up for a day trip to chianti this Saturday where we do a hike and wine tasting.

After that I was locked out of my room so I went with Eduardo and David to get gelato. At grom I got strawberry (frogola) and lemon (limone). It was so good!

Then I got ready and read for art history tomorrow and went out to eat with remy, katrina, Caroline, Alicia, Eduardo, David, and Kyle. We had dantes again. Because it's so good. But this time I had gnocchi with sausage and truffle cream and green beans with garlic and chilis. Oh and free wine! Hehe

I'm feeling good before I'm about to go to bed. Ehh art history at 9 am tomorrow morning. Wish me luck!!

Our view:





Love,
Alyssa




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Location:Via Camillo Cavour,Florence,Italy

Day 8!

Hello!

Today we woke up around 8 and a huge group made our way to Venice Italy on the train. It was a nice two hour ride on which I slept. =) nothing happened to us like yesterday which is good.

Once we got here we decided to walk to San Marco square. It was a long walk but it was nice because we saw a lot of the city that way. A group of four of us girls got separated from the group because I guess I walk a little too fast. Again I acted as the person that gets us in the right direction with the map. So madison, shea, Jessica and I got separated and found San Marco square and the basilica. We took pictures. Here is one of the gondolas.



Then we got hungry so we found a sandwich shop that was recommended in a book. The sandwiches were made and pressed in the panini maker. They had focaccia bread and were delicious. I had one with prosciutto, Brie and arugula.

I also found a sweets shop with tiramisu and cream puffs. It looked so good I decided to get both. Hey you only live once!! We continued back to san Marco to eat next to the many pigeons that fill the square.

Then we didn't no what to do so we did what girls do best...shop. I got lots of beautiful things made by the owner of their respective shops. We also stopped at a recommended gelato place called boutique di gelato. It was my favorite one thus far. It was so creamy and perfect! I had tiramisu, caffe and nicciolato (hazelnut). So good!!
Here is a picture of me with some gondolas...it's a little dark.


Now I'm on the water boat cruising along the grand canal making our way back to the train station. Another 2 hour train ride ahead. Let's hope I can sleep through it!
It's been a long weekend but has been very worth it!

I love you all!
Alyssa

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Location:Sestiere Santa Croce,Venice,Italy

Day 7.

Hello!

So today I woke up at 8 and went to Siena with some of the girls. We got our tickets the day before and made our way onto the train. Once we already got going we were told to give up our tickets to the conductor. She then proceeded to say that we needed to have gotten them validated before hand and had to pay 40 euro each for "our" mistake. Even though we had no clue we had to do it. So that was quite a damper on our day.

But we spent the day walking all around beautiful Siena. We went to piazza del campo and saw big brick buildings and huge churches. All by small winding streets with green shutters and a Tuscan style. There were houses with flower boxes on their window seals and lines drying clothing. We also bought a pass that was 10 euro and we were able to see the inside of the duomo, baptistry, crypts and 3 museums. It was fun and very pretty. We also went to lunch and had a wonderful meal. I had a pasta with mushrooms and sausage that was great.

We then proceeded to head home and boarded the train with no problems. Ironically even we were never even asked for our tickets.

When we got home we headed over to this weekends gelato festival. It is wonderful! You can get 5 gelatos for 4 euro. What a wonderful weekend to be here.

After that I finished reading the amazing book, Redeeming Love. I cried it was so good! Then we went to dinner for the 2nd time at il gato y volpa and I had chicken with lemon and capers and mushrooms. Soooooo good!! Then we went back to the gelato festival and got gelato. It's even more fun at night because people from everywhere came for the fest and were just strolling around the streets. The people love to window shop here.

Tomorrow morning is another packed day where the group is headed to Venice!!

Love you and miss you,
Alyssa



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Location:Piazza Il Campo,Sienna,Italy

Day 6

Hello!!

Today has been another beautiful day in firenze (the Italian version of Florence). This morning we woke up for our 9 am class. We made our way to our studio and spent the morning learning drawing techniques. We built a grid for us to use when we draw. We also drew a still life of a watering can, table, bottle, globe, and mirror. These techniques that I'm learning are wonderful and extremely helpful.

After that a few of us girls went in search for another cheap sandwich shop called casa di vino. I had a prosciutto, Brie and ricotta sandwich with white savignon wine.

After that Madison and I venture to the central market. This market was unbelievable. Literally a three story building filled with fresh produce, meat, cheese, wine and dried fruits. The worlds biggest farmers market I would say. =) it was heaven. I got some wonderful dried strawberries and mangos. There is also a huge outdoor market of leather, scarves, and other merchant goods. We also stopped by a store on the way home that I got a big jug of mango juice that is absolutely delicious.

We came back to rest for a bit. I continued reading my book. Then a bunch of us went to the train station to figure out our weekend plans. A bunch of us girls are going to Siena tomorrow for the day. And then almost the whole group is going to Venice on Sunday. I'm excited for all the traveling!

On our way home we stopped by the gelato festival that is going on this weekend. I got 5 gelato passes for 4 euro and used the first for a coffee gelato Popsicle. It was strong but good. =)

Now we are just relaxing again until the next adventure. I hope you are all doing well. I'm doing great. Everyone is getting along well and I'm having an awesome time. But I do miss you all and love you all very much!!

Love,
Alyssa


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Location:Via Camillo Cavour,Florence,Italy

Day 5!!

Hi everyone!!
So as of right now everyones wifi is no longer working. So I had to use my handy resources aka the iPhone to find a wonderful way to blog my loved ones.

Today was another beautiful day in Florence. Although there were tourist groups everywhere and it did rain for like a second.

I slept in today until like noon. Haha I guess I am still adjusting to the time change. But it was nice to just relax.

Then Madison and I decoded to go out shopping/looking around because our rooms were getting cleaned. So we went to get lunch first because I was hungry. We went to a little cart that is next door to an outdoor marketplace that sells lampridotto. You are probably wondering what this is...well lampridotto is a special lining of a cows stomach and is more tender than tripe. They put it on a sandwich with some spread and it was wonderful. Madison did not like the texture but I liked it. =) ps lampridotto is famous for being only available in Florence.

Then we decided we wanted to buy pendants of the ancient romain florentine coin. So I found a wonderful little one that is made of bronze with silver outlining it. And a beautiful silver chain. This store was located on the pointe vecchio aka the old bridge. Which has been around for a very long time and used to house butchers until a Medici decided it smelled too bad and jewelers moved in. Jewelers have occupied the area ever since.

Then we went to the boboli gardens. This is the gardens located through the pitti palace. They were huge and very beautiful. We walked the length of the gardens and I decided to stay, draw and read. Madison went back to the room.

I had to rush back to take a shower before class. We met at the bottom of the bell tower of the duomo. We learned all about the history of the duomo and the baptistry. So interesting!!

Then a bunch of us girls and some guys went to get gelato of course. I had tiramisu, caffe e pistacchio. Delicious!

I spent the evening reading and hanging out indoors talking to people. Now it's night time!

I love you all!!
Alyssa


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Day 3-4!

Hi everyone!

So sorry that it took me a day to get this up, but I am having problems with internet.  I was "stealing" a wireless free network that I found, and i think they found out and shut me out of it.  Now I don't have wifi on my computer so I am just gonna use my roommates computers.

So Day 3...what happened?! As you can probably tell we were out a little late on Monday Night, so i slept on Tuesday until like 12:30.  By the time I got up and showered it was already halfway through the day.  My roommate Madison and I decided that we were hungry and wanted to try on the lunch places that was mentioned in my travel book.  So we followed it to a restaurant called mario.  It ended up being a small restaurant filled with Tuscaners.  They sat us at a table with 2 random Italians, and I went on a whim and ordered pasta with duck sauce which ended up being fabulous. My roommate got pasta with red sauce that she said was good but definitely not as good as mine.  I would for sure go back there again.

After that we went to the supermarket for miscellaneous necessities, and to the pharmacy for some nasal spray.  As I mentioned before I got pink eye, but not to worry it is almost gone! As for my allergies though I am still struggling. Our professor, Pupa, said that the dust here tends to irritate a lot of people.  I got medicine for it though and just am working through it.  After that my roommate and I just went to get the textbook we had to buy for our art history class at a place called paperback exchange which is a bookstore filled with american books and italian books with good prices.  Our textbook was 30 euro and we are sharing it! 

At 4 pm we had to meet for art history class at a column in the Piazza della Repubblica.  There we learned all about the history of the square.  I am completely fascinated by the fact that we were able to learn history from 200 BC to 1895 AD all in one piazza in Florence.  People enter this main piazza every day without ever knowing the amazing things that we were able to learn.  We sat at the very center of the city for our lecture.  Then we moved along to the piazza della signoria where we learned about the fort-like structure that housed the republic that was formed in the 1200s.  We also heard that one of the famous statues in the front of the building, Herculus and Cacus, was called "sac of potatoes" by the Florentines back in the day because of the way the artist depicted the human body. Ha!

After class a bunch of the girls on the trip made our way to a very popular gelato store called GROM, where I enjoyed caffe e pistacchio gelato.  Very yummy.  Then we came back to the apartment for a little bit to hang out before going to dinner.  I have been designated the person to get us to places by looking at a map (I'm not sure if this suprises any of you, but I am actually very good at directions here).  We went to a leisurely dinner with 9 of us here.  We had bruschetti italiano, and prosciutto e melone for antipasti.  Then I enjoyed gnocchi 4 cheeses.  We all drank house wine and were given lemoncello to sip at the end of the meal.  For all of our meal it cost us 100 euro for 9 people! 

We were having too much fun, so we decided to continue the party by going to a karaoke bar called The Old Stove.  The girls (including me) decided to sing "This Love" by Maroon 5 and we had another group of us that sang a Backstreet Boys song.  Everyone loved it! We met up with kids from Pepperdine that a few of the LMU girls knew at this karaoke bar and it ended up being a fun night.

Drawing class was this morning at 9 AM, and it wasnt too much of a struggle to wake up and shower.  Class was fun, I already learned techniques that I can use to greatly improve my drawing.  He said that with the few techniques we learned today we can draw anything we could ever want, now drawing it well is another story haha! Our assignment for Friday is to draw any 2 objects so I think I will go out and sit somewhere to draw something.  

After class Madison, Kyle, and I went to another restaurant one of our guide books suggested called Il Trattitore where I munched on a sandwich with prosciutto, goat cheese, basil (yum!) and wine for only 4 euro!! Life here is so cheap and wonderful! Walking everywhere is hopefully keeping me fit.  And Im hoping that I will do a little running along the way.  After lunch we did a little shopping, and I read our art history textbook readings.

I hope everyone is doing wonderful!!

I love you all!

Alyssa

The Rest of Day 2!

Hi!!!

So we met with our art history professor and he is super nice. He lives here and actually just had a baby girl 2 days ago! Tomorrow for class we dont have to meet until 4 pm!! So we get a while to hang out and do what we want. We walked around the city a little with him and he pointed out a few notable spots that we will be seeing very often and learning a lot more about. As I said before the tour will take place by following him into museums and centers while he lectures and we take notes on the history he provides. To help with this we are given touristy looking earpiece/walkytalky things and we are able to hear him perfectly in our ear!

After that my roommate Maddy and I went to the pharmacy and I got Claritin (my allergies have been crrrrazy here!) and pink eye drops (I woke up with crust pink eyes- ewww!). We then made our way back to the hotel and I fell asleep for 30 minutes until we had to meet up for another group dinner.

We all went to a place that is highly recommended by many people called Il Gato e La Volpe. We had a wonderful meal starting with amazing bread, then Antipasti: 1) buffalo mozzarella, tomatoes, and artichokes (aka mom you would have loved it minus the artichokes ha), 2) cold cuts of prosciutto, turkey, and salami, 3) Bruschetta half with tomatoes and the other half with mushrooms, followed by our main course: 1) vegetarian risotta with red sauce, 2) gnocchi with meatballs (yummmm), 3) penne with broccoli and white sauce, then to finish with dessert of Tiramisu, of course. It was a wonderful meal and good times getting to know everyone.

Then more than half of us went to a little bar hopping. We went to one called Rex where we sipped some not so good wine (Mom and Dad you have spoiled me with good wine...I can tell when something is cheap hahah) and then we went to a random Irish Pub called Finnegans where the people are very nice and apparently on Wednesday they are having a Trivia Night.

We all then came back to our rooms for the night!

So tomorrow I think I will explore the city quite a bit more and really get to know what I'm up against. Seeing as we dont have class until 4 pm!

Love,

Alyssa

Day 2 in Firenze: Orientation

Hi!!

So today we woke up at 9:30 AM and made our way to the school where we will be only having some classes: Syracuse University Florence. The rest of our classes will be held in a studio that is close to the school or out in the city. Our art history class will take place on site at various museums and landmarks! There is no in class room lecture, it is all at different sites! We had a small orientation saying safety tips and other key things to know. All pretty general.

But in the packet there were a few helpful things like a map of different places that I student made after he studied abroad here. So a group of us decided to follow it to a sandwich shop he suggested called The Oil Shoppe. I had a yummy sandwich called Brosco that had prosciutto, mushrooms, cheese, and truffle oil ( mom I know what you are thinking--i am my mothers daughter =) ). It was so good!!

A group of us broke off to try to find the Pucci store. The reason for this is because a kid on the trip, Kyle, his great uncle owned the store in Florence until he died! We found it but it was closed for siesta. I came back to the apartment after sipping on a nice lemon soda.

Dre (One of my roommates) and I decided that we wanted to go running. So we went out and ran around through the streets, and found a gym. We got a tour of it but found out a month membership was 90 euro, which we didnt want to pay for so I think I will just keep running in the streets.

It is such a beautiful sunny day out. The kids on the trip are great so far, and I am having a fun time. Soon we will be meeting in front of the Duomo (which is right down the street from our apartment) to meet our art history instructor and get our syllabus for the class, and later tonight we will be having another group dinner.

I love you all and miss you!!

Love,

Alyssa

The rest of the night

Hello..

We went to the pizzaria with the whole group it was called yellow bar. I had spaghetti alla carbonara and it was delicious! I sat with my new roommates and we bonded a little more.

We then walked as a group through the streets, stopping at various historical spots to hear a quick lecture from our teacher, and continuing on to get my first gelato on this trip! I had a wonderful cup of hazelnut and tiramisu.

We heard more stories about the wealthy Medici family who created an above ground hallway in the archways to escape the mafia. And we went to the bridge where a man was playing guitar for an audience of many. We later found out that he was singing in italian about the people walking by and making fun of them. I wished I knew Italian and could be in on the joke.

The bridge holds small shops of gold and silver jewelry shops that are famous in Tuscany.

My roommates and the boys on the trip then split off from the group and explored the streets a little. We strolled just as our Tuscan bypassers, and enjoyed the night like so many did. People are out at night to just be.

My roommates bought some wine to drink all together.

First day was a success, orientation is tomorrow morning at 9:30 and we have a tour guided by our art history professor at 4.

Love,

Alyssa

Arrival in Tuscany!

Hi Family and Friends!!!

I am here in Tuscany! After 2 long flights I have arrived and am already getting to know the place.

I took a flight from LAX to NYC and slept a lot of the way, and on the plane the lady that sat next to me was from Honolulu. She was an older lady and liked to talk. I think she thought she was being motherly by telling me to drink my water, but I didnt mind.

I waited in the NYC airport for 5 hours. I got myself some buffalo wings and headed to the sky club lounge where I proceeded to read the book that Hannah gave me called Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers. It is a beautiful love story and I am already half way through with it! Girls...it is a must read.

When I got to Pisa my bag arrived out of the baggage claim with a huge rip and my clothes spilling out. It's okay though my clothes were all there and I still managed to carry it to the car. A nice man named Paulo picked me up through a car service and took me to Tuscany. The drive explored beautiful, luscious green valleys and cute old tuscan villas.

When I arrived at Residence Cavour it didnt look like much on the street. But once I entered my apartment I saw a beautiful living room, kitchen, room, and loft. I am living with 5 other girls and we are getting along great! We already made a trip to the supermarket to stock up in cereal for the morning. We also did a little research and found a great gym that is a 15 minute walk, so we decided to walk there but it happened to be closed. The city is very sleepy on Sundays. The walk was nice though so it was worth it.

We will be going out soon for a group dinner/orientation with everyone. We will be going to a pizzaria.

Unfortunately I forgot to bring the cord to be able to upload pictures, but I will try to post on this as frequent as possible.

Spread the address of this blog to anyone that you would think wants to know what I'm up to!

Love,

Alyssa