Chocolates and Catholics

This weekend was yet another eventful one. On Friday the USAC group went to Assisi for a tour of the beautiful limestone town and gigantic cathedral. After a quick lunch and gelato we went to Perugia for a short tour and CHOCOLATE FESTIVAL. I felt inclined to eat as much chocolate as I possibly could, and lets just say I did my part. I can die.

We walked around and looked at the many stands, there were plenty to choose from. I kept my eye out for certain things and made note to return to certain booths. We stopped inside a café and Marco suggested we try a chocolate cake. We tried a hazelnut/chocolate cupcake thing that was quite delicious. We also tried a white chocolate one, but I was not as much of a fan of that one. My first purchase was chocolate pasta with fresh strawberries and powdered sugar. The actual pasta wasn’t that flavorful, but the combination of the strawberries and chocolate made me happy. Ricardo got chocolate pasta with white chocolate sauce. I wish I bought that one; it was like heaven in the mouth.

My next stop was for a chocolate banana, which was my favorite. I have a new thing for banana and chocolate. I don’t know what it is. It was just love at first taste. Ricardo tried a chocolate kebab, which I tried a lot of, and afterwards I thought I was defeated by chocolate, but no, not yet. I tried small pieces of other chocolates, Ricardo had to get some Venezuelan chocolate, and that stuff was dark and rich…I also tried a Bracio, with some sort of nut in it, and dark hazlenut chocolate from Torino. That one tasted like nutella and was delicious! At this point my stomach was mad at me. I still had wanted hot chocolate, but I wasn’t sure if I could handle it. I tried some other hot chocolates, and they were THICK, like chocolate soup. I wasn’t going to go through with it, but Jeff bought me a mint hot chocolate with whipped cream and I just had to do it. It was really thick and rich. Like eating chocolate clam chowder thick. I almost finished it but I couldn’t push myself to do it.

That night was the first night in FOREVER that I felt like I was actually going to vomit.


On Saturday Gaby, one of my roommates that I am in love with, and I went to the Vatican! We made a reservation for 1pm and we were able to walk past the long line and straight into the museum. The museum was amazing; there was so much to take in. After twenty-minutes I felt exhausted. We got to see the Sistine Chapel and we just sat and stared up for 10 minutes. I love Michelangelo.

Gaby wanted to go to the Hard Rock Café in Rome for American like food, and I had never been to a Hard Rock before so I decided I would let her take me on a date there.
I didn’t realize how caught up I had been in certain aspects of Italian culture until I entered that restaurant. It was a typical American restaurant, and the smell of fries and the English-speaking tourists threw me off. It made me actually miss those typical restaurants that I was so sick of before I left. It’s difficult to explain exactly how I felt while I was there, but I know that the first week or two when I return things are going to feel weird. Not saying “grazie” and “ciao”, just silly, basic things that I do everyday now and that have become habit that will be irrelevant in just two short months.



pictures to come!

Heart Of Italy, and possibly the longest post ever.

SO much to update! Since I have the memory of a 90-year-old man, the details of all the details I need to share will be somewhat vague. So sorry.
Last weekend I met up with Kevin in Roma. It was very good to see someone from home. We were pretty excited to see each other. I showed him Ancient Rome and my favorite buildings. We watched the sun set at the Coliseum. We then headed to the Trevi Fountain…since I hadn’t made my wish yet. I wanted to see it at night, and I was so excited when we found it. It’s beautiful. We made our wishes, but I don’t remember what mine was. Probably to come back to Italy.
The next day we met up with Kevin’s cousin Dara and her husband Adam. Adam does tricks on dirt bikes. Skillllllzzzzz. It was a lot of fun to see, and even more exciting to see in ROMA.
It was really good to see Kevin, but it made me miss home, a lot. I almost cried. Almost. When the family called on Sunday, I almost cried again when I heard Bret’s voice. I love you guys.
On Monday we headed out for our Field Study in Tuscany. Our first stop was in Cortona, where the “Under The Tuscan Sun” took place. It was such a cute town. It reminded me of Carmel by the Sea. We saw a monastery, and got a short tour from a local professor. We got lunch and gelato. Gelato. Gelato. Gelato. I tried to stay away from it for the first month because I knew I would be completely hooked. Now I am addicted and need a daily fix.
Tuscany is very beautiful. It is very touristy though, which takes away from the beauty…just a little. It has a name to live up to. I understand why so many people want to visit the region, but I wish I didn’t hear everyone around me speaking English.
After an afternoon in Cortona, we headed to Florence, which is where we would be staying the entire week. I didn’t really know what I expected, but it was nothing like I had pictured it. It is very flat in comparison to many of the towns I have visited. It was much smaller than I had pictured also. I loved it though. We checked into our hotel and then had a group dinner. We hung out on the Old Bridge and looked at the river. We walked around Florence, and tried to find more Gelato.
On Tuesday we headed to Lucca, another small town in Toscana, its city walls are perfectly intact. The town was a base for the German’s during the war, so the walls weren’t damaged. The wall is huge, and until recently people could drive on top of them. Now you can ride bikes around the entire thing. Lucca has hundreds of churches within the city walls. All of them are extravagant. During the Renaissance, Napolean Bonaparte’s sister came to Lucca. She didn’t like how dark and boring the town was, so she added trees and made the buildings brighter. We had a tour around Lucca, and then we had lunch at a little restaurant. The food was delish. We didn’t have much time after lunch so we didn’t get to explore much, but I liked what I saw.
We headed to Pisa afterwards. LEANING TOWER! We went inside the baptistery and the cathedral next to the tower. The field of miracles, as it is called, is really pretty, but Pisa wasn’t the prettiest. You can still climb the tower, for 15 euro. Looking at it was good enough for me. I am glad I was able to see it. Its amazing that there are so many different cultures out there, but everybody does the exact same picture when they come to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
We went back to Florence that evening, and had another amazing meal and probably more Gelato.
The next day we got to go to the Uffizi gallery. The Medici family, had a huge art collection, when their reign came to an end, the last daughter made the gallery open to the public. They have Michelangelo, Raphael, Da Vinci, Boticelli and EVERYTHING. It was exhausting, but I love art museums (another thing we have in common, dad). After the Uffizi gallery we went to a self serve lunch. As I was eating I started to realize that my nose was extra runny and my body was extra exhausted. My room mate Gaby had been struggling with a cold at the beginning of the week, and I knew it was inevitable that I would be by the end of the week. After lunch it was time for SHOPPING. Florence is famous for street markets and leather. I needed a purse to hold my secrets, and new sunglasses to protect my soul. I wanted to try bargaining a little bit, also. I found a new pair of sunglasses, but paid the 5-euro for them because I didn’t really know how to go about that one. Jessica, Cara, and I found a purse stand that we liked. The guy wasn’t extra pushy, so we hung out a while and looked at leather purses. He told us to take our time, and that if we all got purses he would give us a “friend discount” I ended up getting a small bag for 15 euro, 3 euro less than it originally was. I bargained with him on one purse a little bit…it was pretty funny. Jessica is good at it; I was glad that I was with her. We went back to the hotel happy campers. At this point though, my body was aching and screaming at me. We went shopping a little more, and then right before dinner I was really feeling sick so I went back to the hotel to take a quick nap. A quick nap turned into bedtime.
The next day I didn’t feel any better. I was not excited. We went to Academia, where we saw Michelangelo’s DAVID. It was by far the most amazing pieces of art I have ever seen. I just stared at it for a long time. The detail is incredible.
While I was sick, I could not taste anything. That is probably the worst thing that could happen to anyone while they are in ITALY. There are so many tasteful foods to be had! I bought small paninis with bland ingredients because I didn’t want to waste my money on food that can’t be appreciated.
We climbed the Duomo. 457 steps up to the most amazing view of Florence. It was worth it. So worth it. Kim, whose photos I am using, since I am still without camera, went at sunset, and watched it…amazing. We walked down the steps and everyone got gelato. Ryan accidentally got black licorice gelato. Since I couldn’t taste it I ate some…the whole time thinking how much I would be throwing up if I could actually taste it.
That night we went out to dinner, and I was on a mission to get minestrone. I found some good stuff at the restaurant we ate at. I couldn’t taste it at all, but it was magical, because I felt amazing afterwards. It cured me! We went dancing that night, and I only got 4 and half hours of sleep, and I felt great the next day! Did I just find the cure for the common cold? Probably not.

On Friday Morning we checked out of the hotel early and headed to Siena. Siena was probably my favorite town. The giant piazza is amazing. We had a short tour, and we visited the most amazing Church I have ever seen. It was almost entirely marble inside. Afterwards we went to lunch and I had the most amazing appetizer. Marco, the program assistant and food expert suggested we try it. It was ewe’s cheese with pear sauce. It looked interesting, but tasted EXQUISITE.
We went and lied down in the piazza, and I pretty much fell asleep. It was quite the relaxing day. We made it home safely, and now I just have a lot of sniffles and a small cough…but I am alive and happy!

Well, sorry this one is so long…its kind of hard to pack all the details into one posting. MISS YOU GUYS!