Final Project

My Final Photography project :)

Wind down Wednesday

Ugh. I don't even want to talk about this.. I am so sad to be leaving italy. :( it doesn't seem fair.. Almost like stealing candy from a baby!

Last night, Alyssa, Emily and I went to Red Garter and had a good time together. I'm really going to miss them!!! So lucky to have been set up with such great roomies.

Today was action packed. I woke up and made a trip to the Bardini Gardens which are near Boboli gardens. I finished shooting pictures for my Digital Photography final which is due tomorrow. I chose to do another series of Natural Landscape photos focusing on florals! I just love how beautiful the pictures of flowers come out! Today we printed some photos in class and tomorrow I get to print some more. I printed a big landscape shot, one from my skydiving trip, and one of a bicycle pedal that I took on the street one afternoon.Alyssa's parents got here last night, so I met up with them after my photography class (while devouring an ice cream bar) and we all made our way up to Piazza Michelangelo to show them the view. It was pretty... and pretty hot.

Wine tasting tonight was delicious, as usual. We focused on Sicilian wines and Marco made treats for us to accompany the wines. We had an assortment of foccaccia breads with yellow bell peppers, zucchini, grape tomatoes and herbs. We also had dinner scones, 3 year aged parmagiano cheeeeese - to die for! He also made dessert bites for us to go with the Moscato for our closing wine. After class was finished, my friends Ellen and Casey sat with me as we finished munching and drinking our wine. Julia, a girl from UNC, came and sat with us for the last 10 minutes as well. We took some pictures with Marco, shared a few laughs and our gratitude for his time and interest in our class, then we were on our ways home for the last time of the summer :(

Tomorrow is going to be busy but good. I am king to The Diner with Ellen to get breakfast while Alyssa and Emily are still sleeping. I want an early start to my last day here to be sure I can do everything I want to! I will head over to the News Cafe under my apartment to read a bit before heading into the photo lab to edit my final photos for my final project. Then before class starts, im heading back to the central market with Ellen for some cheese to bring home! :) Get excited mom & dad! I have my VERY LAST class from 1-3:30pm and plan on printing about 7 more pictures. Let me know if you have any preferences! Then I am going to come home, go buy some wine with Emily, grab pizza from Gusta and head back to Piazza Michelangelo with JP and Alyssa to watch our last sunset over Firenze. :'-(

My flight leaves at 9:45am on Friday morning, making my arrival in Miami at 5:30pm right on time after my 2hr layover in Zurich. Will post more pictures when I get home. Buono Notte :) xoxo

Pasta Palooza

I just got done with my critique for my photo projects and so far, so good. I went to Mercato Centrale (Central Market) around 11:30 with my friends Ellen and Casey from my wine tasting class. There is pasta for DAYS everywhere. Here are a few pictures of one of the displays.

Looks like candy!

Yum!!! Loads of Pasta

Spaghetti alla Peperoncini! 

Come Monday...

I just had a deeeeeelicious dinner at Acqua al Due! Alyssa, Emily and I had a pasta tasting of 5 small dishes of different surprise pastas. Then for my entree I got the famed Blueberry Filet which was sooooooo good. If I could put skydiving into a meal, this was it. It was cooked Medium Rare and served in a blueberry chutney type sauce. Yum. My deal I made with myself this week, which I think will be very difficult to carry through with, is to eat dessert every night this week. Tough call seeing as I am not a lover of sweets..... Right. ;)

I got the dessert sampler as advised by our waitress and Alyssa and Emily helped pick at it with me. Great meal!

Tomorrow I will be getting up earlier than usual to finish editing my portrait photos for class tomorrow and will be going to a small shop near the leather market to pick up a few things that I saw today while running errands for a few surprises! I also went to the Hard Rock to get Matthew a t-shirt to fulfill his birthday wish. A man only turns 16 once! :)

Buona Notte ;) xx

Falling out of Planes

Despite the fact that Lake Como was ab-so-lute-ly purrrrr-fect, today I went skydiving in Verona! Emily and I took the 11:00 AM train and were in Verona by 1:00 PM. We took a cab to the Aeropuorto Basicomonto (I think..) where we got the briefing and fitted for our suits. After a 65-year-old man drove us back into town to the Bancomat to take out cash since we failed to notice that they didn't accept credit cards. Dumb Americanos....

It was AMAZING!!!!  A 6 1/2 minute dive including an approx. 50 second freefall covering 1.5 miles, and then a 5 minute hangtime to see everything from the sky. As soon as I landed, I wanted to get back into the plane and jump again! Weather was clear skies and my instructor spoke practically zero English. Comforting :) Surprisingly I wasn't nervous... at all. Not even kidding. I was so ready to fall out of the plane it is a bit unnerving looking back on it. Emily was ready to stay on the plane for landing, but found her courage and hopped out after me.

We made our way back into Verona to see Casa Capuletti (Juliet's home), Juliet's balcony, the statue of Juliet - I rubbed her boob for luck with love, of course. We also saw the Verona Arena and then hopped on the train to come home.

Alyssa, Emily and I are going to dinner at ZaZa and then out for a drink at Fish Pub. They have been annoying us with flyers the entire time we are here, but they have cheap, cheap drinks = we will give it a shot.

Here's a sneak peek at SkyDive Verona ;)

Last Weekend in Italy

Although I'm anxiously awaiting Sunday Funday in Gainesville with my friends at UF, it is a bittersweet feeling to know that this is my last weekend in Italy.... After this comes a few days of classes, a photography final - that should be a real arm twister - and then my 9:40 AM flight home.

After a long day of walking around Bellagio at Lake Como this morning and then catching the train back to Florence, I am tired. I got home and immediately unpacked with the thought in the back of my head that in 5 days, I have to pack it all up. For good. Emily, JP and I went to Galto for dinner again tonight. The full name of the restaurant translates to "The cat and the wolf". I had the Spaghetti e Pomodoro Fresco (fresh tomato sauce) and chianti.

Tomorrow, Em and I are waking up & going to grab our train tickets to Verona. We are leaving here at 11:00 AM to arrive in Verona around 1:00 PM to go skydiving (weather permitting as it has been raining on and off), have lunch, and to see Juliet's wall. We are watching Letters to Juliet on the train ride there tomorrow. Emily has never seen it before!!!! Crazy. I love the movie :)

Here are some pictures as promised from our weekend in Varenna on Lake Como. It was perfect!!!

View from our Balcony

Our Room!

View from our Balcony during the Morning

By the Ferry Harbor

Birds of prey at Castello di Vezio

Emily at the Gardens of Villa Monastero

Fountain in the Gardens

Small chapel at the end of the Gardens

Cappuccino to warm me up after the rainy drizzle

Where we ate dinner in Bellagio for our three course meal with matching wines for tasting!

Olives and Sparkling White wine

Pinot Grigio and Green Lasagna

Salute!

Delicioussss yummy!!!!

Lake Como looking down the Southwest Fork

From the Ferry looking into Bellagio

Muffin and a Cappuccino at the Milano Centrale Train Stazione

P.S.

I almost forgot to mention that during our hike up to Casetllo di Vezio, once we realized that we had missed the main road, we tried stopping a few cars to ask them which switchback housed the cut through foot path. After about six cars passed us, one finally stopped with an older Italian couple. Once they mumbled some Italian to us that I semi understood, they offered to drive us up the road to the path. With the thought half-baked, we hopped right in. Luckily they didn't kidnap us or steal our money like the stories you hear, much less did they look capable of even turning around in their seats, but truth be told, we hitch hiked in Italy.

That's one for the books.