Heading Towards the Weekend!

So this weekend is sure to be one of most fun, and memorable… I’m going to VENICE!!!! And it wont be just like any other trip, this weekend is the kick off to a lovely little known holiday as Carnivale!! EKKKK I’m so pumped to wear a mask and get lost in the mazes of Venice! *funny story though: my friend Shelley, is terrified of masks. She is literally freaking out about this trip because everyone will be wearing masks all the time! She jokes about bringing a few bottles of wine to get her through the weekend but I’m thinking we might actually need them! Haha


But for an update on this week: It has been the same ole class and working out and drinking wine. In my event planning class, our final project is to plan the farewell party for the FUA faculty and students. It’s a huge job and has been great experience for me! Even though our teacher is alittle tricky because she won’t give us very many details, I guess that is how it will be in the real world one day! Anywho, our class is spilt up to brainstorm theme and vision ideas. My group came up with 2 main ideas: A Greek gods/goddess toga like party, and a Vintage/old and new world theme! I love them both and really hope one of our themes gets chosen!

Also, today I had my wonderful Italian class! We made amazing food today! Side note-all my food pics are on facebook under the album Food for Thought! Continuing though, today in class we made FROM SCRATCH gnocchi with fresh basil pesto and a seared duck breast with a chocolate sauce and sautéed apples!


My duck was alittle stubborn. At first my heat was too high, so I nearly burned the skin, then when I flipped it, it was cooking too quick again so I had to put it in the oven so that I wouldn’t burn it. Well the oven felt hot but wasn’t actually on, so that slowed my process down abit. But it was all made up when Chef said my food was good and my presentation was perfect! I was glowing! Overall, I lacked alittle salt in my gnocchi(totally surprise to me because I love salt) but no one makes a dish for the first time perfectly, so next time will be better!

Well I have a big Italian quiz tomorrow so I’m off to study (daddy would be proud)! Can’t wait to tell you all about Venice!

Siena and Sunny Skies:))

Well despite being sick and wanting to rip my nose from my face, I managed to make some fun out of this weekend! We started in Siena. Known for Palazzo del Campo, which is a shell shaped plaza. It was beautifully quaint yet busy with students and kids basking in the sun.


Its been rainy here in Firenze for a few days so the sunshine was welcomed! With nothing as a must see, my group and I wandered the streets looking for shops and churches to tour. We came across Siena’s Duomo, which you had to pay to see, but it was well worth it! It was stunning and the pictures below do not do it justice.





After the Duomo and alittle shopping we called it a day and went back to Firenze. Friday, was national wine day, so naturally celebrated with a bottle between the roomies.



Saturday, we decided not to travel because everyone is still getting over sickness and just plain tired! So we slept in, got cleaned up and went to our favorite burger place for lunch. Afterwards Amy and Briana went home to nap and I came out to the Santa Croce Piazza. Its was so sunny and the whole city of Firenze was out to soak up the sun! Nothing better than homework, some tunes and some sun:) Saturday was another national food holiday, margaritas!!! So we went out to a local Mexican restaurant. Yes you heard me right, MEXICAN in Firenze! Evidently, this place is legit, so even though Mexican is not my favorite I’m looking forward to some salsa and rice! I’ll let yall know how it is in the next blog!
I hope everyone at home is doing well. I miss you all very much but can’t wait to come home and cook for you all! Im getting some great inspiration!!

All my hugs

Rainy Weekend!

Well another weekend has come and gone! Only 12 more weekends in Firenze! It seems too short when I count and yet it still has only begun!

First a quick recap on the end of my week! Thursday I have my dessert styling class. This class is very humorous because my chef hardly speaks English and same goes for the other 3 girls in my class! It a great class full of charades and laughter! But about cooking…last class, we started working with chocolate! We made two different things. One is called a prence, and it is used has a glaze or a filling. It was super chocolate on steroids!! Amazing, we are going to use it next week. The other thing we made were these hollow little puffs(I can’t remember the name..sorry). We practiced piping in filling of whip cream, chocolate ganche, and chocolate mouse(which is whip cream and chocolate together). Then we topped them with what is called melting sugar. They were delicious!! And super cute! Just look! Haha The different colors mean different fillings, etc.. It was really fun and I can’t wait for another class!!


Friday was a very chill day. SAI shuttled us to a local designer outlet mall in Barberino. Every girl was excited to go shopping and hopefully experience some true Italian fashion! Sadly, either the outlet sucked or people lie to us telling us that Italian fashion is the best… blah blah Overall, we walked around all the store, hardly finding anything to keep our interest. Then we decided to break for lunch and do the other half on full stomachs. Now you see Italy has some funny food that would never fly in the US…for instance, cow stomach is a really popular sandwich. It is boiled in a broth and seasoning till tender then chopped up and eaten with chili oil and pesto. Well Friday I seemed to be in an adventurous mood and I tried this sandwich. And…… it wasn’t too bad!! Besides being alittle chewy, overall decent sandwich and I’m so glad I at least tried it! Ill probably never eat it again but it was defiantly worth the try! Amy ate a hotdog which she said was amazing and Briana stuck with a good ole slice of pizza! Friday ended with no shopping bags in hand:( But Saturday we were going to Lucca so we were counting on that to make up for a lame Friday.


And Saturday held up its promise! Besides being really rainy and alittle chilly, Lucca is a really cool town! Lucca is about 2 hours from Firenze and it known for being one the last medieval cities in Italy. Lucca was built with a huge wall. The wall was used for protection of the inner city and had a mote. It was giant and the gates to get in the city still had huge iron doors and a drawbridge thing! Inside the city was quaint and charming just like the tourist books had promised!
Doing what we do best, we wandered around getting lost. After a few churches, we decided to look for a few touristy things. The big attraction to Lucca is a tower called Tower Guinigi. It is super cool because on top of the tower there is a living tree!! A big tree just chilling on top of a tower! So cool, but what wasn’t cool is that they were working on it so tourist were not allowed to walk up the tower!! I was so heartbroken.


After seeing it from afar, we starting walking on a main street, and found tons of shopping! It ended up being a lot better than Barberino, and I bought a cute shirt! Woohoo! Haha After a train ride, I came home and caught up on my Glee and Pretty Little Liars shows!
Below are just a few random pictures from Lucca.






Sunday had proven to be its normal self. Sleeping in, laundry, a quick workout and some homework. Exciting part of the day was going to Church!! Yes, I found a English-speaking church near my apartment! God is so faithful, because I had been praying about this for months! It was very different than I was use to, but was encouraging time! I will definitely be going back!

Chocolate Overload!!!

Girls watch out because this blog might give you a heart attack! Today, Amy, Shelly and I went to walk about the chocolate fair. Delicious to say the least! There were about 20 booths all covered in chocolate! There were truffles, fruits, nuts, cannoli, wines, rum, candies and my favorite CREPES!!
OMG they were amazing! It was huge and filled with chocolate, like over flowing yumminess! Like mind-blowing yummy!!! I ate it so quick that I didn’t get a picture but here is a picture of the cute old man who made it!


The one odd-ball booth was filled with fresh-hot pizza! I’m totally hitting that up tomorrow because the smell of the rosemary was almost unbearable!! Well that’s been the excitement of the week so far but this Friday I am going to Barberino for a massive shopping trip then Saturday, Amy, Briana and I are going on a day trip to Lucca, which is suppose to be a charming cities full of surprises!! I’ll let you know how it is:) Love and miss you all very much!!





Last but not least, As many of y'all have read, my roommates and I have a love for Kabobs.... well there was a chocolate one:)


O ya and an owl made in chocolate! how can you not love that!!

The Conquest of Rome..NBD

Well where do I even begin… It all started at 5:30 am bus ride to the “eternal city”. On our way though we stopped in Tivoli, to look at some beautiful gardens at a palace. They were amazing, the first fountain pictured below is known as the organ fountain. It received its name because in the early 1900, some engineers put an organ in the fountain and every half hour the organ plays music. The cool part it is all powered by water pressure from the fountain itself! All the other photos are from around the garden, it was beautiful and the pictures don’t do it justice. After the gardens we arrived to Rome! It was huge and so different from Firenze. We soon went to dinner with SAI(that’s our study abroad program) which was right off of the Pantheon, and then were free to go explore etc.. My group decided we wanted to see the Trevi Fountain! And let me tell you it was stunning (especially at night)!!!!! We tossed coins in and made our wishes! (Can you say Lizzie McGuire Movie??!!)Then we hit the beds early because it had been a very long day.





Here is The Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon!!




Day 2 of Rome:
With an early start, we began a 4 hour sightseeing tour on foot. Exhausting to say the least but all good for the Duomo!! We saw everything from the Coliseum, Roman Forum, and statue after statue, church after church. All gorgeous to look at and be amazed at what still existed! After all that my roomates and a friend from Tech, went to the Vatican City! We nearly got scammed into a private tour, but decided against it but never made it inside. We all decided though that Rome is definitely worth to come back to, so we will do it next visit.

Then we had another SAI dinner then free time. We had heard about this really cool pub called the Scholar’s Lounge, where tons of international students go. We went and met tons of people from Ireland! You see, Italy and Ireland had had a rugby game in Rome earlier that day so everyone was there to celebrate the win! It was a blast and lots of drunk Irish singing was involved! HA!


Day 3: end of Rome and getting locked out of our apartment….
Rome ended with a open bus tour of the city, hitting all the major monuments again. Then off to Firenze we went. On our way home, our 2 other roommates who are going to Rome in March, called us to inform us our apartment was locked and no one could get in. Both girls had their keys, so we knew something was wrong. When we finally made it back, after all the roommates tried their keys with massive failure. We called SAI to the rescue. They sent a girl about my size in hopes to break down our door to let us in. When that didn’t work, she called another lady to help her! After about an hour of running our bodies into our door, it magically opened!! Evidently in Italy, people get locked out all the time and soon enough it will open, just need alittle elbow grease… But it was all worth it in the end because we still made it to our Super Bowl party!! And to Amy's delight the Packers won!! woohoo



I'm exhausted but it was all worth it in the end. Firenze is having a chocolate festival this week, so after a few errands and a nap I will definitely be attending!

Instant Plumbers....

So most of my week consisted of tons of walking, a few hours of class, then more walking! My classes are awesome though. Both of my cooking classes, Traditions of Italian and Dessert Styling are going to be challenging but I’m looking forward to it and don’t worry I’ll put pics up as my classes progress.

The excitement of tonight (Thursday), was Amy losing her ring. Now you’re thinking, Haleigh you are awful!! But in the moment it was very sad but now looking back it was hilarious! This is how it went down….

- Amy is out of the shower getting her shampoo etc.. out, we are chatting, I’m packing for Rome and then Amy yells “OMG NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!”

-I rush like 2ft over toward her and see her in her Pjs fully in the tub, hands and knees trying to see down the drain. Silence……akward, don’t know how to respond silence…..Then I squeak out “I’m sorry Amy?!”


-and then being brilliant that I am, I grab my mini flashlight( best stocking gift ever-thanks gran) and my teasing comb, and about 5 minutes later, with help from 2 pairs of tweezers…


-WE RECOVERED THE RING!!! This picture is the result of all the madness…..haha don’t judge, this all went down at 11:30pm so we were alittle tired…