It Would Be Too Easy! Spring Break!

Well I just recently got back from my spring break in Corfu and Athens Greece! Let me just tell you, it was a crazy adventure!
To begin there was a lot of traveling. Just to get to Greece we had a 5 hour bus ride to the port, then an overnight “**cruise ship”, then a ferry to Corfu then another 45 minute bus to our hostel! Whew exhausting!
**When I say cruise ship, don’t imagine a Carnival, or a Disney cruise, o no people, this was a ship in which you could eat, drink and sleep sitting straight up in their fancy “airplane style” seating. Sounds fun right?! **


Well beside all the travel and a little off and on rain, Corfu was a blast. We had the most beautiful view from our window. The hostel we stayed at was called the Pink Palace. It was literally pink!

The beautiful view from my window:)

My first full day on the island, my group of ladies and I rented kayaks and went off into the ocean to explore! We paddled out to this small island/rock, which we called Pride Rock. Sadly, it only lasted around 2 hours because it was so exhausting but a great arm workout! Most of our night consisted of dinner and then playing cards. Very relaxing, just how I like my spring break!
However, this first night was the Pink Palace’s famous pink toga party! You rented a pink sheet and created your own toga! Everyone came to dinner and danced the night away! There was even a traditional Greek dance and some plate smashing!


Our next day consisted of laying out, getting a sunburn, and an early bedtime because we had to get up to sign up for ATVs!


By this time we were ready to move onto Athens but wanted one last adventure in Corfu. We got signed up for ATVs and was ready to hit the road. Little did we know that more than wheels were going to hit the road!


You see, there are people on this planet that don’t always use the best judgment. For example, if you are ATVing down a mountain and you get too close to the edge, what do you do? Well as some girls learned you do not over correct and land your ATV over a cliff. Thankfully they were not hurt but the poor 4-wheeler had seen better days.

Another example would be my roommate Briana’s and mine ATV. The leader of the trip, Cristof, told us to take care of this one because it was brand new but that we shouldn’t worry because nothing usually goes wrong. Well sorry Cristof, looks like the newbie couldn’t handle the off-roading! HA!!
I’ll explain, we were off-roading down a tiny gravel hill when all the sudden we started leaning a little more left than usual. Then faintly in the background I hear…”Where is your tire?”…. Brakes, more leaning left and a few seconds later, there we were 1 wheel short.

Now, was it my fault, I’m claiming innocent. Manufacturers are going to have a big talk with Cristof! HA! Nonetheless, we survived the rest of the trip and no one was seriously injured. But the final count of the day was 4 dead bikes(I have stories about the other 2 bikes but too long). A new Pink Palace record! After all that, we took an over night bus(worse night ever) to Athens!

We spent all day in Athens site seeing, shopping for cute Greek sandals and eating! Our favorite discovery was this yummy ham and cheese puff pastry pie, it was heavenly! We also had some very yummy desserts! Apple pie, hot fudge cake, and your traditional Baklava! All served with ice cream:)



By now it’s Friday, and we made the very long trip back to Florence, which we all were missing so much! Spring break to say the least was entertaining, and full of memories! Since then I have done tons of laundry, movie watching and sleeping! Perfect ending!
In the countdown till I return to the states we are a little over a month. Time has flown by, but I am definitely missing you all so much!!

Time flies when you are having a BLAST!

So let me just say that what is about to be the past two weeks have been a whirlwind of so much love, laughter, and memories to have forever! Where to begin:
Two weeks ago my family came to Firenze to visit the week of Hannah’s spring break! They could not have come at a better time! I was just hitting that antsy to be home feeling and magically they appeared! They arrived on Monday and we immediately began touring Firenze stopping at all the important places like my favorite panini place, my kabob place, my favorite gelato places, my pizza place…all the important things. Then we went to the Duomo, and the Santa Croce! Tuesday, the family went to Venice while I was in class, and we ended the day with a yummy dinner at Gusta’s pizza and gelato! Tuesday was national women’s day, so all of our pizzas besides daddy’s came out in a heart!


Wednesday, was full of touring Firenze, shopping, eating (kabobs☺) and more walking! My poor family I walked them to death! The best was rushing them up to the Piazza de Michelangelo to watch the sunset over the city!

After my class Thursday morning, we packed up and went to Rome for the weekend! We all definitely agree to loving Firenze more but I would be a terrible person to not let my family see the famous coliseum, and ALL the ruins! HA! After three busy touristy days, I had to return back to Firenze to start studying for midterms and await the arrival of EMILY!!!!

Then finally, Emily came!!!! Emily and I wandered and ate our way (seems to be a theme, the eating…), through Firenze! Very exciting things have occurred like: Emily turned 21!!!!!!!! We celebrated by a yummy dinner, some wine, and a fruit tart with candles and everything!

Then as of last week, I am the new intern at Mallory Wilkin’s Interiors and Events in Birmingham, AL!!!!!!!! With all the excitement and reasons to celebrate we went out with a group of girls and finished the night with warm cornetti (croissants)!

Tuesday, Emily and I did a lot of cooking! We made a yummy lunch of a chilled tomato pasta salad with some chicken and then tonight, we made chicken with almond and fennel! It was delicious, but don’t worry friends, this recipe is now perfected and you will love it!
There is a tradition in Firenze that you lock a lock on the bridge near the Ponte Vecchio and then you throw the keys into the river. Tradition says that when you do this and don't look where you throw the key then one day you will meet your true love! Being hopeless romantics, Emily and I did it! See here are our locks:))

Wednesday, was Italy’s 150th year of being a republic or aka Happy Birthday Italia! All the streets were decorated in celebration and buildings lit up in green, red and white!

We had so much fun! Sadly, Friday Emily and I part☹ but on the bright side that same day I left for my spring break to Greece!! The next blog will be very long because sooo much happened on spring break!! Be on the look out in the next few day for my spring break adventures!!

A Foodie’s Paradise- Cheese, Prosciutto and Balsamic!

So today I spent my day touring some yummy factories! After our 5:30am early start, we started our day at the Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese factory! Can you say DELISCIOUS!!!! It was totally cool, we literally saw it from start to finish. The pictures below are in order of the production process!
First a certain ratio of milk is heated in these huge vats.
Eventually, retin is added which is what makes the cheese start to curdle and start to form what we know as parmigiano-reggiano!


After the cooking process, the cheese go into mold in which they get their classic rind stamp.
Then after a salt bath for 20 days….



TaDa!!!!! CHEESE!!!!!!
Tons of cheese!!



Next trip was to the Prosciutto factory! Now sadly this wasn’t quite as cool, as one would hope! Pretty much the legs are covered in salt, sit for awhile, washed, recovered with salt, sit for awhile then they are cleaned and aged for about 4 months… that’s it! Woohoo



Then the master of all Italian products in my opinion.. Balsamic Vinegar! This was very fascinating. An overall view is this.

Balsamic vinegar is white and red grapes mashed together, then cooked for 2 days then put into barrels to ferment for at least 12 years! *Side note: just because a bottle says Modena on it does not mean it was actually produced in Modena. Unless it say traditional and comes in a tiny bottle or a huge price then it’s not the legit thing! Still yummy just not legit! Ha!

These little barrels are holding vinegar that is over 100 years old!! So cool!

After learning we got to do some tasting, and let me tell you it was scrumptious! We tried orange and apple vinegars, then a 6 year aged, and the traditional 15 and 25 year aged vinegars! My favorite was the apple and the 6 year. The apple is yummy on fruit or fresh cheese and the 6 year is a general use balsamic. It will go on everything from cheese, fruit, risotto, and steak!


Best day ever!! :) Don’t worry I wont eat it all, I’ll bring some home to share!

Venice with Casanova the Sex Machine!

I am so sorry it has taken soooo long to get this post up!! I have been busy and since I didn't have pictures from this weekend so its been phone tag with my friend to get her pictures!! But here it is better late than never!!

So this past weekend I went to Venice, for Carnivale! Carnivale is once a year, in which the people from all over the world and Italy come to Venice, and dress up and huge costumes and masks! Well let me tell you it was a site to see! Except the only problem was, I forgot my camera. ☹ It was such a sad day when I realized I didn’t bring it! But I have wonderful friends who take millions of pictures so I have them to thank for all these!

When we arrived on Friday, Venice didn’t look to crowded and we didn’t see anybody wearing masks. So we decided to travel off to alittle island called Murano. Murano is famous of glass blowing. So we took a water taxis over, and walked around looking at all the shops filled with beautiful pieces of blow glass. After the cold became too much to bare, we set back to Venice. Well 4 girls and a water taxis don’t make friends very well, cuz we are pretty sure we took the wrong taxis and ended up riding for about an hour and a half! It was sooo cold!! But eventually we made it back, went to our little B&B and called it an early night. **Side note: Even though our B&B was off the island about 20 minutes it was still so cute, and the lady who owns it was so helpful and very nice. We loved staying there!**


Saturday was a very busy day! Once we made it back onto the island, we started making our way to the center of town to look for our masks!! Everyone says when you go to Venice you always get lost. Well I don’t know where they were trying to go, but there were big signs telling you how to get to all the major squares and plazas! After a while of winding in and out, we came out at this street covered in lights and shops. We hit mask jackpot!!! Literally millions of masks everywhere! After looking at what felt like every mask available, we all picked out our mask and were ready for Carnivale!




After some more walking and a few more bridges, we made it to the San Marco Square! This square has been filmed in many movies and world known. It was jam packed with people, masks, vendors, music, you name it! The best part was we finally saw the Venetian people fully dressed up! It was so cool and people were trying them like celebrities. Poor Shelley was freaking out at this point cuz she really hates masks. But we are good friends and would tell her to look away if we saw one coming haha!



Lunch came and went and we ran into another friend Ainsley, and went to see the Doge’s Palace with her. The Doge use to represent the city, like a congressman would now, but he was secluded to stay only in the city. So he had a very elaborate palace. It was very ornate and there even was a prison! We had a blast wandering through and taking illegal pics!

After the Doge, we started our search for a gondola ride! EKK it was amazing, worth every penny and our driver was entertaining to say the least! As we rode he would point out important buildings, landmarks, etc. At one point Briana was taking a video and she asked him what his name was. His reply was something first name, “The sex machine of Venice,” last name…. We all burst into laughter, cracking up and amazed at the witty humor of our gondola driver! He even sang alittle and hummed pretty tunes, He was perfect!

*Shelley didn't get a picture of our driver but on my Facebook im tagged a few pics with him and even a video so help yourself!**
Around this time it was getting chilly again so we found a spot for dinner then headed home. Sunday was a usually day of traveling. Since Florence hasn’t terrilble weather yet, we haven’t learned how to use the bus system. Well it was raining yesterday, so we tried our luck at it. We have no luck, cuz it took us an extra hour to get home! HA! O well, next time we will do our homework!

I went to church, unpacked and started studying for my midterms in 2 weeks. I have so much to look forward to soon, I can’t believe it! My family comes in like 3 days, then my bestie Emily comes, then I go to Greece for Spring Break!!!! Its crazy how time is flying but I love it!!
Tomorrow I am going to Parma and Modena! Can anyone guess what these cities are famous for?!! Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese and Balsamic Vinegar!!! 2 of my favorite things! Then on Saturday I am going to Assisi with a group of ladies! Should be a great weekend!!
Miss everyone back home so much and hope you are all doing well! Hugs and kisses!