Dublin, Ireland

This last Thursday my same travel crew and I embarked on our last adventure to Dublin, Ireland; we flew from Rome on RyanAir for a 30 euro each way!! Our accommodations this trip were much better we rented an apartment really close to everything the Temple Bar District, Trinity College ,,,pretty much walking distance to everything which was perfect; the apartment had two bedrooms, kitchen, two bathrooms, and a living room with two sofas so everyone had something to sleep on which was nice. We went to the Guinness Storehouse where we took a tour of the seven floors showing everything from how Guinness was made to how to pour the perfect glass, and even a tasting as well as a glass on the 7th floor (gravity bar) with views of the entire city. We also took a Double Decker tour bus the second day being that we only had a short amount of time to see everything we felt this would be the best way to accomplish it; the tour drove all around Dublin making 23 total hop-on hop-off stops at major landmarks. The weather in Ireland was amazing since Rome is currently experiencing record high temperatures for the summer (mind you we have no AC in our flat) , it rained a little and was cloudy the first two days much like Boston i thought, but the third day was beautiful sunshine and still perfect with temp around 65. Not to mention people are much nicer than in Italy, I have come to the conclusion we are not well liked here; ohh and my favorite part.....

EVERYONE SPEAKS ENGLISH!!!!

p.s. for those of you who don't know I am now leaving Italy this Wednesday to fly back home; this trip has been amazing and I have truly enjoyed every moment and every experience here and probably learned a lot of things that I never would have learned had I not done it HOWEVER I cant wait to be back in the US and see everyone!!

Cheese

So today we went to the cheese farm ... pretty weird it was right by Bracciano the lake town we went to with the castle; we basically just watched a man stir some sheep milk that turned into some nasty tasting and looking cheese!!! not what I had expected but an experience none the less I suppose. We fly to Dublin tomorrow so I will probably will not have internet until monday.

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Tomorrow instead of class we are going to a cheese making factory about a hour away... will let you all know how that goes tomorrow nothing to report really just getting excited for Ireland we leave Thursday.

Florence

After our day in Siena we woke up and got on a train to Florence where we spent the day exploring the town; we got to see the "real" statue of David by Michelangelo's, as well as the replica, I have to say it was pretty incredible the amount of detail and size for that matter for that time period. As for the rest of the town there was beautiful architecture and charming streets; most of the town is really artistic ..paintings sculptures etc...

Siena

The travel crew..minus laurenThe Hotel

Well the crew decided to take off for the weekend and head to Siena and Florence; and after a full blown sprint to make our first train(I'm talking this should have been on a movie the doors literally closed seconds behind us)I would say we were off to a great start! Traveling by train in Italy is very confusing we had quite the time trying to figure out what train to even get on and right when we did all I remember hearing is "Train 557 to Siena is now departing from platform 13" and the running began. Thankfully we made it to our second connecting train and we actually ran into on of our professor's Chef Zeck and his wife who were also traveling to Siena for the weekend and had gotten off on the wrong stop so they were just getting back on the right track themselves. After all arriving in Siena we parted ways and checked into our hotel; now being that we are trying to travel and all conserve money we decided to share a room made for four people (there were 6 of us) let me tell you this room was not made for 4 adults ...maybe if they were midgets or even small children it would have worked but this was not the case. The room consisted of one king bed and a set of bunk beds all in a room that was maybe 10x10 and one small bathroom; so needless to say that was quite the adventure in itself. Later ,and after finding out there was this amazing restaurant chef told us we had to go to while we were there we made a reservation for the night and began to explore. We stumbled upon a music festival with live rock music and even a band marching up and down the streets we then went on to dinner; several hours and a few bottles of wine later we had experienced probably one of the best nights here so far.

Bracciano & Sperlonga

BRACCIANO

On Friday Lex, Lauren, Lucas(my roommates), and my new friends Stephanie and Kyle and I decided to take a day trip to Bracciano, Italy. We rode the train about an hour to this small lake town with a famous castle know as Castello Orsini-Odescalchi (one of Italy's finest privately owned castles). The castle itself was amazing and we went on a tour inside to at least half of the castle part of it remains private due to the fact that one of the princesses still resides there sometimes. I can't show you any pictures of the inside because photography was not permitted but it was truly beautiful. One of my favorite facts besides the historical things like kings and the pope hid out there during war was the fact that Tom Cruise got married there!! :) The castle like I said is privately owned and now they just do tours and host private functions like weddings to make money.

Sperlonga

Today the same group of us decided to check out another beach town about an hour and a half away called Sperlonga. It was a beautiful beach supposedly quite a few movies have been filmed here not sure exactly what though ,,, we basically just went swimming in the sea ..much colder than the other beach or at least the other day when we went but still fun none the less! Also my interesting fact of the day nothing in Italy is free all of these beaches we have to pay to even use which I found strange and second cool fact McDonalds here serves beer!!

MEXICAN FOOD

We finally found Mexican food!!!.. and not to far from our flat. Not the best but defiantly not the worst probably the best thing i have had here just had to let you guys know it did exist :)

Ostia Beach

Yesterday we decided to FINALLY go check out one of the beaches nearby we took the metro to a train and rode that into Ostia it took about 30min to get there but was well worth it. We ate lunch at a bistro off the sea and decided to be adventurous and try "seafood pasta"...not such a great choice i think most of it was still alive; it was full of tentacles and other weird things.

But the beach was great we spent basically the entire day there relaxing on our day off. (We heard that that's what the Romans do on independence day ...so you know what they say When in ROME!!!)

Fish Market and Plans for Tomorrow!

Today we went and checked out another Open-Air Market,,what we found interesting about this one was the fish, octopus, sharks, and other crazy sea creatures for sale to eat!!

Check it out....

As for tomorrow it is Italy's Independence day therefore we have no class due to the fact that our school will be closed so we are all going to the festivities including the parade at 10am tomorrow.

Olive Oil and Wine Tasting

Today after class we had a wine and olive oil tasting at a place called Gusto Labs! It was very interesting, we learned about the origin and regulations for the production of olive oil as well as wine here are a couple pictures!!! Long day and off to bed............LOVE

Residence Medaglie d'Oro

Ok so this is not exactly a video like promised but it will give you an idea of where I am spending my summer at least so here are a few pictures from our residence,,, keep in mind there are two more bedrooms that look more or less the same one single and another double as well as another bathroom.

View from our Balcony

Entry Way

Bathroom 1

Bedroom 2 (Where I live)

Living/Dining Area Kitchen Hallway Bedroom 1

PUB CRAWL ROMA

NEW FRIENDS! :)

Its the Weekend!!!

Well it has officially been my first week here and I survived ha ha I want to show you guys our apartment so I'm gonna take a video of it but probably not till Monday then i will post it. The apartment is very different but not bad and pretty big! However only one person gets a hot shower its soo cold!! My roommates and decided to have what we call family dinner Monday through Friday and everyone has a day they cook it has been so funny even the guys are cooking and surprisingly are the better ones LOL.. and last night was my turn to cook and after a whole week of pizza, noodles and red sauce on everything we come across i decided to just make hamburgers which was a nice change and everyone seemed to enjoy it!(PS. everything to eat in Italy is literally pizza in some different shape of form, or pasta there is little meat on anything we see and what there is meat on is some weird sausage ,,i would love some Mexican food or anything else for that matter) After dinner we went on a Pub Crawl in Rome we met up with the guides and everyone at the Spanish Steps then went to three different pubs it was really fun and the guides take care of everything including buses home so nobody gets lost. Today we are thinking we might go to the Sanata Serta beach its about an hour and a half away on the train but we haven't decided yet ..overcast at the moment here! I will put up some pics when i get a chance LOVE you all

Today after class we went exploring in the other direction of our classes and housing and went to the Colosseum, Foro di Cesare (aka the real Cesar's Palace), and a Basilica (church) near school,,,the Churches here are made with incredible detail and the architecture is unbelievable.

Vatican Video!!

Yesterday was our first day of class and we meet every morning at 9am (it takes at least an hour for us to get to school ,, we ride the metro and then about a 35min walk) at the Pantheon Institute it is literally next door to the Pantheon which is amazing!! After our history of foods class as part of the learning experience we were told to walk about 20min away to a market,, we are learning all about the Italian culture and their produce and products and the market was very fun any kind of fresh fruits our vegetables you want and then some you have probably never seen as well as fresh truffles which I found awesome. .................Last night a bunch of us hung out here in our apartment at the complex and drank wine and got to know each other everyone is super nice and fun!
Today we went to school had our classes and then me and Lauren went to the Vatican afterwards it was pretty fantastic the architecture is incredible. I took a quick video just so you guys could see what it was like a little hope you enjoy :) Love (ok couldnt get the video to work right now i will try later tonight!)

Tonight was dinner with our professors at a really nice Italian restaurant we had an amazing food vino! Then we walked around the area where our classes will be ..starting tomorrow at the pantheon institute.... on our walk to class from the metro we pass the Trevi fountain and the Spanish steps its pretty amazing here are a few pictures i took from around our school!

Residence!

This is a view from our balcony at our residence in Roma. Today we just got settled and went grocery shopping,,,,,quite an experience everything was in Italian and most of the people who work around town only speak Italian so we are doing our best to get around. Last night we went out on the town to experience the nightlife and finally found a few pubs we took the metro to get there and then on our way home realized that it closes at 12...and it was 1 so needless to say we had quite the hike home but it was a learning experience and actually ended up being fun. I would compare living here to NYC it is very busy and noisy. Tonight we are meeting with our professors and having dinner and we start classes tomorrow!!!

First Night!

Last night was our first night here our flight arrived at 10:30pm after a few delays ,,we grabbed some dinner at a restaurant nearby then got a couple boxes of wine out of a vending machine for two euros :) ha ha and sat outside on our terrace at the hotel (Hotel Roma)! Today is our first adventure we will check into our housing later and actually go into Rome! ....more to come Love and miss everyone.