My 21st Birthday!!!!

I cannot believe that I am finally 21! Celebrating my ability to drink in a country where 16 year olds can go to clubs & buy themselves alcohol is pretty funny, but I had a lot of fun with my roommates & girlfriends in Florence :)

They were sooo sweet & bought me flowers & had them waiting at the restaurant for me!

They decided to put 6 sunflowers in the bouquet, one representing each roommate :) So sweet!

We went to Dantes (of course) because we knew we were going to the bars afterward & we can drink for free at the restaurant!! And they hooked us up even more since it was my birthday!! They sent us over 2 free bottles of champagne :) It was very nice! And , I got a free Dantes t-shirt!

The girls insisted that my wine glass be FULL!!

Making a wish!

 Owner of Dantes helping me open my champagne bottle (see video below)!!

 My sparkly birthday nails!

At one point I had three drinks infront of me.. White wine, lemonchello and champagne haha..



One of the girls got a video of me opening my champagne..
(sorry it's side-ways)!

After dinner we went to a club called Yab. It was REALLY packed because Monday's are hip hop night, which is really popular. I didn't really like the music or club that much, but of course I had fun because it was my BIRTHDAY :)


I love my roommates and am so thankful for the flowers and wonderful cake they bought me :)



Ciao, Erica

Horseabck Riding & Wine Tour in Tuscany

On Friday, 3 friends & I went on a horseback riding & wine tour in Tuscany. I think it has been my favorite day that I've spent in Italy so far.

We went through a Florence tour program called FlorenceTown and paid 90 euros for an hour and a half horseback ride through Tuscany, an AMAZING lunch where we were able to sample different olive oils, and given apertivos (appetizers), a first and second course, coffee, and gelato, as well as a tour of wine production at a beautiful vineyard. We were also given two different types of wine to sample. 

I haven't been on a horse since third grade & was a little nervous about riding one. Once we got to the barn and saw the horses I was so excited. They were adorable & so friendly. My horse's name was Viola and was a slower horse because she was 28 years old. She was very calm & slow (which I liked a lot)! 

 

Teresa & I in our helmets

 Some of the horses

 Rufus the cute barn dog!! He went on our whole ride with us. He made me miss Howie

Viola!

The ride was  beautiful. We were able to see so many olive trees, grape vines & amazing views of Tuscany. We ended our hike in the Chianti Region and had an amazing lunch. The pasta we had was the best pasta I have had since I arrived in Italy!

All of these grapes were handpicked and will obviously be used in wine production

 The apertivo

One of the wines

Zucchini gaspacho

 Pasta

Espresso



After lunch we had the tour of the winery

 Stairwell to the wine cellar

 Most of the wine is stored for 24 months in the barrels and then another 8 months in the bottle

These containers hold 1500 liters of wine

The barrels where olive oil is stored

Really pretty view of the entire vineyard

Group shot!


I had so much fun on Friday! I cannot wait to explore more places around Italy besides just Florence.


Ciao, Erica xo

Le Cascine's Open-Air Market

Every Tuesday morning there is an open-aired market called Le Cascine held about 10 minutes west of my apartment. We had heard really great things about it, so Ashley & I woke up early and headed to the market at 8. And I must say, the market was above & beyond my expectations. You could buy ANYTHING there & for REALLY cheap, & the market was so huge we only made it through half of it.

The first booths are the fruits & veggies so I picked up half a kilo of green beans & some strawberries, both were 1.50 euro. Then came the clothes, jewelry & shoes!! Most of the clothes were like ones you would see at a Salvation Army, you definitely had to search! But almost all were ONE EURO each, which definitely gave me motivation to try to find something really cool.... AND I DID :) For one euro I found a really thick mustard colored cardigan, SO similar to one I almost bought at J. Crew (and to think I was gonna pay 80 dollars for it)! In theory a mustard-colored anything is not so cute.. but I'm definitely excited to wear this for fall & accessorize it! I also found a really cute brown leather watch for 5 euros. I for sure will be attending this market weekly, every Tuesday morning!

 Loafs of bread the size of my face

 You could buy animals at the Market (see... I told you there was EVERYTHING here) I wanted the little puppies so badly!

 The cute watch I paid only 5 euros for

And finally.. the ONE EURO mustard cardigan! I'm in love & can't wait for the weather to not be 90 degrees so I can wear this :)

Before heading home I picked up a cappuccino & pastry to eat on my walk back. This really was a PERFECT morning. Can't wait to go next week and search for more things :)

Ciao, Erica xo

 

Cinque Terre, Day 2: September 11th

The second day of the trip was just as fun as the first :)

I woke up early to take advantage of the free breakfast the hotel had & to get ready for the beach. We had to free our rooms by ten & leave our bags in the lobby of the hotel. Soon after that we walked around the town and did some window shopping (since it was still a little chilly to head to the water). After about an hour we headed to the beach. My group was some of the first people there so we were able to get a nice spot. After about an hour the beach was packed. I laid out for awhile & eventually got into the water. It was beautiful!! So clear you could see to the bottom ( a little freaky since I could see all the fish swimming below me). Karyssa, Devin, Kat & I swam to these rocks that were about 150 meters into the water. Where was sat and looked onto the land. I wish I had a water proof camera because the view from there was absolutely gorgeous!! 

We picked a GOOD time to go into the water because soon after getting off the rocks we saw our three ISA directors who came on the trip with us on a paddle boat that had a SLIDE attached to it that went into the water. I was so happy :) After all the swimming I went on shore & took a much needed nap!

For lunch, Devin, Teressa & I walked up the road to try & find some pesto, since we disliked our pesto from the night before (read the September 10th post). We finally found a nice enough restaurant in our price range & they had DELICIOUS gnocchi with pesto! 

After lunched we headed back to our beach towels & got in the water one more time. This time Ashley, Devin & I swam to the rock & had Teressa take a photo of us once we got there. 

The pictures aren't very clear, but my camera was all the way zoomed in! That's how far away the rocks were! Then unfortunately, when getting off these rocks I stepped on something really sharp and got a few bits & pieces of something in my left heal. I think that it's little pieces of rock, & they are still currently stuck in my foot & I am walking with a limp. I'm going to try & soak my foot later and see if I can get them out (I'll let you know how it goes)... 

After my painful rock climbing experience we swam to the other side of the bay where we saw people cliff jumping & decided to go over & see if we were daring enough to jump ourselves :) There were a few different cliffs all varying in sizes & we decided we could jump from the medium sized one (probably about 40 feet high). We climbed up & once up there I was a little freaked out. Ashley & I were up there for a few minutes contemplating our jump while a few Italian boys started egging us on to jump. I had Devin count to three for me & I finally jumped out. It was amazing & the whole swim back to the shore I was smiling & giddy with how scared I was and how much fun I had :)

I laid out for awhile longer to get dry & finally had to make the trek to the train station to take the 3 hour ride back to Florence.

Cinque Terre was amazing & definitely a place I want to come back to! The rock splinters & sunburn were definitely worth the beautiful ocean & town I was able to visit :)

Ciao, Erica xo

Cinque Terre, Day 1: September 10th

Saturday morning a group of about 25 ISA students went took a train to Cinque Terre :) We took a one hour train to Pisa and switched trains there to catch another one hour train to Monterosso. Cinque Terre in  Italian literally means "Five Towns" in English. The train to Monterosso bordered along the water and the ride was gorgeous, and we arrived at 11:45.

Once we got the the town we walked about ten minutes to our hotel. There was seven of us in a suite, which sounds like a lot but the suite was like apartment-sized (and we didn't spend much time in it). Then at 3, after some lunch and a little time in the water, most of the ISA crew took a hike on the famous trail called La Via Dell' Amore (Lover's Lane) which goes through the towns Riomaggiore & Manarola. The entire hike was on the side of a cliff along the water. There are locks all along the hike which are put there by couples who write their initials on them and throw the key into the water, to resemble their everlasting love (a little sappy but pretty cool to see)!

At the end of the hike we ended up in Manarola, where we stopped for about a half an hour. There were awesome pools of water and cliffs people were jumping off of. I opted for the baby cliffs because I was too afraid of the big ones :) haha The pools of water were beautiful and a lot of fun.

After the hike & swimming we took the train back to Monerosso & got dinner. The region of Italy we were in is known for its pesto so the 6 other girls & I went to find a restaurant that served pesto (not too hard to find since pretty much every restaurant did). We came across a place that was pretty inexpensive with a lot of food options. 3 of the other girls & I ordered the pesto & we were pretty disappointed (Don't worry we ate at a nicer place for lunch on Sunday & had DELICIOUS pesto with gnocchi)! Afterward we wandered the streets of Monterosso & got some gelato & headed back to our hotel since the sun and swimming made us all tired. We stayed up for awhile talking & amused ourselves with how bouncy the hotel beds were (see video below haha). eventually all passed out excited to wake up early for our beach day on Sunday :)

More to come on my Sunday adventures.... 

Ciao, Erica xo