Greg Takes Italy!

Last week, my boyfriend Greg came to visit me!!! I was so happy and so lucky to be able to see him for a whole week! It has been tough being away for him this long, but it made it all the more special that we were able to spend that time together.

We had SO much fun while he was here. I showed him all around Florence and we even ventured to Rome for a little! We had a really amazing week together, I wish so much he could be here this whole time with me. If you are reading this Greg, I already miss you so much and can't wait to see you in a month and a half!!

Here are some pics to show you a little more about how we spent our week together:

Fresh off the plane and time for some All'antico Vinaio aka the BEST paninos in Firenze.

I went with one stuffed with veggies, mozzarella, and a gorgonzola cheese spread YUM and Greg went with a tomato, mozz, prosciutto, and an artichoke spread. They crank out fresh focaccia loaves like no ones business so each panino is on warm fresh bread! They are literally to die for. 

Beautiful Sunset view from the Ponte Vecchio..this was Greg's first night here, we were taking a nice scenic stroll to dinner! 

Posin' on the bridge...the sunset was amazing that night, the perfect end to an absolutely gorgeous day!

Nomming on a waffle and gelato sandwhich...yes those exist. Creamy gelato sandwiched between to hot waffles with nutella! It was obviously a must stop on the food tour. They are delish!

A three and a half hour train ride later......

We arrived in Roma!

In front of the Trevi Fountain, post coin toss. It was so beautiful at night. 

In front of St. Peter's Basilica

At the Colosseum!

And once we were back in Florence.....

We made a love lock and put it on the Ponte Vecchio...this is a tradition in Florence. After you sign the lock and put it on the bridge, you throw the keys in the Arno River!

We found this drawn on the street while we walked around on his last day (I was really surprised it was in English)..but I though it was really cute (even though he told me I was corny) and we got a picture with it. 

And last but certainly not least....

GUSTA PIZZA!

This pizza is by FAR the best I have ever had in my life. Kaili and I go all the time...it literally tastes so amazing. So naturally, I had to take Greg there. (We actually went twice while he was here..he liked it so much he wanted to go back a second time!) 

I got the Gusta Pizza, which is basically a Margherita but topped with fresh greens, cherry tomatoes, and chunks of parmesan cheese. Greg went with the classic Margherita. So so so good. 

There are some highlights of Greg's visit! I hope you enjoyed reading about it as much as I enjoyed having him here! As always, thanks for reading about my travels!

Ciao,

Becca

P.S. The countdown has officially begun...today marks exactly one month until my family visits! See you soon guys, I can't wait!!!

A Weekend in Venice

This weekend, I stayed in the absolutely beautiful, quaint city of Venice!

Long story short, I am in love with Venice. If you didn't already know, Venice is a small city built entirely on water; that means no roads, no cars...just boats. Therefore, as you walk through the city, you are met with tiny little bridges at every turn, full of views of the colorful homes atop glistening little canals. 

Another reason why I love Venice: it is really small, and you can walk everywhere! This is probably the #1 reason I am in love with Florence, my home city, because I am not a fan of public transportation. It always adds extra stress and fatigue (not to mention time!) trying to get the hang of a city's transportation system, so it was soooo nice not having to deal with any of that on our travels this weekend. Also, it was IMPOSSIBLE to get lost, which was absolutely perfect for Kaili and I. Venice is small, and also has very excellent signage on the streets, so we didn't have to spend any time with our nose stuck in a map...we could just stroll around and take in all the views knowing we would eventually find our way     (we can literally never pull that off). 

Some gondolas with the beautiful and famous Rialto Bridge in the background 

Kai and I (not really) ready for our closeup on the Rialto Bridge 

View from the other side of the bridge!

Gondola ride!!!

View from St. Mark's Basilica

A cute little bridge...notice the little Italian flag in the background!

As you can see I was pretty camera-happy, Venice was just so awesome! I am so happy that I was able to visit, it is really a very cool city. The food was pretty classic italian, although they did have a ton of fresh seafood, which we don't have as much in Florence. It was a really awesome way to spend this past weekend. As always, thanks to everyone for reading about my travels!

And since I loved the quaint scenery of Venice SO much, heres one more cute little gondola:

P.S. HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY! This is one of my favorite holidays, since I come from a very irish background. I will be dying for some homemade irish soda bread ALL day! 

Here's a great throwback pic from when I was in Ireland back in freshman year of high school....rough. Enjoy!

My sister, myself, and my cousin Kari

Sláinte!

A Weekend in Roma

Last weekend, we traveled to one of the other amazing cities in Italy, Rome!

One of the best parts about this trip was that it was pre-planned through our program, so everything was already set up for us, including tours to see all of the major sights in Rome, and then some. We saw so many beautiful things on this trip: obviously the most popular ones, like the Vatican and the Colosseum, but also so many awesome piazzas and churches. I think I made about 300 wishes in total over the weekend since we visited so many churches!

The first major stop on our tour was none other than the Trevi Fountain.

It was so surreal to see in person (I still remember watching The Lizzie McGuire Movie and thinking how I wanted to visit the fountain they went to in the movie some day) and of course so beautiful. All of the statues and the architecture were pretty ornate and incredible. And of course, we tossed some coins in there and made our wishes.

Pre-coin toss: Obviously too broke to through in actual euros (wasting money--that would be unthinkable!) so I threw in some leftover Francs from our Switzerland trip and Kai tossed some pence.

The cool thing was, none of that money was actually getting wasted, (I'm dramatic) each night all of the coins get collected from the fountain and donated to charity. Soo we could give to charity without actually giving away some precious euros? Win-win. 

Post-toss!

Next stop on our first afternoon of touring was the Pantheon. 

I loved the Pantheon. It seriously amazes me the brilliance of the architects that built these enormous structures that long ago. The Pantheon was built with basically two semi-circles, one on top and one on bottom, so you could technically fit a sphere within the walls of the building...amazing!! The amount of cement they had to use to build the dome on top was so immense that they needed over 20-ft-thick walls to support all of the pressure! That is INSANE. Lastly, in the middle of the dome/ceiling, there is a perfect circle cut into it. This circle has remained all throughout the years..so rain, shine, or even snow comes right on in. Pretty cool. 

(Unfortunately, my camera died right after I took this picture, so that's why I don't have any pictures to show you of inside our the awesome circle cut out)

The next morning, we started off our day with the Vatican!! My favorite part of this excursion was definitely St. Peter's Basilica...it is literally breathtaking. I also really liked the Sistine Chapel, the enormous "fresco" painting on the ceiling by Michaelangelo is absolutely stunning. (The story behind the ceiling painting as also super interesting..I would explain it all but I'm trying really hard to keep from writing a novel on here! So if you ever have some spare time, look it up. Pretty cool stuff.)

Kaili and I inside of the Basilica

My favorite part about the St. Peter's Basilica was it's size. It is literally so massive that the human brain cannot understand it. We literally cannot "wrap our mind around" the vastness of this place. For example...

In the picture above, wayyy above our heads, are these circular paintings. You see them? Okay.
Those letters beneath the painting ("SACERDO....") are actually six feet tall! I'm not kidding.

Even crazier...see the tiny pen in the man's hand? That very slight, tiny pen? It is NINE feet long! Take a look at the first picture again and compare us to these paintings...can you can believe it?

                                                                      It amazes me.

A picture from the outside, it is so beautiful! 

As we continued on our tour that day, we saw some other really cool things, like:

The Spanish Steps. 

Great little spot to just hang out for an afternoon with some friends and a bottle of wine (or a few)...if only we had more time that day!

This pretty bridge with a GREAT view. You can see St. Peter's in the background!

On our final day, we got to finally see the famed Coliseum. It was unbelievable to think that they used to have all of those gladiator fights right within that arena so many years ago. Even though it has crumbled and decayed a bit, it was still so breathtaking. 

Again, so surreal to see in person. 

Foodwise, I don't have anything too spectacular to share. Since the food in Rome is very similar to that in Florence, we didn't go on any crazy food tours like we usually do. (We are girls on a serious budget now, too!) We basically spent the weekend filling up on some good 'ol free breakfast from the hotel that is certainly not worthy of blogging about, and we split a lot of pizzas. (The one good thing about the massive portion sizes here, you can get usually two meals for the price of one!)  However, I did go to an awesome gelato place...it had over 150 flavors! 

I got mint, Mars bar (a popular candy bar over here..they taste a lot like Ferrero Rocher), and a vanilla mixed with nutella flavor. It was SO GOOD!

Sorry that this picture is a bit blurry..I snapped it on my phone quick before chowing down on this morsel!

That's pretty much all the main highlights of my trip to Rome! I had such an amazing time there, and feel so lucky that I got to see all of these amazing places with my very own eyes. Thanks again Mom and Dad!!

P.S. Happy belated birthday to my favorite dog in the world, Cassidy! It was her birthday two days ago..she is already 11 years old! So crazy. 

P.P.S. My boyfriend Greg comes to visit in TWO DAYS!! I can NOT wait till her get's here and show him all around Florence. See you so soon babe!!

Grazie mile to everyone who is reading all about my travels!

Ciao,

Becca