Buongiorno, Italia!

My first official blog post from Italy. I'm sorry it's so delayed -- I've wanted to soak up as much of Italy before I report back to my world in the states. Basically, Italy is absolutely incredible. Amazing, superb, lovely, beautiful, and old. I am completely in love with the culture, the food, the wine, the night life, my roommates, my apartment, my location, my classes, and the weather (sometimes). I have no idea where to even begin, so I guess I'll just start with when I got here.

I left Scotland on January 25th and arrived in Florence the same day. The tail end of the flight was unreal - we flew past massive mountains for probably hundreds of miles, what I'm pretty sure was northern Italy. I was under the impression that my program was going to pick me up from the airport, but as it turns out that wasn't the case. It was a little daunting at first, figuring out I'd have to hail a taxi by myself with loads of luggage in an unfamiliar country, but it wasn't so bad! Everyone is incredibly nice here, I even spoke (what little) Italian I know with my taxi driver. I met my three roommates that night, and we all get along great. All four of us go to Clemson but none of us really knew each other, but I have a feeling we're going to be pretty close after these next four months. We're already trying to plan a few trips to different countries, woohoo!

A few days into the trip, a group of us decided to go exploring. The picture below is our travel group for the day, with everyone goes to Clemson except for the two guys on the far right. I didn't know any of them before the trip except Tyler and Nate, my two good friends on the far left. This is us in front of the Duomo, the largest building in the heart of Florence (two blocks from my apartment, about a 4 minute walk). The three girls kneeling with me are my roommates, Steph, Mary Kate and Lauren!

On our walk we visited the Ponte Vecchio, another historic landmark in Italy. In the picture below I'm standing on the actual bridge, the Ponte Vecchio, looking out at the water.

 Below is the four roommates, sitting on the Ponte Vecchio! Mary Kate, myself, Steph, and Lauren. 

Lauren is apparently a Florence tour guide -- she was an au pair in Italy last summer so this isn't her first time to this beautiful city. She took us all to Michelangelo Square, a massive platform where you can literally see the entire city. The picture below is just a snapshot of it, but it was absolutely breathtaking.

This is Nate, myself and Tyler at the Michelangelo Square! You can see the Ponte Vecchio bridge and river to the left and the Duomo on the right.

After we traveled around a bit we started walking back towards the heart of the city and came across a square with a bunch of statues. On the left is a replica of the statue of David; you have to pay to see the real one. Nonetheless, they were all breathtaking.

Below is just another up close shot of the Duomo. Everyday there's tons of people taking pictures of it from below. Since the city is so old and full of history, Florence is a major tourist hub.

Meredith came to town!!!! Meredith, the one in the green scarf below, is my big in my sorority back at school, Kappa Delta. We are literally the same person, and I love it. She's a junior at Clemson studying in Rome, so her and her friends came to visit Florence for the weekend. Since Mary Kate and I are also new to the city, we decided to go exploring with Meredith and her friends, which ultimately took us to the tippy top of the Duomo (basically the highest point in all of Florence). We climbed up 460 steps. It was agony, but totally worth it. This is me, Mary Kate and Meredith before we began the climb!

Below is about halfway into our journey up the Duomo, looking up at the painted ceiling. Again, this picture does not do justice the beauty up it. Anyways, we were basically climbing up to the bright circular part of the picture.

And here we are, at the top of the Duomo!

It was unbelievable. Incredibly high up, a girl next to me actually had a panic attack, I kid you not. This hike ain't for sissy's people.

Here's me and Mere, at the top of the Duomo. We were so lucky, it was a beautiful and sunny day!

Since all of Meredith's friends were in town, we decided it'd be a good idea to show them Michelangelo's Square, but properly: with a bottle of wine, ready to watch the sunset. Here's the view the next day, from Michelangelo's Square at night.

A few nights later us roommates decided to stop spending money on pizza (which I'll get to in a second), but instead make our first meal! Brian Murphy, the really tall guy on the right, helped us out with our endeavor. He was a little upset that the red peppers burnt, as you can probably tell.

The finished product was a fresh salad with green peppers, cheese and cucumber (all freshly chopped), potatoes cooked in olive oil, and chicken. With, of course, a glass of wine. I'm pretty sure wine will become the equivalent to water for me by the end of this trip, and I couldn't be more thrilled. My (potential) wine gut probably won't agree, however.

So that's most of the fun stuff I have documented via pictures. I have a bunch more on my Facebook page, so if this didn't do it for you then go check those out! There's a few things I want to touch on though that aren't documented, however: the pizza, the night life, and my classes.

So the first night (before Lauren was in town) Steph, Mary Kate and I went to get something to eat. We stumbled into the first Pizzeria (of many) we found, which was a 10 second walk from our apartment. The pizza is beyond incredible, who'da thunk? But seriously, we had pizza three nights in a row after that. It's on a thin, delicious crust, with no grease. Another thing -- you cut it yourself. I had a pretty difficult time with this the first night, so the cheeky waiter came over and said "I cut you pizza like I cut for children, just for the blondie." Such a sweet guy. I've also been called "Miss California" while being here... cool?

The only thing I really need to touch on regarding the night life is the creepy Italian men. My friends and I went out to a club one night called the Red Garter, and the creepers were everywhere. I'd heard so many stories going into my excursion, but you don't really grasp it until it happens to you firsthand. I had a few guys tap my shoulders, grab my waist, and touch my hair, literally all in a matter of seconds. Also, walking through the leather market (a block from my apartment and another staple in Florence) the vendors are relentless. Mary Kate and I were walking through one day and they just shout vulgar and strange things at you... things I'll spare my readers.

Lastly, my classes. Today was actually my first day of classes, and I loved them all. I had three of my five classes today: Italian, International Marketing and Wine and Culture. Italian was so fun, I'm actually very excited to attempt learning the language. My favorite was Wine and Culture (WC). We literally walked into the class with wine glasses sitting out on the tables. The classes here only meet once a week (except for my Italian class), so for WC we are learning about the wines from a different region of Italy every class. Today we covered the Pimonte region and TASTED four different wines: Gavi de Gavi, a white wine, Barbera, a red wine, Barolo, another red wine, and Spumati, a sparkling wine. I learned more about wine today in class than I'd ever known before, so I'm thrilled to keep learning!

I am SO SO terribly sorry for the longevity of this post, if you're still reading then you must have no life. Ha, I'm only kidding, I'm thrilled you're still reading! Hopefully I'll be better at posting more frequently on this thing, that way I won't feel like I have so much to recap. I know I'll kick myself later for forgetting things, but for now this will have to do.

Stay classy folks,

Julie

Old and Beautiful Buildings.

Where do I even begin? Since I last posted I've seen a lot, done a lot and loved it all, a lot. Last Tuesday was Dawn's birthday, so Dawn, David, Luke, Lewis (Luke's friend) and I went out to eat at a fabulous Italian restaurant. Jessica was already back in Aberdeen studying for her exams so she couldn't join us. Dawn isn't a fan of public displays, so she might have been a little mad at the waiter for singing and bringing her dessert, as shown below.

After we ate, we took a "ghost tour," which was basically just walking around a creepy graveyard at night. Luke and Lewis were terrified and they were not afraid to admit it (Luke left, Lewis right). 

This beautiful, spectacular building is... wait for it... THEIR SCHOOL. That's right, practically Hogwarts itself. But really though. I said in my last post that JK Rowling's kids go/went to this school, George Heriot's School, and there's a few similarities: for example, the students are divided into four teams like in Harry Potter. The school was built in the 1600s, so it's super duper old. Doesn't really compare to my high school, which was founded in 1974.

This was some beautiful blue building across the street from Heriot's. I don't know what it's for, but it's awesome.

This is the group (minus Jessica)! David, Luke, me, Lewis, and the birthday girl, Dawn.

This is the daytime tour of the school! Luke took me around to see his classes and teachers, we even got to walk in on a Scottish dancing class (of which his friend was playing the bagpipes). The pictures in the foreground (in the picture above) are buildings in his school, and the massive building in the background is the Scottish castle; that's the view of the castle from his school!

This is another shot of their school (in the daytime).

The quad.

Another close up of their view from Heriot's of the castle. Wowwww.

THIS IS WHERE THEY GO TO LEARN. I'd want to learn if I went to school in a palace too.

Everything looks cooler with green grass. 

Over the weekend I visited Jessica at her uni in Aberdeen! So of course I took lots of pictures of more cool looking buildings.

More cool buildings where students go to learn.

Finally a picture of Jessica!

THIS IS THE LIBRARY. So frakin' cool.

The inside of the library.

This is the view from the top story of the library. Ah-mazing. Breathtaking. So perty.

As you can tell, I've had an amazing time visiting Scotland. The Macleod's are the best company! I leave for Florence on Wednesday morning and as excited as I am to get there, I'm very sad to be leaving them along with this beautiful country. Later on today we're going to the Scottish museum which is a short walk from their house, so that should be splendid. More to come soon -- if you're still reading at this point, then thanks! I appreciate your interest in my travels.

Oodles of love,

Julie

Proper Documentation.

This is me right before leaving for the airport! I'm proud to say I fit four months of my life into a suitcase, a duffel and a backpack.

After my jet lagged, sleeping-in morning, I walked Jessica to the train station and met her dad, David, who took me around town! Apparently my camera wasn't charged, so these pictures are from my iPhone. Still turned out pretty well though.

These are all at the top of the Scott's Monument (not for Scottish, but for Walter Scott, the first known (Scottish) novelist). It's very tall, old and awesome.

Apparently this is the first department store... ever.

On the right of this shot (above and below) is the Scottish castle! It's massive and marvelous. 

Me and David from the top story of the Scott's Monument.

This is the Scott's Monument from the ground.

Scott's Monument from afar. 

This is the coffee shop where JK Rowling came to write the Harry Potter books. JK Rowling still lives in Edinburgh, about a 15 minute walk from the Macleod's place (my family friends I'm staying with).

So apparently this is a big worldwide story I didn't know about. Bobby, the dog, loved his owner, and when his owner died, Bobby was devastated. Bobby went and laid by the owner's grave for days on end, showing how much he loved and missed his owner.