Feb 8, 2010 - VENICE for CARNIVALE!

Me and a bunch of friends went to Venice last weekend from Saturday to Sunday. It was amazing! Aside from it being a beautiful city, with all its canals and little streets, it was truly spectacular to go on the first day of Carnivale -- their biggest holiday of the year! Everyone says that the best place to celebrate carnivale is in Venice, and now I know they are not lying. The streets were packed with people from around the world, and around Italy. The shops were all open, and the shop keepers were all dressed up. People wore amazing...

Jan 31, 2010 - Florence

My friends and I went to Florence on the 29th of January. We were there from early Friday morning until Saturday early evening. I had so much fun! I went with four of my other friends, and we stayed in a hostel right near the train station, so it was very convenient. We got there around 10am on Friday, and went straight to see sights! We went to see the real Davide in the galleria d'academia, as well as the rest of the artwork in that museum. The Davide was amazing - so grand and beautifully constructed. We also went in the Duomo, which was...

Jan 25, 2010 - Rome Wall Walk

The rome wall walk consists of a 13 mile walk around the roman walls of Rome. Having been only my first week in Rome, this was a GREAT way to learn the city by foot, literally, every single area by foot. While it was tiring, and mentally exhausting to walk in a group of 80 or so people for about 8 hours -- I assure you it was worth it. We started at the bottom right of Rome (using the tiber as a point of reference to divide the city left and right), and made our way up all the way to the Villa Borghese. The top of the Borghese gardens has a...

Jan 13, 2010 - day 1 & 2

Day 1: start of my adventure The plane ride went really well. I sat next to a woman from Sicily, and we spoke some broken English/Italian. She was very friendly. When I asked her if she liked America, she stated yes, but not as much as Italy, and explained that in America, all people do is work, go home, work, go home, and theres no change, but in Italy people are not scheduled like that. It was so refreshing to hear that – one of the reasons why I chose Italy. I arrived in Italy and waited for my bags for awhile – ofcourse they were like...

Jan 7, 2010 - tre giorni!

It is finally starting to set in that i will in fact be leaving for Italia in a few days. I did a few errands with my dad yesterday to prepare for a trip: I bought a watch -- because of the fact that I will have to part ways with my fellow blackberry, it will no longer be able to provide me the function of punctuality. I also bought another book at the book store- a travel memoir about a man's travels all around europe. Then, me and my dad watched Amacord, an old italian movie in italian, with english subtitles. I brushed up a bit on my...

Jan 5, 2010 - and the countdown continues.. 5 days!

So I decided to start a blog to record all my adventures and thoughts while abroad. I started packing yesterday, which is quite a daunting task -- I feel very attached to my clothing and shoes, and I feel that leaving them home would greatly hurt their ego, however, my parents think otherwise. It is really hard to imagine what one week from now will be like. For the first time in awhile at least, I have no clue what the future will hold. I tend to run on schedules, and plans, so this whole jumping ship and going to Italy can be a bit nerve...