Welcome to Hotel Raffello, Such a lovely place...

So I'm back from a fashionable weekend in Milan and Lake Como. This weekend was absolute heaven. My friends and I decided last minute to head up to Milan for the weekend, with a day trip to the lake, and scrambled to find accomodations. Thank GOD for expedia because we scored an awesome deal for a family room at a 4 star hotel for just 83 euros a person for the entire weekend. The hotel was a bit far out, but it was so fabulous. All 5 of us had our own bed, the room was 2 different rooms, we had a HUGE bathroom with a shower spa, and even had our own private patio. High roller status. It was such a pleasant suprise to run into after a long commuter train to Milan!

We spent all of Friday exploring the fashionable Milan. We lazily spent the morning getting up, eating breakfast (which was included... and actually fabulous! scoreeee), and making our way into town. At around 11:30 we were in downtown and ready to explore. We decided to climb the steps to the roof of the duomo, which provided us a fabulous view of Duomo Square and the surrounding city. The Duomo is breathtaking as well, but not in the same way Florence's is. It is so much more city-esque, just like Milan. It was beautiful. After that we had a little time to kill so we walked through the square which was having a basketball exhibition...(I was looking for Lamar Odom and Khloe but no such luck). We found Zara and H&M... and even a store that sells American Magazines. Needless to say we picked up Cosmo and US Weekly... heaven!

Oddly enough, my friend Sean's mom has a friend in Milan and she offered to show us a bit of the city. It is always sooo nice to have a connection to show us the city. She brought us to this little hidden church you would have never known. It was beautiful and painted in such a way as to seem longer than it really is. We then went to the Palace and saw some of Michaelangelo's work. Beautiful!

We then shopped... heaven. My entire wardrobe will be from H&M by the end of the semester... Afterwards we went to fashion row... my choice. I was in heaven. It was literally Dolce and Gabbana, Prada, Louis, Hermes... everywhere you looked. I can't wait to go back for fashion week... celeb sightings I hope!

The next day was Lake day. We took the train to Como and walked around for a bit. The lake is absolutely gorgeous! It was such a nice breather to be back around nature. I love the city, but everyonce and a while some nature does a person good. I felt so relaxed the entire day. After the morning in Como we took a ferry to Bellagio, which is said to be the richest part of the lake. The city is literally on a hill and has cute restaurants and shops. We had some of the best pizza there. It was yummo as Rachael Ray would say. The next stop was Varenna. There was a nice little path along the water which was calming and peaceful. Gelato at the top of the hill was such a pleasent surprise. It was amazing and totally homemade. Yummo once again. We got to sit on this nice little patio next to the water as we waited for our train. The patio was surrounded by flags, including the one from good old USA. It was just totally peaceful. I fell in love. I guess when you all summer in Chelan.. I'll be in Como.

CIIIIAO CIAOOO
Ps. I totes magotes saw George's Villa... heaven! No sighting though.. a girl can hope.

Music Guide: "Hotel California" by the Eagles

Firenze State of Mind

This is the quickest of all blog posts. Just had to say that Firenze is kinda sorta feeling a bit more like a home base. After 2 weeks of non-stop moving it was so nice to have a week and a half in one spot. It was also great to escape those nasty trailers with thoughts of my warm bed at Manolas!

I guess it is all just sinking in. After a terrible week of anxiety over horrible classes, I bit the bullet and dropped Modern Political Thought and added Inter-cultural Communications. I mean I am a Comm dept. major. But fo reals, that was the best decision I have made thus far. I was so stressed and anxiety overdosed that I was plain and simply not enjoying Firenze. This experience is so special I don't want to sit there worrying about understanding my French accented poli sci teacher for 6 hours a week and write 8 pages per week, I'd rather kick it with my Italian ex pro-bball player (oh Lamar Odom status I knooow) and talk about stuff I am actually interested in. Now I can only have poli sci for 3 hrs a week and only 4 pages. Time to enjoy life again. SOOO CHEERS TO YOU FIRENZE... LETS SEE WHAT YOU HAVE TO OFFER!

I'm heading to Milan and Lake Como this weekend. If I don't make it back I have moved in with George Clooney.

Music Guide: "Empire State of Mind" by Jay-Z

I'm in Venice trick!

Venice in ONE picture:

St Mark's Square BEFORE

St. Mark's Square FLOODED

The Beautiful gold ceilings of St. Mark's Church

RAIN RAIN RAIN before the Gondola

A perfect after rain day in Venice

There is literally nothing like it... I LOVE YOU VENICE

I left my heart in VENICE!

So apparently I am using song titles (or variations of them) and lyrics as all of the names of my entries... I guess I'll just go with it! Anyway, I spent this past weekend in Venice and boy was it magical.  I have to say that it is probably my favorite city thus far. It was so beautiful, all of the alleyways and canals. I feel like I am such a Seattlite aka a sucker for a scenic water location. We also picked a perfect weekend to go, the sun was shining the first day we got there, we experienced a torrential down pour, and even saw flooding, but more on that later! I guess I'll start from the beginning!

We left friday morning, getting to spend thursday night in Firenze, which was a margarita filled blast! All of us seemed to be a bit sick of pasta and more pasta, so we headed to Tijuana... no literally we did! Thats the name of the Mexican restraunt in Flo and it was a hoot! Nothings better than a couple of pitchers of margs with your gal pals! ANYWAY back to Venice! After a fab 4 hour bus ride we made it to our CAMP SITE... yes you read that right, we camped... in these nasty trailers... which allowed for you to hear anything and everything... needless to say we spent more time not sleeping than anything else! After a quick break to throw our bags down we headed to the ferry to go to Venice! It was such a gorgeous day and the ride into Venice was heaven. It felt so good to sit on the top deck sailing into Venice with fresh air all around! We had a fabulous walking tour of the city, on a beautiful day, and even got to go inside St. Mark's Church and see the beautiful gold ceiling. Then we got on a gondola for a quick ride through the canals... magical. After word 2 friends and I headed out to window shop and find a bite to eat. Eating along the side of the canal, overlooking the Rialto, is just about heaven!

That night was the craziest DOWNPOUR/THUNDERANDLIGHTNING I have ever experienced! It literally rained and shook the ground the entire night. You would walk like 10 ft to the next trailer and be completely soaked... grosssss. And let's talk about those trailers... NASTY and to top it all off everything was damp from the rain. I just have to say THANKS mom for the sleeping sack... otherwise I would have puked from disgust. BUT the good thing about all of that rain was that it made the next day just that much cooler!

The next morning we headed over to Venice at around 10. Most of our group decided to go island hopping to see Morano and Borrano, but 4 friends and I decided to stay around Venice in hopes to see it flood! Which we did. That was just about one of the craziest things I have ever seen. The entirety of St. Mark's Square was under 6 inches of water and everyone was walking on wooden planks, which made getting around Venice a bit rough. To escape the water, my friend Katy and I left the group at the Dogger museum in order to shop some more. We headed across the Rialto and stumbled upon a fabulous market with all kinds of glass treasures! My jewelry supply has just improved greatly. After that we all met up for lunch and some more shopping. We wanted to find this huge Basilica with fabulous pieces of art, so we explored for a while and stumbled upon it. It was so beautiful inside. We even got to watch the sunset by the ferry dock while enjoying gelato... MAGIC. The campsite even seemed tolerable that night (maybe because we all lived in the beer garden instead of the trailers)...

ALL IN ALL Venice is magic.. im going back asap. Such a fabulous city! love tooo everyone!

AND PS. I'm sorry if this is a ramble fest.. its just so much easier to write how I talk.. i think it makes it more authentic any way.

Music Guide: "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" by Tony Bennett

I'm in Vienna trick!

Secret Garden at the Belvedere Castle (Winter)

I thought I saw a highschool teacher.. who was a nut job. 

Baroque church

Prayer Candles

Summer Castle

Gardens

Summer Castle and Gardens from up the hill

Sacher-torte

When will you realize VIENNA waits for you?

Ahh. The craziness that was opening tour is finally over and school has begun. I'm sitting in my pensione after the biggest lunch of amazing italian food made by my pensione mother Manola. It was delicious. My pensione mates and I may be biased, but we really do think that we scored with where we are living. It is this awesome pensione called Hotel Nazionale and is run by Manola and Matteo. It the farthest from campus, but it has proved worth the walk. Our rooms are awesome, albeit a bit tight, and we all have our own bathrooms which is key.  They even include views of the Duomo, I mean who wouldn't want to wake up to that everyday. The food, as I said, was delicious and keeps on coming. I guess the walk will prove handy for avoiding the Florence forty.

Now that I am somewhat settled in Florence, I can relive the end of opening tour. Prague was amazing. At first I didn't think I was going to like it all that much but it ended up being a blast. Everywhere you look there is something to take a picture of and some new sight to see. The atmosphere was just fun. The last night my friends and I walked back through the castle to take picture and just walk along the river for a place to get dinner. Needless to say we walked for an hour and a half exploring and looking for somewhere new to eat, but ended up back in Old Town at the same restraunt we had lunch the past two days. It was delicious and cheap and we felt accomplished for finding this restraunt on our own. I mean who wouldnt want to pay 40 Euros (1100 crowns) for dinner for 5, 2 big bottles of water, drinks and a dessert. It was amazing. If I ever head back to Prague, I know where I'm going. We just walked around a bit after, heading back via subway.

The next day we traveled to Vienna and were all exhausted. I was so excited to get there but have to admit it was a bit of a let down. It was very city, which I loved, but it didn't feel as cool as Prague, Dresden, and Berlin. This could also be because I was exhausted from traveling a week straight. The tour of the city was fun, but not as good as Berlin. There wasn't as much to see and felt a bit forced. The entire program had the grossest lunch of boiled meat, which I didn't touch. Afterwards some friends and I walked around the city center and found the coolest old baroque church to look around and some good European stores. That night we headed back to the city center for dessert and drinks out on the Patio, a European favorite it seems. The next day we went to the summer castle of Maria Theresa which was amazing. It was beautiful and preserved. The gardens were amazing, we even hiked up the hill to the Gloriette for the view and lunch at the little cafe. Afterwords my friend Katy wanted to go to the hotel where the Sacher-torte was invented at the insistence of her mom. It was amazing and rich, and we even got to hit up the best H&M I've seen yet.

Yesterday was a long travel day, beginning with the bus to the airport at 2:30, the flight to Rome at 5:30, the 4 hour bus ride to Florence, and the 10 minute walk will all of our luggage to our Pensione. Sleep was very much needed before we started class today. As fun as opening tour was, it sure is nice to begin this adventure in Florence!

Music Guide: "Vienna" by Billy Joel

Cause You Know I'd Walk 5000 Miles...

This just made me laugh. My main girl 5000 miles away from America.

Music Guide: "A Thousand Miles" by Vanessa Carlton