Visiting the Amalfi Coast was the best way that we could have spent our official weekend in Italy. Once again we planned the trip through a company called Bus 2 Alps. When booking a trip through the company, all of the arrangements are made for you which takes care of a lot of hassle. They only thing that you have to do is go to the train station at the designated time to meet the bus. On Thursday afternoon, we all packed our bags and then at 7 p.m. headed for the train station. Our tour guide for the trip was [View Full Entry]

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Normally Sundays in Florence are low key and on the boring side. Most of the stores are closed except for places that are very touristy. This is sometimes nice because it gives you a chance to unwind before the week begins again, but it can get irritating when stores such as the grocery store are closed making it impossible to do much of anything. This Sunday however, was not a typical Florentine Sunday. All of the girls in my apartment woke up at around 11 am because we were so exhausted from our weekend traveling in Paris. We slowly found our [View Full Entry]

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With the preconception of the hate that the French have for Americans, we were a little nervous to visit Paris. I had heard mixed experiences from students who had traveled to Paris in the past. Some raved about the city while others did not care for it at all. I decided to form my own opinion of Paris and visit it for myself. We booked the trip the first week that we were in Florence, expecting that it would be so far away. When Thursday rolled around and it was time to go, it was a huge wake up call that [View Full Entry]

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When coming to Italy I knew there were places that I definitely wanted to go and things that I had to see. For me, Venice was a place that I didn’t really care if I got a chance to visit or not. I don’t know why I didn’t care if I went, but I just didn’t. When I was in Switzerland half of my roommates went to Venice for the day, and when I came home they showed me pictures of the car-less city. It looked pretty cool, but I still didn’t have a dire need to go visit. Thursday night [View Full Entry]

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On Wednesday night I was at a bar with all of my roommates and the girls in our building. The bar was pretty dead, but we were with a pretty big group so it didn’t really matter, it was fun anyway. Everyone was singing karaoke and dancing around. I was near the stage and I looked to my right to see someone from Uconn who was not on the abroad trip with us. She had just graduated and was backpacking through Europe and just so happened to be in the same bar as all of us. I had never been really [View Full Entry]

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We have just been getting used to the city and exploring; after classes or on our days off we just wander around and try to get used to the city and what’s around us. We have found really good lunch places just by walking around. The food here is amazing; everything is so fresh and good. So far I think I have had a panini and gelato everyday. The gelato is so good, oh my god. There’s a place on my street that is going to be the reason I come back 10 pounds heavier. On the way back from class [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday was my first day of classes. My schedule is awesome, I only have classes on Monday and Wednesday which is going to make traveling and site seeing really easy. The classes that I am taking are Masters and Monuments and Contempary Italy. Masters and Monuments is awesome! We meet for an hour and have a lecture and then we walk around Florence for two hours and just look at churches and different architecture in Italy. My other class is kind of boring, but I get wireless in that classroom so it was a good chance to catch up on emails [View Full Entry]

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After the longest plane ride of my life, I finally arrived in Florence! We had a layover in Rome which was miserable because we all had to sit around for 3 hours and wait for our next plane to take off. At least I was with a big group of Uconn students though. Our flight to Florence took less than an hour, so that wasn’t bad at all. When we got off the plane in Florence it was mayhem. Our school didn’t really give us instructions on what to do when we landed; we just got an email that told us [View Full Entry]

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Since my departure is rapidly approaching (one week from tomorrow!!) I have decided to start a blog for when I am in Italy so you all can know what I'm up to. No promises on how often I will write in it, but hopefully I will keep you updated in between traveling and classes. See you when I get home!! Ciao! [View Full Entry]

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