Thursday, September 29, 2011

Travel Bliss...

It feels good to be back to "normal" life here in Firenze after about a week and half of traveling. 
Last weekend my roomies and I went to the Amalfi Coast located in the Southern part of Italy
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We visited Capri, Positano, and Pompeii

Talk about paradise.
Since I have a lot of projects i'm working on right now for school i'm going to break up my blog posts and do them all day by day for Amalfi and Paris trips...starting with day one in Amalfi on the island of Capri =] 

Capri
On day 1..we took a ferry to the Island of Capri and from there we went on a Island boat tour. Around the Island there are various Grottos which are small picturesque caves that are dark and when the sun shines on a specific area it causes the water to turn a bright color of blue or green. We got on smaller boats to go into one of the Grotto's and that was quite the experience. In order to get into the cave my 3 roommates and I had to lay dawn in the little boat while the guide pushed us through the opening. Ha. 

Once inside it is very dark and kind of creepy. It was totally different then what I was expecting and at first I didn't understand what was so great about these Grotto's. Then I caught glimpse of the bright blue color of the water and didn't question anymore. For a small fee (that only tourists pay because we are dumb and think we have to)...you can jump into the water for a few minutes. So we did, and I have a weird fear of water...if I can't see below me I freak out a little...so I put those thoughts aside and just enjoyed the refreshing water and the amazing view of the Grotto. It was pretty magical after that. ha. 

After the boat tour we explored Capri and (after a very long hike) we visited a public beach and relaxed for a little bit. We found some little cliffs and jumped off of them which was fun...o and not to mention the amazing views of Capri where breathtaking. On the way back we stopped at a free lemoncello tasting (drink that is popular here)..It was okay, i'd take a beer over it anyday =]
We watched the beautiful sunset on the way back to town and it is no wonder celebrities honeymoon, vacation, and live here! 

Here is a little tiny bit of the mass amount of pictures I took in Capri. We where all exhausted after visiting the Island and fell asleep on the ferry ride back..


As most of you know...my roommates and I are officially addicted to Nutella....it's not a casual o we have it here and there thing...NO we have a designated "Nutella time" that happens every night where we get our fruit and anything else there is to eat with nutella and we sit on the balcony and chat about our day which slowly somehow always leads to a conversation about nutella and our addiction to it. Anyways...we made sure when we went on our trips that we where able to get nutella time in so naturally Nutella has gone with us..everywhere....

 It is starting to get bad...Nutella Anonymous (NA) anyone?

=]
Psalm 37:4



Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Goodbye Duomo, Hello Eiffel Tower!!

Hello and Goodbye!
I just got back in town from the Amalfi Coast on Sunday, had classes on Monday (yesturday) and in about 10 minutes i'm leaving to head to the airport and be on my way to Paris until SUNDAY!!! So excited! I will have tons and tons to post when I get back =] I'll have no internet until Sunday....au revoir until then! <3

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Off to Pisa...

Shout out to my momma...Yesterday was her Birthday (hope I don't get in trouble for putting this but she celebrated her big 4-0!) She is quite the beauty =] Love ya

New York senior year for my 19th Birthday
Mothers Day 2011

My going away party she threw before I left for Italy-Aug. 2011

So last Saturday Monique, Brittany, and I decided to go to Pisa for the day to see the leaning tower of course. We left around noon and headed to the train station. We didn't plan anything out...just decided to figure it all out along the way and it was a blast. We got to the Santa Maria Novella train station and waited in line to get our tickets. We bought our tickets (only 12 euro round trip!) and headed to find our train. We looked at all the departures and asked 2 people where to go to catch our train...we talked to a train attendant who was getting ready to depart and he said O you get on this train...we double checked with him and he said yes this train, you need to stamp your ticket and he proceeded to tell us to "go run" hah. So we stamped our ticket and caught our train just in time and after walking through the majority of the train we finally found 3 seats next to each other.
An hour and a half later we arrived in Pisa!
Since we didn't really plan out this trip we where happy to find a map of the city outside of the train station.
Train station on the very bottom...Pisa in the top left corner
 We walked across town stopping at the river for a few pics. As we got closer to where the tower is located we got stopped by an Italian couple that where parking their car. The lady spoke no English and asked us for directions to the leaning tower. We told her to just go straight (event though we had no idea if that was the right way) and continued on our way. A few minutes later we all came to the realization that we AMERICANS just got stopped by ITALIANS asking for directions to the leaning tower of Pisa located in ITALY. HA
Shortly after that we saw in the distance what looked to be a leaning building...Woop woop we made it! American, no map, and no idea if we where going the right way and we managed to find the tower =]

Fun day! I love being able to hop on a train and see a cool city and do it all in a day!

My classes are almost done for this week and I am currently packing for my weekend trip to the Amalfi Coast....
Yeah, we're really roughing it this weekend.
After a couple projects and presentations I am so ready to relax at the beach and hike up Mount Vesuvius!
Next Tuesday I leave for Paris for 6 days!! We have a really busy schedule planned for the week and have so many amazing opportunities while we are there. I can't wait! First a weekend at the beach then Classes on Monday then off to Paris for a week! Love it!

I won't have internet this weekend or while I'm in Paris so I won't be able to keep in touch very well but leave me messages and here is my mailing address...feel free to write/send gifts like cheez-its (hint hint) haha

Brianna Zoldan
c/o KSU florence Program
Palazzo dei cerchi
Vicolo dei Cerci 1
50122 Florence
Italy
 Getting mail is seriously the best part of my day sometimes and I would love to hear from everyone! 
Buon fine settimana!!!

Proverbs 18:8
Psalm 101:5 
Psalm 34:13 
Hebrews 3:13 

Friday, September 9, 2011

Tempo per un aggiornamento....

Buonasera!!!

I haven't posted in so long=/ and I have so much to post! 
I've been really busy with classes and exploring these last two weeks and it is crazy to think that this is my 3rd week in Florence and I have already done so much! I love all of my classes with the exception of International Business (such a dragggg compared to the other awesome classes) and have been so interested in learning that I feel like a sponge soaking up as much as possible every day. And my mother would be proud, I sat in on a Art History class just because I found it so interesting...I loved it and plan on sitting in as much as possible this semester. I don't think my brain has worked this hard to soak stuff up in well either a long time or never. 
For my Italian Fashion & Culture class we go on site visits every Thursday as part of our class and so far I have visited the Uffizi Gallery and yesterday I toured the Salvatore Ferragamo Museum! Both where pretty amazing.
I also took my first field trip for my European study tour class to Siena last Friday. It was about an hour and a half bus ride and the scenery was so gorgeous on the way there. While in Siena we toured the Duomo Cathedral as well as the government building in the main Piazza. My tour guide was KSUF's art history professor and the amount of information this man knows is impressive. I have never been on a more interesting tour ever before and could actually recall the majority of everything he said. It was pretty sweet =]
For those of you who follow and don't have facebook here are my pictures from Siena...


There is never a dull moment here in Firenze and walking down the street is one of the most interesting experiences...one of these days i'll have to post pics or a video of it...my roommate Brittany and I laugh almost every time we walk somewhere from the ridiculous things we here and see.
We have met a lot of people and it is so cool to meet people from not only Italy or even Europe but from all over the world. In one night we met girls from California, guys from Australia (love the accents), 3 people from Germany, a girl from Russia, and my fave was a group of guys from Scotland who not only had the best accents but they introduced us to a place called Blob. Blob is an after hours bar/club in a random alley here in Florence. Sounds kinda sketchy eh hah I know but this is where we met a new friend. I was sitting in the entrance when all of the sudden my other roommate Mo starts laughing and pointing into the next room where Brit was up on the platform with headphones on dancing and having a blast with the DJ...
Brit rockin the DJ booth


Naturally we all joined in and ended up staying for a few hours rocking it out that night...Mo and I got to do a little DJing as well. Needless to say, we are now buds with mister DJ and I can't wait to get back up there!
Cutie =]
Life calling #2..
Up on the DJ booth with our new friend !


The weather here has tamed down a little compared to the first week when it was in the 100's everyday! It rained here for the first time last Sunday and was so peaceful. We opened the window and door to our balcony and relaxed to the tranquil sound. There is something exciting to look forward to everyday and I feel so blessed to be here.


Yesterday we went to the Duomo (main cathedral here in Florence that I'll probably refer to a lot)..it was an anniversary or birthday or something significant and as a result they opened up one of the top balconies to the public to visit for free...so in between classes my roommates and I went and climbed the claustrophobic stairs up to the balcony and took in the gorgeous view of the city... once again for those of you who haven't creeped on my Facebook pics here is another sideshow of that... 

Last night we went to Ponte Vecchio (I forgot I haven't posted anything about this bridge...maybe I'll do a feature post on this bridge because it is not only pretty but interesting too) Anyways...there where some street entertainers and boats floating down the river that where lit up and it was such a romantic and carefree kind of an atmosphere that I love. 
There was the cutest little girl who danced the whole time these two performed...she was loving life as she weaved through the people crossing the bridge to continue dancing. So cute. 

Well this has turned out to be quite a post and a random one at that =] I plan on posting more frequently to avoid the randomness! I have lots to share and am excited to create these posts in some of the coolest places like here in the Piazza della Signoria.....
Where I journal at night...There is always a cool breeze and someone playing music in the background. Love it



  A domani ;-]
Colossians 3:23