Bar Crawl Gone Wrong

We went on a bar crawl for my friend Claire's birthday last thursday night. We planned on going to seven bars in one night, but we didn't make it past the first two, haha.

3 Weeks Left!

Time is running out! I only have 3 weeks left and there is so much stuff that I have to squeeze in. Unfortunetly, I don't think I will be able to update the blog much anymore. With final exams, projects, and 3 big papers due in the coming weeks..along with traveling..I am really pressed for time.

I visited four places last weekend: Cinque Terra, Genoa, Portafino, and Fiesole.

This weekend my schedule is: Naples, Pompeii, the Amalfi Coast and Capri.

I'll try to post a few pictures when I can.

One of the cities in the Cinque Terra

16 in 27

I have 16 more cities that I want to visit in 27 days.

No Title Necessary..lol

Protein

I'm trying to get back into shape for the summer. I consume a lot of weight training supplements at home. Here, I don't have access to these products so I have to do things ROCKY style!

This supply will last me about a week:

I'm Back!

I had a pretty awesome time in Portugal and Spain. We couldn’t have asked for better weather. It stayed in the mid 70’s all week and it was only cloudy one day. I don’t feel like writing up a whole story about the trip because that would take too long and I’m too lazy right now. Instead, I’ll leave you with a few tantalizing pictures that depict the trip.

Portugal

Spain

Jersey Shore Countdown

51 Days

Spring Break

We finally have our spring break next week. For the past three years, my spring break has consisted of going back home to New Jersey. I love the NJ, but Cancun or Acapulco would have been nice. So this year I’m making up for lost time by traveling to Portugal and Spain.

Why Portugal?

I’m traveling to the Algarve in Portugal, an area which receives 3000 hours of sunshine per year. It’s one of the hottest European summer destination spots. Supposedly, there are a lot of beautiful beaches with jagged cliffs, booze cruises, and cheap food.

Why Spain?

I saw Carnevale in Venice so it’s only fitting that I join in on the festivities of La Feria de Abril in Seville, Spain. It's one of the biggest celebrations in Europe, its Spain’s version of Mardi Gras. Supposedly, there are a ton of decorations, parades, bullfights, flamenco and much more.

I’ll be gone from April 7th to April 16th so I will not be able to update the blog. We arrive in Rome on Easter. It would be awesome to attend Easter Mass at the Vatican, but I know it'll be packed.

Easter Eggs

Easter is approaching and many bakeries have been gearing up for the holiday. Many traditional foods are produced during this time. One of them is the colossal size chocolate Easter eggs. You can check out some of them in this picture.

Funny Salon Sign

Hee-Haw, Hee-Haw...it's Dominick the...

Mantova

It was a school trip to Mantova and Ferrara last weekend. School trips are organized through Arcadia University and they provide transportation and lodging at a hotel. So far, every town that we’ve visited through school has been really cool, but Mantova and Ferrara were small towns with not much to do. Nevertheless, it was an interesting weekend.

We were told to meet at the bus station on Saturday morning for 7:00 AM. I got ready a few minutes early so that I could catch the sunrise.

On these school trips we never actually leave on time because there are always a couple stragglers that roll in late, this time we didn’t leave until 7:30. All together, there were only 18 of us on the bus when we left (there were 60 of us on the last school trip). I guess the other people had the heads up about Mantova and Ferrara. Our chaperon for the trip was Monica. She’s another Italian teacher, probably in her early 40’s and we like her because she’s pretty cool.

The bus ride to Mantova was about 2 ½ hours, but it felt like 4. I only uploaded 60 songs on my MP3 player before I left for Italy so I am absolutely sick of every song on it, but I force myself to listen because there is nothing else to do.

We arrived in Mantova at 10:30 AM. It was too early for hotel check in so Monica took us on a short walking tour of the city.

Here’s a picture of a palace and everyone trying to act interested. We went inside and it was pretty cool, but I wasn’t allowed to take any pictures.

After the tour we were really hungry. Usually, we split up and do our own thing, but this time all 18 of us went to lunch at Cantina Canosa. Monica gave us the heads up on a few traditional local dishes. I thought I’d give it a shot, so I was one of the adventurous few who ordered the pumpkin ravioli….and the verdict?? They were really good! Very sweet, it was like eating candy, it brought back good memories of my mom’s pumpkin cookies. They didn’t give you a lot though. I like going for quantity over quality, but this time it was worth it.

We went back to Hotel Dante and checked into our rooms. It felt like we had seen most of the town so we weren’t sure about what to do for the rest of the day. We had heard something about a nice lake nearby. A couple of us met in the lobby and we invited Monica to come with us. She thought the idea was fabulous and led us to a supermarket where we could pick up some wine. Once there, we walked into a goldmine, wine for 1 Euro. Our teacher warned us about cheap wine and tried recommending something in the 3-4 Euro price range. We didn’t listen and some people bought bread and cheese.

We found a nice picnic table at the park and at once opened all 7 bottles of wine with a pocket knife. We didn’t have any cups so we started drinking out of the bottle and Monica flipped out when she saw this. She started rambling in Italian, but we understood the gist of it. It’s not appropriate to drink wine out of the bottle. We thought it was really funny. We felt bad so some people left to buy cups. This is a picture of some of us with the wine.

Later, it started raining and we went back to the hotel. Shortly after, everyone was overcome with blushed faces, severe headaches, and drowsiness. No one was in the mood to do anything. Monica warned us about buying the cheap wine and I guess we learned a valuable lesson.

We organized a group dinner for later that night. I forget the name of the place, but it was very small and we waited an hour to be seated. I followed a sign for the bathroom which led directly outside where you had to continue walking for about 20 meters to an outhouse. Anyways, I was looking at the menu and the first course was an easy choice. I chose the homemade pasta with pork, Parmigiano and a balsamic vinegar sauce.

So I’m looking at the second courses and I’m thinking to myself, I tried the pumpkin ravioli earlier today so why stop now? So I’m like…ah what the hell…I’ll get the donkey. I was the only brave sole to order it and I was nervous, very nervous. Everyone was laughing and they were staring at me when I went in for the first bite….and the verdict?? Thank god, it was edible. It tasted a little like pot roast, but with a lot of fat and a weird after taste. Well I finished that baby, but I think I'll stick to ordering chicken and pasta from now on.

Hee-Haw Hee -Haw

Ferrara

We woke up easily the next morning for one reason. Two words, continental breakfast. I haven’t had a real breakfast in so long. I usually eat cereal every morning because it’s easy and efficient. These free buffet style breakfasts are incredible, I had to pace myself. I think some people go on the school trips just for this reason alone.

We only spent a couple hours in Ferrara so there isn’t much to write about. We found a castle that had a cool moat, a drawbridge, and large cannon.

There was some type of parade going on with people dressed up in medieval costumes and playing instruments.

There was also an open market with a lot of old posters, books, and antiques.

Then, we found a bunch of chickens. The chickens were fighting each other and it brought back good memories of that Seinfeld episode when Kramer enters "little Jerry" into the cock fight.

Lastly, we ate lunch at Cyclone Pizzeria and I couldn’t leave Ferrara without ordering the “Cyclone Pizza.” The ingredients: Mozzarella, Ricotta, Pomodoro, Cipelle, Rugula and Salami Piccante. The bus ride back to Florence was long and it sucked.