Olá! Time for our first true weekend trip! Around 5:30 pm Thursday night we loaded into our first taxi to the Florence airport to fly to Lisbon! We breezed through security and boarded our extremely turbulent plane into the city. The plane ride there I spent catching up on journaling and doodled the duomo!

Ciao! I am a few weeks behind on posting just because of all the busy traveling I have been up to! But here is the week of January 18-24: 

Woke up at a sharp 7:00 am on Saturday morning to begin our first trip: Roma! Only about an hour and a half train ride from Florence, Diana, Nat, Grace, and I decided to take a day trip outside of the city! We arrived at Santa Maria Novella train station around 8:30 to board our direct train into the city after stopping for a quick croissant and coffee to start the morning. The train was easy and got us into Rome around 10:00! We walked straight into the city from there to stand in line early at the Colosseum to get an early tour. 

Ciao! This week marked the first official week of classes here in Florence! While sad to see my all day freetime to explore the city dwindle, I must say it was needed to get my life back on a schedule after a week of settling in. For the first time in my life I don't have early classes & actually start classes at 1:30 pm on Monday Wednesdays! Getting to catch up on sleep Monday morning started me off well for the first week of classes. At 1:30 I had my first Italian language class, a new type of learning for me considering my 8 years of Latin never taught us to speak out loud in conversation. But, it is incredibly satisfying to begin to put the pieces of things i've heard out on the streets and read in menus together. At 3:00pm, I headed to my Introduction to Oil Painting class in the art studio, a class that I have not only been stoked for these upcoming few months but for all of my time at UVA! I have always wanted to take an art class yet never had the room in my schedule. But I cannot complain at all about getting the chance to take it in one of the most artistic cities in the world! After classws wrapped up for the night, I met Cali Jane and Coco out for dinner at Borgo Antico right down the street from my apartment & got a delicious first day of class dinner of paccheri and a Hugo Spritz! My roommates and I got ready together and headed out to JJs Irish Pub with the best view of the Duomo in Florence! We all hung out, debriefed our first days of school, and headed back for a successful day of classes on Tuesday!

Ciao, Firenze! I began my Florence adventure on Friday morning bright and early with orientation for ISI! I walked over the Ponte Vecchio for the first time & got the first look at my new city in the daylight! At orientation we covered all the basics for the program & I got to feel settled for classes starting on Monday! We concluded orientation with a walking tour of the city center where I caught up with old UVA friends and met a bunch of new people on my program! I met Diana and Coco for lunch at Pizza Napoli 1955 and got the 1955 pizza with fresh cherry tomatoes, spicy sausage, pesto, and burrata! Still without luggage, we briefly shopped around at Zara, H&M, and took our first stroll through the leather market where I got myself a new green suede shoulder bag for class. We crossed the Ponte Vecchio back over to Santo Spirto and got the chance to admire this wonderful yellow umbrella on the bridge contrasted with the rainy weather. Diana, Coco, and I made notes of the cool vintage shops and leather stores we wanted to try later on & made our first stop at Conad, the local grocery store in our neighborhood. For Dinner, we went to the famous Alla Vecchia Bettola in Santo Spirito to try the slightly overhyped Penne alla Vecchia (a take on homemade vodka sauce) which was delish but has been beaten by other dishes I have had. Their house Chianti, on the other hand, was a delicious red to have with dinner. 

The first leg of the trip begins! Dad, mom, and I set off for the Atlanta airport around 1:30 on Tuesday after a delicious last American feast (Watkinsville Zaxbys). Passed through Social Circle (bye Ren :( ). Upon arrival, we rolled all three of my bags to the Delta counter in an attempt for a swift and efficient check in for my 4:30 pm flight. But alas, what better words to come out of the Delta attendant's mouth than "Ma'am, we don't see you booked on this flight." After about an hour and a half of hubub at the desk, we concluded that Air France removed me from the flight due to their own personal overbooking of the flight. Cannot say I called that one or that it gave me a good feeling for the rest of the trip (foreshadowing).  Glancing at my watch, it was 4:00 pm. Boarding in 30 minutes in the biggest airport in the world. Had an extremely rushed and emotional goodbye with my parents to then barrel through Atlanta security with a backpack on my back and on the front (pregnant turtle style).