Tuesday, June 14

The amount of stairs we climbed today would add up to around a THOUSAND. Yep, that’s a lot of stairs. And yep, I walked every one. Today we took a day trip to Cinque Terra, which is on the west coast of Italy. There are many little towns near each other and we hiked along the side of a mountain for about 3 kilometers from one of the beautiful towns to another. Even though it wasn't that long of a distance, we hiked up and down the most difficult trail that was available. The view was impeccable.



And SO worth the climb. I am proud to tell my soccer coaches that I was able to work out on this trip, and boy was that a work out. Best day so far. We hit up the beach after for a couple hours and soaked up the hot Italian sun. Oh yeah, and did I mention that most of the men wear speedos? Unfortunately I have gotten used to it.

Monday, June 13

It's officially been a week since I last saw the United States.

Back to Roma!
I finally stepped foot in the Colloseum! After learning about and studying it in Latin for the past 3 years, I finally got to see it in person and walk where the Romans walked.



I have seen the Roman Forum innumerable amounts of times in my Latin textbooks and online, and being able to walk in it and see the ruins and THE ARCH OF TITUS (which is my favorite thing that I have been looking forward to this whole trip) was ah-mazing. Lots of walking. But worth it.


We walked to the Capital building of Rome as well as the Trevi Fountain!!!! Let me paint another scenario for you:
A young innocent American girl (me again!) finds herself eye-to-eye with an ancient fountain of love. Hundreds scurry past her. Men, women, children, families, even a really REALLY cute Italian boy....beside the point. She walks down the steps to the edge of the water. Mist sprays across her face. It feels nice on that hot day in Rome. Clasping a one euro coin from her purse pocket, she takes her stance by the edge of the fountain and turns her back to it. A friend takes her place with her camera. On 'three' after making her wish, Rachel throws the coin over her RIGHT shoulder (very very wrong) and hears the click of the camera followed by the clinking of a coin. She missed. A couple stood by watched the whole event occur and quickly told her (in the best half-english, half-who knows what) that she needed to throw the coin from her right hand over her LEFT shoulder. She picked up her failed coin and had a second chance! This time she closed her eyes, made her wish yet again, and let go of the coin mid-air, only to hear a splash this time. It worked. And she hopes that her wish will come true.


Following that experience, we all walked to the Pantheon, which is the oldest standing church in the world (I believe). THEN we went to the Spanish Steps. Massimo told us that this is where young boys and girls hang out and meet each other. Sounds like my place. Madeline and I posted up on one of the bottom steps to scope out the boys. Let me tell you, this is the place where all the cute Italian boys come. And let me tell you, we got many many looks and stares. Mission accomplished. Massimo didn't hesitate to come over to us and talk to us. Our conversation went somewhat as follows:

"Stop trying to get the Italian boys!"
"But, Massimo, we're just sitting here! (giggles)"
"They are dirty pigs and you are just a number to them. You should try to be more than just a number. I am going to make you wear nun costumes tomorrow if you don't stop"
"But papa! (we are all his little girls) they are the ones looking at us!"
"No! Forbidden! Go sit with the others!"
Hahaha, Massimo was very protective over us, and though more was conversed, that was the gist of the banter. I will miss him very much.

Sunday, June 12

This morning we packed all of our stuff and put it in a taxi to take it all to our new hotel. Our original reservations got mixed up somehow so we had to change hotels. After our belongings left, we made our way to Del Duomo AGAIN. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen all I ever wanted to see of the Del Duomo, so instead of taking pictures of the building again like everyone else, I sat down on the ground and practiced taking pictures of bicyclists using a panning technique.



When we came together again we skedaddled off to a world-famous gelato shop called Grom. Apparently it is imported to New York and because it is so expensive to import, it is the most expensive gelato per ounce in the United States. We were able to watch the workers make the gelato and we got to try some afterwards. It was delicious.



We then began a long walk to an uliveto, which is an olive grove, and ate the best olive oil on bread and different meats. It was delicious!

Firenze

Saturday, June 11

Today was amazing!
We are staying at this quaint little hostel called Hotel Esperanza (Hope)(also not really a hotel) and our street name is Via De Inferno. Which is very ironic and awesome. We are Hope in Hell. We started off the morning with a roll and jam. Oh and I had coffee. Oh and that's it. Yep, that was our breakfast- I started to think I might lose weight on this trip....until much later, but we'll get to that when it comes. First on our agenda we walked to the Piazza del Duomo, which is a plaza with a HUGE building, Del Duomo of course, as its main attraction. Carolyn and David gave us a scavenger hunt with many things to find pictures of and/or video. We headed out in groups of 4 to explore wherever we wanted in Florence (which in Italian is Firenze) and found ourselves in many neat places. One thing on the list was to video a random couple telling the story of how they met, and my group found a precious British couple who gladly told us their story (it wasn't very interesting). Then we got them to take a picture of our group jumping in the air and this is what we came out with:

Cute right?

After we finished our scavenger hunt, which by the way we found out later that Erin's group accidentally ran into the Jersey Shore's work place AND saw Pauly D (so stinkin jealous), we all headed out to eat lunch. I had their vegetable soup with bread Tuscan style (which means the bread is like in the soup so it actually is not a soup anymore) and it was deliciozo! Also, for desert we had Nutella on a waffle thing which was RIGHT up my alley considering I love Nutella. So I pretty much died and went to heaven. This is what it looked like before I devoured it:


With our full stomachs we continued to trek through the streets and ended up at a museum. The museum showcased Lorenzo Bartolini’s sculptures as well as the Statue of David by Michelangelo!!! The real one! It was amazing to see something that famous with my real eyes. He is huge.

After our fair share of naked men and women viewing in the museum we took about a 40 minute walk to a Giglio Cooking school in Florence, yes I said COOKING SCHOOL! We were able to learn how to cook genuine Italian food! It was fantastic! The menu consisted of:
First course- Ravioli ricotta e spinaci (Spinach and ricotta ravioli)
Main course- Pollo alla cacciatore (chicken cacciatore)
Side- Patate Arrosto (Roasted Potatoes)
Dessert- Tiramisu’
We dined like kings and queens.

Hit on update:
- a waiter at a restaurant on the outskirts of the Piazza del Duomo came up to me and Madeline and tried to get us to eat at the restaurant. He said he had a special dinner for us. We walked away.
- a 50 year old man raised his eyebrows at me and said things in Italian to me while looking me up and down as he walked by. EW.
- At the piazza these two boys walked past our group and kept staring at us. They then strategically walked past us again and said hi to me and smirked. THEN they stood about 10 feet away STARING at me for the longest time. Every time I looked over I would catch them looking and they kept motioning and trying to get me to go over to them but I wouldn’t. Then our group finally left.
- Leaving the piazza while walking with Massimo I received a ‘ciao bella’ from a man walking past us. Massimo felt like he needed to tell me it wasn’t for him.

Friday, June 10

8:oo am

5170 miles later......

I just ate a quiche in France!!!! Ahhhh!!! We landed in the Paris airport and immediately went to find food.

Let me paint this scenario for you:
An innocent American girl (me, of course) waits in line at a French café. (I feel like I’m writing a book.) As she approaches the counter a young French male behind the counter, in full chef uniform might I add, makes eye contact with her. She starts out by asking, “Do you speak English?” To this she receives confused eyebrows and a slight glance to his colleagues. In an attempt to make things better, and less awkward, she says in a high-pitched giggly voice, “It’s okay I can point!” More confused eyebrows, and this time a slight smile. She then proceeded to point at a bread item with chocolate chips in it. (Chocolate is her favorite.) The man cannot figure out which item she is pointing at, so she awkwardly continues to giggle and points to the pastry she wants. He gets it right. More mutual giggles and smiles. At checkout a French lady starts spitting out full sentences in French and arouses louder awkward giggles from the girl. Did I mention how AWKWARD this situation is? Finally she pays and leaves in a stupor of embarrassment. Couldn’t get any worse right? HA. This is Rachel Owens. Of course it gets worse. The nearest bathroom is conveniently on the other side of this café. With only one way to get to it- through the café. She walks through the café with a safety buddy (standard protocol) and catches eye contact with the French male. Uh oh. He gives her a smirk as she passes by trying to contain her giggles. She manages to pass without any embarrassment. On the way back from the bathroom she was lucky and the male was busy, so they did not see each other that time. She made it through alive.

THEIR PASTRIES ARE DELICIOUS BY THE WAY! French food is worth the trouble.

Erin and I walked around trying to pass time during our layover and found this huge glass bowl for putting money in for an organization. It literally had every type of currency in the world! We saw yen and pesos and dollars, euros, currency from Brasil, an Islamic country, and multiple Asian countries too. It was really cool to see them all in one place. Talk about integrating cultures!



Okay so there is this really creepy Asian guy sitting in our terminal. Let’s place him at around the age of 35. Our whole group of girls is completely off sleeping schedule because we lost 7 hours on the flight to Paris, so we are all curled up on the floor of the airport wrapped in blankets trying to sleep. (Claire took pictures, don’t you worry.) Well, this creepy guy is SUCH a perv and has been staring at us for the past 2 hours! I have been the only one awake, typing away at this keyboard, and whenever I look in his direction I catch him looking at us. Whenever a girl walks past him he looks her up and down at least twice and it makes me want to throw up. Let’s just say I will pick a different way to walk once I have to get up. That’s that.

4:30pm
We just landed in Roma!!! We met our leaders outside of baggage claim, their names are Carolyn and David. So far they seem really cool- Carolyn has been living in Italy for a school program for a couple of years I think so she is our go to girl for communicating and translating. David is cool too, he has a tattoo on his upper arm/shoulder but I can only see part of it. I will find out what it is by the end of this trip.

FLORENCE IS BEAUTIFUL!!!!!


And Massimo remembers me!!! He looked at my face to make sure I didn't have any scars and then he kissed it! He's so precious, I am so excited to have him as our expert again. He has already corrected me on the way I held my camera...typical Massimo. I am going to live here for a portion of my life. I want to work in a café (hopefully meet another cute foreign boy….joking….not really) and own my own mo-ped. In college I have officially decided that I want to take Italian as a language. Watch out, Italy, here I come.

Things I have learned about Italy (from the airport and train station):
-just about everyone smokes
-men are not ashamed to wear hot pink pants
-everything to eat has bread, cheese, and/or tomato
-Italian men are VERY attractive. (If they are not wearing pink pants.)
-trains are a very efficient mode of travel (and you get to feel like you’re going back in time)
-dogs are popular to take to train stations apparently
-people will wear pretty much any type of clothing, whether it fits or not
-there is graffiti EVERYWHERE. Even on the street walls in Florence
-GELATO= my life. The end.
-carrying suitcases up extremely steep stairs is extremely difficult
exhibit A:

Thursday, June 9

Our trip has officially begun. We made it passed security successfully without any issues, and we are in the terminal. Now we wait. There are only girls on this trip…I usually get along with guys better than I do with girls. I don’t know how long I can tolerate all of this estrogen. Wish me luck.

Things I’ve learned so far:
-props to Air France for having amazing food
-airplane bathroom sink water…..just don’t.
-cute foreign boys don’t always have cute personalities
-Most (actually all) French guys look gay. Sorry, but it’s true. (Hahahaha our flight attendant is actually gay. Thanks Pierre.)
-If you’re the one with the sleeping pills, get ready to have a lot of new best friends
-do not use airplane complementary blankets/pillows UNLESS they are wrapped in plastic. Especially stay away from your pillow if it has gross brown stains on it. I’m not even going to go there.
-On the tv in front of you, please press on music and go to “French Favorites”. You will laugh. Guaranteed.
-LITTLE BABIES DO NOT BELONG ON AIRPLANES!!!! We have two little boogers within a 20 feet radius and that is precisely why I am blogging right now and NOT sleeping.
-On long trips you always need boys for 2 reasons- to carry your stuff and to have a shoulder to sleep on (told you you should’ve come Ryley)
-People smell
-When a flight attendant repeats “go back to your seats and sit down” about 5 times while staring right at you, assume he is talking to you and obey. Without a smirk on your face.
-The Adjustment Bureau= watch it.
- I cannot sleep in any position on a plane- knees up, legs up, face up, backwards forwards or sideways
-I don’t like when people touch me
-I have a low tolerance for incompetent people
-airplane coffee is just as good as my dad’s. Sorry daddy.

Random thoughts: Does North Korea have an airport? And do babies have to buy a ticket to fly?