Even though I spent last weekend in Florence, Pisa, and the Tuscan wine vineyards, I’m really behind on things I’ve learned in class all week. So here is my favorite outside-of-the-classroom experience of last week: The Doria-Pamphilj Palace. The palace (meaning large house in the city, while villa means large house in the countryside) is one of the few noble places in the world that is still inhabited by members of the original aristocratic family and is open to the public on a daily basis. So…obviously no pictures are allowed. [...]

Ciao! Roma is bella! After not having internet for a few days in our apartment, this post will be a condensed version of the first few days. The eight-hour, sleepless flight to Amsterdam: I sat smushed between Katie and this horribly cynical woman whose elbows were in my rib cage almost the entire flight while she studied her “Birds of Europe” book like she was being tested on it. Protip—don’t make small talk with me while I’m trying to watch Harry Potter 7. You and I both know that you [...]

I’m pretty sure the title of this post is: Packing Extravaganza! (Still working on my Italian.) Going abroad isn’t anything new to me. I’ve been out of the country on my own twice before in high school, so packing shouldn’t be hard right? Wrong. There are only 12 days until departure and packing a suitcase for two months takes a lot of preparation (just how much shampoo does one actually use in that amount of time? I guess I’ll find out.) I started packing the essentials tonight: THE ESSENTIALS IN [...]

On Wednesday we did our Made in Italy presentations and then took our final. We were so thankful to be done! Wednesday evening was spent out for our group dinner and I was lucky enough to sit at the end of the table with Tim Gunn. He told us about one of the small Italian villages he lived in when he first moved Italy. He talked about how Italians will never decorate the outside of their houses because they want the glory all to themselves and will decorate the inside. [...]

It has been such a long time since I have updated the blog. Since I last left off we have done a plethora of things. On the 11th Clare and I accompanied her Mom, Dad and brother, Ross, on a 13, even though it turned into about 15.5 hour excursion to Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast. Pompeii was spectacular and I was very excited to see Vesuvius. After Pompeii we drove through the mountains and down to the water on the Amalfi Coast. Little did Clare and I know we [...]

On the 9th and 10th we went to Ascea which is in Southern Italy. It is about an hour south of Naples. We went with our marketing professor, Fabiana. We went to Ascea with the intent of seeing her company, Combust, but instead ended up spending the entire time at the beach club opened last year by her associate Gianni. I am quite alright with the decision made because the Mediterranean trumps pretty much everything else on a sunny day. We arrived in Ascea and then watched the sun set. [...]

Another week has passed and it is amazing how time flies. Our time in Rome is slowly winding down but I feel like we only arrived here the other day. This coming week is going to be pretty exciting with a plethora of visitors from America arriving. Clare’s family is coming which means Ross is going to get to experience our favorite professor, Overton, as well as two other girls have friends arriving. This has potential to be a fabulous week. We also have a birthday to celebrate, our dear [...]

This past weekend we traveled to Tuscany to the Castello Bamfi winery and then on to Florence for a long weekend. Monday 29 June was a holiday in Rome so we were able to have quite a fun weekend in Tuscany. Castello Bamfi was started by two Italian Brothers from New Jersey and is now one of the most popular and awarded wines in the world. The winery has over 700 hecacres and includes a luxury hotel and 2 different resaurants. We took a tour of the grounds, which included [...]

First and foremost Clare and I made friends with the kitties. We stopped at Largo Argentina and went into the kitty adoption agency to meet all the nice kitties. One cat, Zucre, is all white and is a skin cancer survivor. He is not allowed to go outside anymore because he likes to lay in the sun, which is the root of all his problems. All the kitties are wonderful and just want to be loved.  The adoption agency at Largo Argentina is a great program which runs solely on [...]

Our days in Rome seem to be flying by. Every day is filled with a gelato treat, learning and laughter.  Our apartment gets along very well and we are generally always together—yet we are not sick of one another. They somehow managed to make a great pairing. If we do not go out to dinner as a group we make dinner together and enjoy watching the sun set on Rome. Our classes have been going quite well, that’s right, all five of us are in the same classes. We are [...]

We  have officially arrived in Rome and are enjoying every moment. At first our hotel seemed like drywall added to a carriage house, and honestly never really got any better. But our apartment is amazing. We live in an apartment in the Monti neighborhood on the 4th floor, yes, that means we climb over 4 flights of stairs everyday to get back in. Exhausting, especially in this heat, but we will all have rock solid calves. We live with 2 other people, Katharine and Micah. Our apartment happens to have secret [...]

I leave for Chicago in roughly 14 hours and have finally finished packing. It had gotten to the point where my Mom was taking things away from me. I had to barter 3 shirts for a dress.  Simplicity is not my thing. I guess being prepared far in advance also isn’t my thing seeing as I almost packed a pair of pants to take to Europe that I would have to get hemmed there. I mean they have seamstresses, I could just go to Milan and have my pants hemmed. [...]