1. Visit the Vatican in the afternoon and St. Peters in the early evening right before it closes. All the tourist think they will be sneaky and get up early to stand in line before the doors of the Vatican Museum even open so they can beat the crowds-the problem is, every single other tourist in the city has that same thought. Go in the afternoon then head over to St. Peters at sunset when the crowds have all left and you have time to sit on the steps with [...]

1. Church bells go off every hour, but at strange times such as 12:17 or 9:43. 2. You can sit on a piazza with your friends and a pitcher of beer at 11:30 on a Saturday night and the people walking past you range from tiny kids who look a bit lost to really old people who also look a bit lost. Then to really kick up the weirdness, that piazza has a huge statue in the middle that looms over the bars full of drunk people to remind you [...]

Why I Love Euro Coins. 1. Everybody loves rainbows and Europe’s currency IS the rainbow. Grey, red, blue, orange, green, yellow, purple. Every bill is a brilliant shade of something wonderful for the eyes. Dollars are boring and green and kind of ugly. Yes, I said it. Ugly. America’s currency is an eye sore. 2. If you are visually impaired you can still buy things on your own since-guess what-Euros are different sizes! The 5 Euro is smaller than the 10 so the blind can use their spidey finger senses [...]

You know you are in Roma when… 1. You accidentally stumble across Francesco’s Holy Week Mass in St. Peter’s Square on the way home from class, and it blows your mind about how causal you consider this happening yet people from all over the world have traveled to Rome this month JUST for Easter and that mass. 2. You scored free tickets to Easter Mass in St. Peters from your teacher. 3. You go to a museum tour and the tour voice recording is the voice of the teacher who [...]

  Pope Pius XI never lost his childlike curiosity for how things worked and was in love with the newest gadget Marconi had just introduced to the world. Pope John Paul II sometimes put on a disguise to sneak out of the Vatican City walls to have coffee at the bar down the street or to spend a day skiing in local hills. Pope Pius XII was a man who tried his best to protect the Jewish people of Rome, but was just as afraid as anyone of the Nazis [...]

1. It rains only when you don’t have your umbrella. 2. The buses come when they please, and will definitely be late when you need to be somewhere important 3. The buses randomly change their routes mid-ride without any prior notice. 4. The local women have somehow mastered high heels on century old cobble stone and you will still trip all over the place in your flat soled shoes. Forget about heels since you will break your ankle. 5. It will be 38 degrees one day and 58 the next-and [...]

  My mom keeps emailing me to update me on how much snow she has to shovel out of her driveway. I’ve helped her shovel, it isn’t a pleasant task. Her house is on hill, so all the snow just piles up feet deep on one side and makes you want to cry a little inside, mainly since it is so misleading on how much work is involved. But instead of shoveling driveways or trying to bike to class in Minnesota, I’ve spent the past week on lovely little islands [...]

After my crazy month of February, I was more than welcoming of a weekend back in Florence. Classes are still going very well. Florence is starting to warm up a little bit more, but we’re forecasted for nothing but rain for the next couple days. Saturday marks exactly halfway through my semester abroad…whoa! Crazy to think I’ve already been here for that long! And, next Tuesday marks exactly three weeks until my family arrives in Florence — a day I am very excited for!! Our Spring Break started last Friday [...]

1. Fresh food is way cheaper than junk food. I know, right. This is where America fails. 2. If you try to go running in public or even do workouts in your apartment courtyard, you will be yelled at and called a whore by the local Italian women. Apparently here you are expected to go to the gym, change into workout clothes, work out, shower, re-do your makeup and get dressed again. That is just too much work. 3. Wine goes with every meal. 4. Drinking the cheap boxed cooking [...]

Rome:  This morning we woke up to face a bitter mood hanging over the apartment. The thunderstorms had ceased just a few hours earlier and we, at 7am, set out in uncertain weather to the Villa Adriana with our art history class…expecting an 8+ hour day of walking in rain, mud and a chilly breeze. And then a magical, wonderful thing happened. The sun peaked out. And it didn’t rain- not even a drop. Our entire day turned a 180 and suddenly we had 8 hours to explore these beautiful, [...]

The weekend of February 15th through the 17th, I met my roommate from last semester (Adam) and one his friends, (who are both currently studying in Paris) in Geneva, Switzerland. My train ride there was incredible — the train went through the Swiss Alps! Talk about some beautiful mountains!  The first night I got there, we ventured around the city for a while and ended up in a small pub for a beer and some supper — I had the first burger I’ve had since I’ve been here, and boy [...]

It still seems like a surreal experience! The entire time we were there, we kept referring to how it didn’t seem like a city like that should actually be able to exist. While we were there, it was the last weekend of “Carnevale”, a city-wide celebration of Italian culture. Some people really go all in on their costumes, so it was cool to get to see how intricate some of them were!    The first night, we stayed on the mainland at what seemed very similar to a KOA campsite. We [...]

Last week I woke up and just had an unexplainable urge to go to Switzerland. The idea of a weekend of mountains tickled me. Good thing I live in Roma and it was an entirely reasonable urge to have-so me and my roommate booked tickets to Zurich that night. On Thursday evening we flew into Zurich and the first impression we both had was “wow, this place is calm”, and that feeling stuck with me for the entire weekend. There is this strange sense of ease in Switzerland. Even in the [...]

  Each country has those things that make it unique. Italy is no different, so I am making a list of all the wonderful things that make Rome, Rome! You know you are in Roma when…. 1. Everyone is still wearing parkas, hats, and big scarves when it is 50 degrees and the locals give you judgmental/confused stares when you are wearing sandals and a simple zip-up hoodie 2. McDonalds are 100% classier than their counterparts in America 3. You can walk in or across the road when ever you [...]

Finally getting some more updating done! Spotty internet, midterms, and Spring Break have prevented me from posting, but I’m finally getting it done! The weekend of February 1st through the 3rd, I went to Milan and Lake Como (a beautiful mountain lake). The trip started off a little less than desired, to say the least. I had just started using my iPad as my alarm clock. Before I went to bed, I forgot to make sure the sound was turned up on it so I would hear my alarm, and [...]