Long time no blog....SORRY!!

My quote of the day : The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved.

After reading this I realized that I have left all those I love in the dark for too long! I sincerely apologize, and now I have an overwhelming amount of catching up to do! But first things first, I love you all so much and miss you like crazy!

Since my last post I have been made many weekend trips to various cities in Italy. I'll try to give a short synopsis of each of my visits!

Florence: Ended up staying with 3 boys in a really hotelish hostel. The company was great, never having a brother I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed immature boy humor! The most used joke involved Firenze (Florence in Italian), ex. I'm glad I'm here with my Firenzes!!! or We're about to have a feeding Firenze!! Cheesy, but entertaining for most of the trip until the train ride home by which the joke had been completely exhausted.
The highlights of this trip consisted of seeing the statue of David. There is nothing more perfect on this planet. We didn't have to wait and I think I did around 15 laps around his magnificently sculpted body. This is a must see for everyone. It's amazing that Michelangelo did this at the age of 19, how someone ever invisions and creates such masterpieces is beyond me, although I'm sure Lisa Wolff could give him a run for his money!
Our second night we hiked up to Piazza Michelangelo where we watched a beautiful sunset over the whole city! Sunset, good Firenzes, and wine could quite possibly be the best combination of wonderfulness. Needless to say this was maybe my favorite part of the trip.
We didn't go to the top of the Duomo although maybe we should have, but the line was long and the weather was beautiful so the thought of paying to walk up hundreds of stairs did not sound appealing. Instead we went to the leather market where I could have spend most if not all my money. Luckily I stuck to buying presents for the fam, leaving with nothing for myself....cry! But I did get to try on an orange leather jacket in rememberance of my home state!!! Would have bought it if only it had pockets and a hood. It just wasn't practical without those things.
We ate well as I have everywhere I've been in Italy. Of course my Italian is not so wonderful so for supper I was under the impression that I ordered scallops. This was not a horrible assumption seeing as I ordered Scallopine. When my plate came I was faced with thin thin white meat. Before my first bite I was still convinced that they had prepared the scallops in an "Italian" way. I had ordered veal. Quite the opposite of scallops, but luckily more delicious in my opinion!
Important tid bit for all of you who will probably meet my future husband whoever that will be, I know where my engagement ring is so you can let him know! Ponte Vecchio! Pretty much any ring from any of the 50 little shops would suffice!
The trip was very enjoyable and I would love to return at some point, but it was a small town that was perfect for a weekend excursion. I was glad to get back to bustling Rome!

Tivoli: This small mountainside town is just about an hour and a half outside of Rome. It is known for Hadrian's Villa and Villa Desta. I came away from this trip with several important realizations. 1) Never EVER think that it is necessary to be early to any happening lead by an Italian. Early is 10 minutes late plus time to grab a coffee and have one last cigerette. 2) Nora when you build my house, I must have multiple fountains inside and outside. Thank you. 3) Must eat gelato in every Italian city. 4) Hadrian's Villa was beautiful, but holy moly I'm glad I will never even have the money to live somewhere like that....too overwhelming for me. But the architecture was amazing and everything was so spectacular, even the turtles in the various pools looked noble!

Ariccia: This was just a supper about 45 minutes outside of Roma. I went with my friends and their Italian roommate in celebration of finishing exams! We met up with 3 other Italians, 2 French, and one Spanish girl! My ears were pleasantly overwhelmed and my mouth was only used for eating. Ariccia is known for it's cheap typical Italian cuisine as well as a bridge that has seen so many suicides there are now nets that will comfortably catch those who would like a taste of committing suicide. Although this was a good idea in theory it's very apparent that if one is determined to die jumping from this particular bridge they would just take a pit stop in the net and then push on. Though this was quite sad it was interesting that this particular bridge is known all over. I guess it's appealing for it's beautiful view of Roma. Anywho, the food was delicious! There are no menus, you get what is fresh and you get a lot! The spread consisted of 6 or 7 different cold cuts, the most famous being porchetta, green olives, fresh mozzerella, beef jerky type meat, stuffed tomatoes, another type of strong cheese, keesh, fresh bread, grilled eggplant, potatoes, all the wine you could drink, tiramisu, and good coffee (this is measured by how quickly the sugar drops to the bottom of the cup: slower drop=better coffee). The food was served in a tapas style which is always fun.

Capri and Naples: Possibly the best weekend ever!!! This was a very very last minute trip, which I'm always amazed worked out perfectly, somehow in Italy last minute is how things are meant to happen. Christian and I decided to go to Naples and Pompeii on Tuesday for just a Saturday and Sunday trip, but on Friday decided to go to Capri all day Saturday and spend Sunday in Naples. We left early early not being able to sleep on the 3 hour train ride due to a talkitive French woman sitting across from us. I don't think she stopped talking the whole trip...pretty impressive acutally. Arriving in Naples we had hopes of walking to our hostel seeing as we normally find our way fairly well, but with our ferry leaving soon we jumped in a taxi. Our driver was not the nicest and tried his damnest to rip us off but he did have a conscious seeing as by the time we got out the 20 euro ride (without turning on the meter) was only 10 euro, "just because of your beautiful smile" he told me. Pssh! Our hostel which was acutally a bed and breakfast was perfect!!! It's called Vicoletti and I highly reccommend it! After leaving our luggage with Melissa, we ran to the port to catch our ferry to Capri! The ferry was packed end to end with tourist, fully equipped with headphones and their round-the-neck radio as well as fanny packs and cameras at hand. Luckily we sat with the most entertaining passengers! Picture this: a typical Italian couple facing us (as in their seats were backwards) who made out constantly, but were very friendly offering food and gum to everyone, an Asian girl looking to be 12 but probably in her twenties, a stern, but o so sweet, incredibly attractive Italian grandfather holding his two year old grandson. So, as the Italian couple is graciously offering food the Asian girl is eagerly taking everything, which is funny seeing as I am used to someone taking one of something if anything that is offered by a complete stranger. Soon after the eating was finished the Italian girl begand to feel ill as did the rest of the ferry which was apparent to the thousands of plastic bags being handed to every other passenger. Although this was sad it was also a relief. The handing out of the plastic bags eliminated the tourists' collective "woooo" over every single wave. The Asian's head begins to bob as sleep sets in. This is something that has always amused me, the infamous head bob that we all hope doesn't happen when we drift on trips, but we know it happens, along with the open mouth and occasional drool. Sleep has also overtaken the 2 year old who is comfortably engulffed by his grandfather, if only I could have fit in his arms like that!! Funny thing is about 20 minutes into the hour long ferry ride the Asian's head bob becomes an intense leaning to the left which lead her head to a nice resting place on the grandfather's shoulder. HAHAHAHAHA I could not stop laughing mainly because the grandfather didn't even glance at her. He held that baby and let some random Asian nap on his shoulder like that was what he was put on this earth to do! I wish so badly that I could have taken a picture! And when the boat stopped and she woke up there was no eye contact, no sorry, no smile, no laught, just parting ways! O we humans are just the funniest things! And to top everything off the Asian was wearing a shirt that had absolutely no meaning at all: "The person which has hope for is the person with the personality." Hilarious and I have no clue what she was trying to communicate by wearing that!
Anyway we made it to Capri with soar stomachs from laughing. The view from the port was just a preview of all the beauty that our eyes would see throughout the day. We set off to find the city center which turned out to be up, just up and up and up and up and up. We walked up for about 30 minutes stopping randomly to catch the views of the sea and house covered mountains. The city center was quaint with expensive cafes, jewelry, and Prada nonetheless! So we continued up in hopes of finding some bread and cheese, but we stumbled upon the most magnificent view I've every laid eyes on!!! the back side of the island seeing only the Medditerrainean and coastline. We were on top of a cliff the went straight down, as down as you could go. I literally jumpped up and down when we looked out. It was one of those views that you didn't know really existed but you're so glad it does cause just looking your whole life seems to be refreshed. We then took a small bus to Anacapri on the other side of the island where all the buildings are white which creates the most beautiful contrast with the blue sky and green trees. All the houses and businesses are identified by matching painted tiles! I will make a collage when I get home, they were so cool! We decided to try to get to the water and watch the sunset, but soon realized that there was no way considering everything was a drop off. So we sat on a small wall on the side of the road and graciously accepted the setting sun's rays for several hours while taking hundreds of pictures thinking that at least one would capture the feeling we had inside.
Back in Naples our fuzzy warm feeling was replaced with a chilled chaotic rush caused by the frantic unorganized crowds on the street. There was a strong wind that night causing pieces of trash to blow down the street. Groups of middle school to high school aged kids ran through the streets chasing and hitting on each other. There was yelling and an eery feeling that everything could take a turn for the worst at any moment. It was starkly obvious that there is no structured control over the city and it's creept to think that the mafia has so much influence even today.
Sunday was a lowkey day consisting of sitting on huge rocks jutting out into the sea and watching a sailing regatta! The boats were so majestic and I couldn't help but get a little homesick wishing that I was at the lake in the sunfish with all my wonderful family. Luckily I was quickly distracted by delicious Napolean pizza! It is true that they have the best pizza. It's mainly the dough that makes it so good in my opinion. There is a perfect balance between the crust being undercooked and burnt creating the perfect consistancy and taste. We had coke out of the bottle to accompany our huge pizzas! Perfect!
I was pleasantly surprised at Christian and my ability to complete an entire weekend without any mishaps or spending too much money. I felt strangely mature but at the same time young enough to do all the fun crazy things that adults "aren't supposed to do." I came back glad to see Roma Termini, but with a relaxed refreshed and renewed sense of my experience here. I guess I have realized that each week I become more and more in tune with myself and where I fit, it's a wonderful process that I hope always continues.

I will stop now for the time being. I have studying to do and the beautiful outside is calling me! Hope all is well at the homefront! Muah Muah Muah!

Ciao amici!