Week 6: (10/20- 11.01)

Wellllll this week was pretty busy ;) I ate at an awesome new restaurant called La Bebina in Florence. I had the infamous Fiorentina Steak....and let me just say it lives up to its reputation!!! I needed a little good ole fashion, meat and potatoes in my life...throw in a little spinach on the side- perfection! I wish I had taken pictures inside it was soooo cute; all lit with white lights, and quaint decorations....ADORABLE.

This week I also got to squeeze in one of my most anticipated Italy events- a SOCCER GAME!! On Wednesday night we went to the Fiorentina (Florence) vs. Napoli (Naples) game. Everything you see on tv is true, the crazed crowds, the singing, the flag waving....all of it. I even posted a couple of videos on uTube I was so baffled...LOL. The energy was unreal. Fortunately the rain held off and it was a pretty decent night. Fiorentina won thankfully much to the despair of the Napoli fans in attendance b/c Fiorentina fans are RELENTLESS...honestly after the game there were more cops (dressed as riot police) waiting outside than I have ever seen in one place. I guess it does get nuts sometimes. In light of this they do not sell, or allow you to bring in any liquor/beer, etc of any type at the games. Brilliant and necessary.

Outside the streets are filled with street vendors selling booze, and paninis and all that other Italian goodness. We skipped the street food and ate at La Porcuspina afterwards....this time I had something I cant pronounce or spell, but it was essentially meat filled tortellini in a broth sauce with slow cooked pork. I would NEVER have ordered this but was told it would warm me up and holy smokes it was phenomenal....but then again I say that after every meal in Italy don't I!!?? Is anything not incredible here??

Apart from this the week was quiet....no Halloween for me this year which hurt a little :( People don't really dress up and do anything here, its really different. Lord knows where I will be next year but surely it will involve and really great costume ;)

For more Soccer pics hit: http://unb.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2037857&l=d9382&id=121403429

Thursday during downtime I got all details organized for this weekends trip to Switzerland-- WA HOO!!

talk 2 u soon

xoxo

Weekend 5: (10/28)- Milan

Sooo this is a really sad, horrible and upsetting story....I went to Milan this weekend and FORGOT MY CAMERA. Awfuuuuuul!! I bought disposables so I still took about 80 pics...all is not lost :)

I only spent one day in Milan (Sunday) and arrived there at about 10am so I really had the full day to explore, and comparatively there is not the extent of must-see monuments I am used to trying to cover. That said, I still did have only one day and wanted to cover as much ground as possible so I hopped on one of the double-decker site-seeing buses and toured the city that way. I was happy with that opt, since it comes with head phone and an audio tour so you learn far more about the history of the city than you would normally.

When walking from the Milano Centrale Train Station straight into centro, one of the first squares/ piazza's you come upon is the Piazza della Repubblica which house the beautiful Leonardo da Vinci statue (also above) and also pass one of the most famous opera houses in the world- Teatro della Scala. On ward moving (I did this whole first part by foot before hoping on the tour bus at the piazza del Duomo), you come upon the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele which is kind of like an indoor more elaborate version of Florence's- Ponte Veccio and contains numerous restaurants, stores, vendors, etc and is truly one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. There is also a picture of this above!

When you follow the Galleria all the way out (you can see in that pic, on the right, the arch way at the far end of the picture-- that is the opening into the massive and beautiful piazza del Duomo). The Milan Duomo was hugely impressive to me…I know I say this week after week, Italian city after Italian city but this was no exception....the last two pics above are the Duomo :)This one is actually the largest Gothic cathedral in the world, and the third-largest Catholic church in the world!!

The bus tour took us through Milan’s ENORMOUS shopping district called the Quadrilatero....I won't lie it took ALL my will power not to jump off that bus and just start spending!

One of my other favorite, favorite monuments in Milan was the Castello Sforzesco, which is essentially just a bug, huge, red-brick castle that makes you feel like you have stepped back in time. I included one picture above but promise I will upload 50 more as soon as I have them all back!!

Anyhow those are the most interesting/ impressive of Milans monuments at least of the top of my head without more pics to jog my memory ;)

Switzerland is next -- stay tuned!

xoxoxo