"The Hot Italian Men"

So, as some of you may or may not know...over the semester I have had some requests for blog topics, some of which I used others which I just never got around too. But there is one request I have been compiling over the semester and this is it..."The Hot Italian Men". Now let me first explain some things about the hot Italian men. Well they are fun to look at, it is not fun to be looked at by them being that everyone in Europe thinks your a spectacle if your not wearing a trench coat despite the fact that its 70 plus degrees out. Therefore careful cautions were taken in the process of making this post. I precisely took time and effort to make enough small talk using my excellent Italian or more likely their better English to talk them into letting me take pictures of them. Then I would immediately run to the other side of the bar to find my next victims which never actually happened because I would always get sidetracked... None the less I did my best.
Good thing I'm not shy right? Being that its hard to become super good friends with people who don't speak the same language as you, you can imagine my worries as I'm trying to explain to these men, No I don't want to dance, No I don't want a drink and No I don't want to drive your Vespa because I will without a doubt crash it. Now these pictures don't do the Italian men justice and I feel kind of bad because they are mediocre Italians at best. The hottest Italian men are exactly where you would never expect to find hot men in America. I'm talking about the butchers that work at the "Salumerias" (where you get your chicken and such) , the guys serving gelatto at Giolitti, the bus drivers(what!), and the TAILOR! Over the past few weeks I have become pretty good friends with the butcher because I go to the same one every week but since I have three days left in Rome( I can't believe it!) I have no need for anymore chicken. The barista's are pretty good lucking as well ( the guys that make your coffee) and being that that one across the street knows mine and my roommates orders now, I may ask him to pose with me tomorrow. But let me tell you, it is much harder to ask the guy that's chopping up chicken if he can please hold on and come take a picture with me, so sadly, this group was left out for now.

My second approach to the Hot Italian Men pictures was to be super creepy. And I mean take pictures of guys without them knowing it. I was about equally successful at this option and was able to capture a couple when I was on the coast. I had to use my awesome zoom skills so the pictures are a little blurry but they will manage. This tactic probably would have worked for the most part except whoever was around when I was doing this was normally cracking up at me trying to be sneaky. So I think I officially creeped out some locals but it had to be done for the sake of the blog. 

I also decided that I in the blog I needed to give a shout out to the cutest old man I saw. Because he was probably young and hot at one point in his life.....

When I was in the Amalfi Coast this old man  to the right was hand making sandals! ( so cool ). And II put the stud driving the boats right about him because well, they were pretty hot and one of them is probably his son or something anyways.

I do have one last hot man from Rome to talk about. He pretty much takes the crown as far as looks goes. Hes definitely the most popular and the only one I didn't feel extremely awkward taking pictures of, he's almost a celebrity so he's used to it. Now that I've built up the suspense for you.... here he is, Rome's very own.....

THE POPE!!!

 GOTCHA! Even if you didn't fall for it because you cheated and scrolled down I still hope you think it's half as funny as I do...I get my joke telling ability from my Dad in case you didn't know so if not....well blame him.

Anyways I was lucky enough to get to go to Easter Sunday Mass at the Vatican! I also got to see Pope John Paul's tomb after it was brought up into St. Peter's for the Beatification AND I got to watch the Royal Wedding at a normal time of the day. Being in Europe has it's benefits but I am starting to miss some things from home, mainly Primanti Brothers, Coors Light and Pirate games, you can take the girl outta Pittsburgh but you can't take the Pittsburgh outta the girl. See you all soon! xoxo.

The Hostels

So as you all know I have been traveling around while I am over here which can explain my lack of updating, I have been very busy. This passed weekend I took a trip to go hiking in the Cinque Terre (five hills) of Italy which is located along the coast, so that means hiking and beaches-it was awesome.The weekend before last I took a trip to the French Riviera which included Nice, France and Monoco (which is the second smallest country in the world and home to the Monte Carlo). The trips were totally different from each other. I was hoping to see someone famous while I was in France but I didn't. Just BMW's for taxi's and people parking their yachts to go in and gamble. They had to be famous I know it.  Then when I was in Cinque Terre it was a little more my style, we hiked and lounged on the beach and the town we stayed in (Vernazza) had one street. With a grand total of two bars, one grocery store and a restaurant. It was super cute and beachy though, I loved it. Anyways I kind of feel like in all my updates I left out a major part of life over here and realize your all probably wonder where I stay when I go on all these trips.(And I say where I stay, not where I sleep, because most weekends involve little to no sleep these days)

But regardless, I have stayed in some of the coolest places in Europe. People in Europe, especially study abroad kids love to stay in hostels. And they are by far the weirdest concept ever now that I look back on it. Most of the time the hostel has been converted from a school house or monastery which makes it strange to begin with. The hallways are always confusing and sometimes lead the nowhere because all the building in Europe seem to be tall and skinny and they convert it from something else and give up trying to fix it. But these hostels are basically dorm rooms built for anywhere between four and ten people. 

In the French Riviera...all the beds look like this most of the time

And they always have a bar on the bottom floor and most of the time they give you breakfast for free which is a bonus.

Kind of  a hang out room at The Flying Pig in Amsetrdam

Bar at Beluschi's in Berlin

Of course, after being out for the night it's always interesting to come home to a bar in your building/temporary home for the weekend because someone that doesn't actually work for the hostel is always making friends with the people who do work there and then "guest bar tending" or giving away free things to the other travelers. It would never work in the states because someone would probably be suing someone by now but they run pretty smoothly  over here and breakfast is amazingly always out on time. They are all around quirky and have weird names and weirder decorations but are always a good time... and they're cheap. Everyone who stays there is basically under 25. And if they're not then they're definitely creeper so we stay far far away. Sorry-no parents allowed.

Please... I would love to know who put this place together....

But sometimes we are able to find cheap rooms at other places which kind of still ends up being just as weird even if its not a hostel. Sometimes, like our "Albergo"(hotel) in Venice, its just some little Italian man and lady and they own 6 rooms. So they live in one and rent out the other five and then give you a roll and coffee in the morning and call it a hotel.
I kind of like these places because they like having young kids so they want to know all about what we're doing there and study abroad and so one. And then this passed weekend when we were in Cinque Terre was when I realized I really need to explain these places. We stayed in a Pension (whatever that even means) and it was hysterical. First of all we rang the buzzer to get in and we walked in to a basement/foyer area and there where little kids toys everywhere! Tonka trucks, bikes, soccer equipment....We were blatantly in a residential place and I thought we were about to move in with a family for the weekend So we follow the signs that say our "hotel" name and go all the way to the top to check in. The little lady shows us to our room which is in the attic but it was really nice and quaint.

A bed, sink, and bathroom next door-not too shabby!

Our only window, but worth it

 Anyways, we ended not living with the families.....they lived on the first, second, third and fourth floors and the renting rooms where at the top. But that did mean we had to go all the way up and down this tiny tiny staircase(on the right, I made Nicole pose on it specifically for this purpose).

My roommate as we leave to go hiking..

Look at how tiny it is! Anyways, each time I went away and stayed somewhere different it just kept surprising me! Something interesting was always happening so I wanted to give you an idea of some of the funny things I saw each time I checked into one of my temporary weekend homes. This kind of stuff would never fly in the states, that's for sure....I hope everyone had a Buona Pasqua! (and enjoyed their ham, turkey and broccoli-cheese casserole because in typical Italian fashion-I had pasta!)

The Weather

So, I don't want to make you all too jealous so I will keep this one short. I know the weather hasn't been too great back home but I really am liking the Mediterranean weather thing they got going on over here. It's been pretty mild since we've got here, only a few weeks of rain (knock on wood) and the weather is finally starting to break. It's been really nice out and we took a train to the beach two weekends ago and last weekend I went to the Amalfi Coast which is about 4 hours from Rome. Needless to say I am picking up a nice golden brown color over here. It's been between 65-70 degrees (and sunny!) so I am knocking on wood in hopes that it stays that way. The weathers great for running in the park and cute little sundresses. The only problem is I think it must get into the 100's here in the late summer because the Italian's still think its cold out so they are still wearing winter coats and sweaters. I have been trying to fit in with the locals so I am still wearing my jeans but I don't know how long that's gonna last. I think they're actually crazy. I had to break down and wear some cute summer clothes when we were in the Amalfi Coast because the beach towns are just too perfect (and warm) not to be dressed like it's summer even if it does mean standing out as a touristy American.

From the top of Positano

On the beach :)

We also made a trip to Capri, were they're famous for lemons, lemoncello, hand making sandals and the Blue Grotto (which of course we explored in a rowboat that I am sure was about to tip over because of the mass amounts of waves...)

The bluest water! And that little hole of light is how our little rinky dink row boat got into the cave

Cutest little old Italian man just hand making sandals.....notice his wool sweater even though its beautiful out

Anyways, now I am back in Rome and people are still wearing coats...and I still think its entirely too nice out so I am going to pack away my boots and coat. I have officially one month left in Rome and I am definitely not spending it in wool sweaters. I hope all is good at home and it starts to warm up so  you all can enjoy yourselves and so by the time I'm home I can enjoy some hockey games on the big screen downtown. Let's Go Pens :)

Things I Miss When I'm Not In Roma

Hello world I'm back! I just looked at my last post and it was on March 8th-I can't believe I haven't updated you all on my life since then, but life has been busy! That seems like forever ago and I really cant believe its almost April already. I don't know where the time goes but in the past few weeks I sure have gone my fair share of places so I want to tell you a little about the different countries and cities I have seen. More importantly I realized some of the things I miss about Rome when I'm not here. In the middle of March I went on a 10 day extravaganza during my Spring Break. We went to Prague (Czech Republic) Berlin (Germany) Amsterdam (Netherlands) and Paris (France)....and it was most definitely nothing short of an extravaganza. I think I have almost recovered from it.

Our first stop was Prague and it was cold and and a little dreary, just as northern Europe would be in the middle of March. Nonetheless I loved Prague, which is unusual since I am pretty much a sun goddess. It was basically a fairytale city. Everything is perfectly preserved (history lesson-its the only European city that was untouched during World War II because Hitler wanted to use the entire city as a museum of the Jewish people after the war) so it looks fake pretty much. The money is so weird because its like 23 Czech Crowns to a U.S dollar so everything costs like 200 or 300 crowns which is strange to see when you just got a beer and some potato pancakes for dinner.

Some live music in the middle of the main square at a festival

Doesn't everything look fake?

Anyways, we explored the city, the beer(which they are known for apparently), the history, the food and then we went to an awesome 80's/90's video music club. They played Jackson 5, The Friends theme song which was my favorite, Michael Jackson, Twist and Shout and tons of other songs we all knew but would never listen to on our own. It was one of my favorite nights. A little birdie told me that The Grove plays this kind of music... I might need to try to sneak in there this summer. But while I was in Prague, I realized that I was really missing the mild weather of my beloved Roma. I could handle the cold for a couple days, but I wouldn't trade the Mediterranean for Northern Europe at all.

Next we moved on to Berlin which was basically a futuristic city compared to Prague since everything was absolutely destroyed in the war and the Berlin Wall and all. Everything here was super modern and really urban and grungy kind of but there's obviously a ton of history so the inner nerd in my really loved that. 

The top picture is at the East Side Gallery which is a a part of the Berlin wall were artists just paint pretty much whatever they want and the second is in this music festival/market that we went to. It was all outdoors and people were just playing music and sitting around doing art-really urban. But at this point in the trip I started to have my second realization about Rome. It was that I love red wine, fresh fruit and vegetables. I was sick of having beer, schnitzel and sauerkraut and couldn't wait to get back to my apartment and grill up some vegetables and fresh pasta.

We then moved on to Amsterdam and that was probably one of the most ridiculous places I have ever seen. Everything is legal in Amsterdam. After the WWII liberation they decided they wanted freedom of the people and it's by far the most free place I have ever seen. We will leave it at that for now just to keep it PG but use your imagination.... Aside from that the weather was beautiful, we saw the inside of a brewery and how they make beer, Anne Frank's actual house, all the canals and I had all you can eat Sushi (35 courses!!) for the first time and loved it.

 

 

Lastly, we went to Paris which was of course beautiful. The weather was gorgeous and the city is pretty amazing. I thought I wasn't going to like it at all because I imagined it being somewhat like a European version of New York City but it was really different than I expected. This last city really made me miss Rome. Its a big city and all I wanted was to know how the transportation works and what everyone was saying. Granted my  Italian is rough at best, normally I can catch the drift of a conversation. In France, I had no idea what one single person was saying and the French people don't really care to explain it to you because they don't really care about you basically. I knew I loved my sweet old Italian ladies for a reason. Regardless we saw all the major sights like Notre Dame, Sacre-Couer (I think that's how you spell it), The Mona Lisa and the rest of The Louvre Museum, Versailles and got to watch the Eiffel tower light up at night. 

But here are a couple pictures from Paris, although they don't even compare to how amazing these things are in real life. 

 

I know this one has been a bit lengthy and definitely way past due so I will try to do a little better at that! I hope everyone is doing well back at home and at school. The weathers finally starting to warm up over here so I hope it does the same back in the States. I am spending the weekend in Rome and we are hoping to do a lot of things... maybe a soccer game, the beach, or bike riding to take advantage of the weather so I hope each of your weekends is looking as good as mine!

The Vino

So I have been trying to keep my blogs somewhat entertaining so I don't bore you all to death. I know I have had some requests for the "Hot Italian Men" blog ( I also know each of you is probably thinking you're the only one who's asked me about the men but trust me-you're not!) and I promise it will come eventually but I just do not have enough photographic evidence at the moment. So I think I will have to save that one for a final compilation closer to the end of the semester...sorry to disappoint!
On the other hand, I do want to tell a little bit about last week because I feel like I kind of neglect my weeks in Rome when I take weekend trips and only talk about the weekends in my blog. And I need to tell you about this weekend also because it was pretty much the picturesque weekend of the title of my blog- "Vino e Vistas"
But last week despite the rain it was a pretty great week. On Tuesday, I was lucky enough to get a spot on a tour underneath St. Peter's Basilica in the Necropolis which basically means underground village. It was one of the coolest things I have done here and I wish I had pictures of it but unfortunately since everything down there is pretty much actually 2000 years old (not an exaggeration) we couldn't take pictures :( Anyways I got to see St. Peter's tomb and his actual bones which are underneath the Vatican! So like the tour guide told us at the end, that now gives new meaning to the catholic church being built on St. Peter, the rock of the church....like literally. I was back to school in time to go to class and later that day we decided we needed to go out. A local pub does karaoke on Tuesdays so my roommate Nicole and I went there and met a bunch of kids from school, because lets face it- life's too short to not sing karaoke on a Tuesday night. I never really realized why I was so exhausted all the time until I read what I just wrote and figured out it's probably because I do and see more things in a week in Rome than some months at home!
But the rest of the week followed this same kind of pattern, touring different parts of the city and hanging out with friends until Fridya came along which is where the Vino e Vistas comes in. I went to Florence and Tuscany for the weekend and it was absolutely beautiful. It's basically the most picturesque place in Italy that I have been so far. Tuscany was just as I imagined it. So on Friday we saw the leaning tower of Pisa....and yes it was leaning that's for sure. They told us we could pay to go to the top but I decided that it was looking a little too leaning for me so I stayed on the ground and enjoyed it just fine... I didn't want it to fall over while I was on my way up or anything.

Look at it leaning!

Anyways that's about all there is in Pisa. And they like it that way. But on Saturday we went to Florence which was amazing because of the San Lorenzo leather market. Basically I was in love. And I also got to see my friend Ali (from Maryland) who is studying in Florence and hang out with her. We climbed to the top of the Duomo, which is like 463 steps or something like that so that was interesting but I think the view was worth it.

We could see all of Florence and more.

But, the real highlight of the weekend was Sunday when we went wine tasting in the little Tuscan town of Trequanda. OH MY GOD IT WAS BEAUTIFUL. I almost feel bad showing pictures because they don't even do it justice.

But this was the view from the top of the winery. We took a tour of the whole place and then got to make fresh pasta! Then we did wine tasting. Now, since I have been in Italy I have learned to like my wine. But as far as tasting goes...I still taste red and white and bad and good and that's about it. I was really trying to become a wine expert but the tour guide said I just have to keep practicing until I get the hang of it so I guess that's what I'll do this summer. Needless to say the wine was better than great, probably the best I have had since I have been here.

In the old wine cellar

Our view from lunch.

 

It was just such a typical Italian day and I loved it. Despite this fairytale Tuscan weekend, Monday still rolled around and I had to go to class. I have midterms next week (I thought they didn't believe in these kind of things over here but I guess I was wrong) so I have actual and homework and studying to do which is why I had to keep this one simple.... just Vino e Vistas. Ciao!!

The Transportation

Buongiorno regazzi! (Hello/good morning everyone)...The great thing about that is that its totally acceptable to say good morning until four o'clock in the afternoon. Its pouring here today and its supposed to rain all week I am pretty sure so I thought today would be a really great time to talk about the Italian transportation since I won't be walking anywhere in this weather. I think I might have mentioned it before but there is much more to tell about the transportation here. I would call it a system but I don't exactly know if it qualifies as a system. Now here in Rome, they have extensive transportation meaning an under ground metro, an above ground tram, a whole fleet of buses as well as taxis that can shuttle you to any one of the four train stations or airports. Now, this would all be super great if the transportation was an actual system. But that's not really the case. It's more of an organized chaos and if you don't know the rules than you might as well count yourself out and just walk to wherever your going.
Now that I have been here a little over a month I pretty much have Romes transportation chaos down pat. The general rules are always leave early because sometimes the buses go on strike randomly and the under paid bus drivers refuse to do anything. But if you do happen to be able to catch the bus you still have to leave early....because if your catching the bus at a Desposito which is basically a parking lot where tons of busses leave from then that means your at the beginning or the end of a route and therefore the bus driver is gonna get off and have a 15 minute smoke break before he takes you anywhere. So then you think to yourself, Okay well I'll take the tram. 
Now the tram is pretty useful and I like it far more then the bus...except these two run on their own time especially when its raining ( like today) or the buses are on strike because then the trams are entirely over crowded. All this seems kind of inconvenient I'm sure but I am really not complaining. Being late is kind of the cool thing to do in Italy so it's totally acceptable to be late or sometimes even absent from class because of the bus system.Which works perfect for me because I normally run late anyways and I am kind of enjoying waiting around all the time for buses. Sometimes I try to talk to the locals and they normally humor me and correct my still not so great Italian.
As far as the trains go....everyone says "oh travel in Europe is so easy and cheap just hop on a train!" 
Well, I think that has some truth in it but its definitely not all true. I have taken the train outside of Rome twice now since I have been here. When I took it for a day trip to Naples a couple weeks ago it was not as bad as I imagined it would be. We went to the station early but only because we knew the bus taking us there would probably be running late but the train left right on time and traveling second class to save some money wasn't so bad. This past weekend I took a train to Venice for Carnevale which was absolutely amazing! First of all, because Venice is easily one of the most beautiful cities that I have ever seen.

My first sight when I walked out of the train station.

Second because the costumes where absolutely outrageous.

Even some little kids had on the most elaborate costumes.

 Third because wine actually comes out of the water fountains here....

Gives new meaning to Italians drink wine like its water...

And fourth, because the transportation is even funnier than Romes organized chaos.

Yes, I rode in a Gondola! 

The Gondola ride was incredible even though half the time I thought we were gonna tip because the boats are so skinny. The nice Italian man was definitely trying to overcharge us so I had to use my amazing bartering skills to get the price down. It ended up working out.  Our gondolier told us a lot of history on the ride and even sang in Italian it was great.  But you can imagine this is just another form of transportation that runs on its own time clock because it is certainly no speed boat...and sometimes they even crash which I thought was just so funny.  We also saw how they hand make glass, St. Mark's Basilica and museum, and some random little side street performances as well as an Italian jazz band. It was an incredible weekend overall and then we caught a night train home late Saturday night (early Sunday morning). Needless to say, this train ride was not nearly as fun as my gondola ride. In typical Italian transportation fashion, the train was overbooked so people just stood jammed up against each other in the corridors. And since it was Carnevale, everyone was covered in glitter and confetti and wine so it was basically just a continuation of the party that we had just left in St.Mark's Square. After a while I am thinking to myself 'well we will be at the next stop soon so all these people will get off'. But obviously the train stopped in the middle of nowhere for a good half hour to forty five minutes while people just tramped all over each other trying to steal a seat or find out what was going on. It was late by the time the train started moving again and I had never appreciated American transportation and its efficiency more than when I walked into my apartment and looked at a clock only to see that it was after 8 am. It was a long day (or night?) but totally worth it. And if anyone's going to be trapped on a train leave it to a bunch of college kids to make it fun. 
I hope everyone at home is doing good. I really wish you all could have seen Venice on Carnevale....it's more crazy than St.Patrick's Day at Station Square and Carson Street. It might be as great as a Superbowl or Stanley Cup Parade but I don't know about that. That's pretty tough competition. That's all for now. XOXO. Arrivederci!

The Swiss.

I know recently in my blog posts I have been kind of trying to theme them about different aspects of Roman life but this time I'm going to have to take a break from that just to tell you all about my amazing weekend in Interlaken, Switzerland!

One of the great things about Rome (and pretty much any major city in Europe) is that travel between countries in Europe is really simple. So when a friend of mine threw up the idea of a weekend full of snowboarding and hiking in the Swiss Alps I definitely couldn't pass it up. So we booked a trip through this student tour group and took a bus from Rome on Thursday night. We slept on the bus and got to Interlaken early on Friday morning but didn't waste anytime. We found some friends (which is really easy to do when you are studying abroad because pretty much no one knows anybody so everybody wants to be friends) and decided to go hiking...serious hiking. So we hiked all the way to the top of this mountain and we where pretty much above the clouds. It was a really intense hike so now I kind of have an idea of what Adam and my dad do! That took us pretty much the whole day and then we ate Fondue...cause that's what the Swiss do and  then went to a bar which was conveniently located in the basement of our hostel. I mingled with some locals and Italy still has my heart but the Swiss people are by far the nicest people I've ever met. This could also be because most of them speak English so they are a little bit easier to mingle with at the moment since my Italian is still kind of rough. Saturday we got up early and made it to the mountain for first tracks and had the best day. It was beautiful, the perfect temperature with clear skies and good snow.

View from the top of the mountain

Anyways, Saturday night we went to a chocolate show at this local chocolate factory which was fun and then we walked around town a bit and checked out the little stores. The weekend was relaxing and low key especially compared to the bustling streets of Rome. It was a nice get away but I am happy to be back in Rome because even after a weekend away I was starting to miss it already! This could be a problem. I'll keep this one short since the last one was the never ending blog post and I promise to have a good topic next time. Hope everyone in Pittsburgh made it through the wicked snow storm! Stay warm. xoxo