ok....

.... just so you know, i dont have internet in my apartment this weekend because.... A. the internet in the apt isn't working and B. my internet that i bought isn't working.

so i'm going to Vodafone to get at least MY internet fixed, hopefully.


wish me luck!

Ciao!

So heres another....

Picture from the piazza Michaelangelo..

Cute huh?

So the reason we went to the Piazza Michaelangelo was because Sarahs boyfriend (mike) and his buddies from Vanderbilt were having wine, cheese and bread on the steps. So we joined them, and watched the sunset... it was beautiful. and a lot of fun.
Then after that we (being these four^ and mike and will, mikes friend) went to dinner at this place that our neighbor serves at. It was so yummy.

Me at Ponte Vecchio

Over the weekend i did a whole lot of nothing. Not nothing in the sense that i sat around, but just hung out and relaxed. On friday, Bren and I walked around Firenze for five hours and just strolled, took pictures and looked in little shops. We found the BEST jewelery store ever. I dont usually care about jewelery but this place was so great. there wasn't any, like, diamonds or gold but everything was handmade in the store. Inside, where you pay, there was girls sitting and beading and making stuff right there. and when they were done, they'd hang them up on the displays. and they said EVERYTHING was handmade, even the beads and shapes. a lot of the jewelery was awesome because it was colorful and all shapes. its hard to explain.
next time i'll take a picture. Needless to say, we spent a lot of time in there.

I've also decided to take pictures of my feet in different place.... lame, maybe, but i think its cool see i've had my feet in such and such a place.

ok. thats it. for now.

Ciao!

Piazza Michealangelo......

I'll write some later.... but here are some pictures.....
Also, HEY Mr. Daly!!!!
(P.S. everytime someone says Istanbul, I hear in my head and see you singing "Take me back to Constantinople, no you cant go back to Constantinople, cause its Istanbul not Constantinople.." HA!)

"Pahck the cah in hahvad yahd".......

.... Every single time i tell an italian i'm from boston they say either that or "Big Papiii!!".

What the hell.

ALSO, when i tell them my surname is Mutti, they always go, "Are you related to Ornella Muti?" After much research, i find that Ornella Muti is a very famous actress here in italy and was actually "Voted "The Most Beautiful Woman in the World" in a world wide poll of readers in 1994 by the magazine Class."- IMDB.... Heres a picture of her.....A lot of the Italian boys try and pull the, you look like her, line but i'm not buying.

Last Night was a lot of fun. Lauren called me and i met her for a bottle of wine. We sat for 4 hours chatting and after that i went back home, showered (my water in my apt was being fixed all day!) and then went back out with her to this place around the corner from me that is a sandwich, wine, espresso Cafe type place. She's been here for a year already so she has a lot of italian boy friends. So we hung out with all these guys, and it was so fun to be able to hang out and joke around with people other than american girls. so that was a blast.

Today I went to Fiesole and it was breathtaking! i took some pictures.... here....

So yeah... it was beautiful and relaxing.

I'm going to go eat. I'm hungry!

Sarahs Birthday in Florence....

I mean, nothing else can sum up the night better than these pictures, but i guess i'll try!
It was Sarah's (shes the one on the right) 21st birthday, so we went out to Astor for some drinks....
Things of course got silly and we took a ton of really fun pictures.

Here's me drinking my vodka redbull in honor of Cortney.
This was of course about 4 hours before i drank too much and was sick at home.
Thats why i dont drink that much!!!!

And here is Sarah and Brenda on the dancefloor getting their groove on.

It was all in all, a great night. Sarah had a blast, and i got sick on HER 21st birthday! haha.

So other than that i have been mostly sitting around the apartment doing homework and hangin out with my roomies.

This weekend, though, all of my roomies are going to be gone for the weekend. Risa is going to Capri tonight until Sunday and Brenda and Sarah are going to Rome from tomorrow till saturday. It's all good though because i really wanted to go to fiesole on saturday and sit around and read and write. I feel like its important for me to really get to know Firenze before i go out and see the rest of Europe. I mean i want to see as much as possible but i'm not really one for missing whats right in front of me. So Fiesole, for those who don't know, is this little town on a hilltop overlooking Firenze (Florence in Itlaian) and is really beautiful. So i'm kind of excited to go there.

Then on Sunday Brenda, Sarah and i are going to go to the Gardens across the river and take pictures and read. Maybe we'll have a picnic there! So i think i have a pretty good weekend ahead.

I will post pictures from those places after the fact.

Also! i'm going to get a job at a phone place i think. i really would like to work like 10 hours a week. just to make a little more cash in pocket.

Also! My mom just told me shes going to put an article in the Agawam Advertiser about me in Florence which is pretty awesome!

Ok... gonna go hang out.

Ciao!!

Also.....

.... I just booked a trip to Nice, France for a 3 night 3 day trip with Bus2Alps.com.

Its awesome and really cheap for what it is.... you go to the alps and cannies. I'm so excited!

I even looked up the site for the hostel and look at how awesome it is... http://www.vsaint.com/photos.html
And here are the facilities.
http://www.vsaint.com/facilities.html

Look at all they offer! i cant freaking wait!

AH!

Ciao!

the duomo and my first A....

This is a Pamphlet from the service on Domenica (Sunday... i'm going to start to use more Italian in my blogs... but i will translate for you!)

Theses are some pictures of the inside of the Duomo. It was multa bella(very beautiful). Actually it was breathtaking! I walked in a was overwhelmed by how huge it was and the smells and the sounds were astounding. Even the sermon was beautiful, even though i couldn't understand a thing.
Also there will be a picture of me Brenda and Sarah up when i get it from brenda.

SO! today, i received my first A in Italy (YEAHHH!!!) on my Political Philosophy presentation. I felt like i did ok but i always get very mumbly in front of the teacher cause i want her to know that i KNOW what i'm talking about, but then i get lost in the explanation of it all.

Whatever... I still got an A! wooot!!!!!!!

I feel like home here. is that weird? i mean, i need simon here to really feel fully at home, but it is very natural being here. I think the only thing i need to really do to truely feel totally comfortable is to learn the language better... which i am doing.

So i dont know what else to say.

thats if for today....

Ciao.

LOOK OUT!!

BUILDINGS ARE FALLING!

ha. i'm lame. but this is awesome.... me and the leaning tower of Pisa.
It was absolutely awesome and I cant believe i was there. Actually my Italian experience was validated with this experience. I was so taken back i HAD to call my mom. It was 5:30 in the morning their time and i talked to my dad. But ya.



Here is a picture of me and sarah with the Pisa.

It was also really funny to see all the people all around taking funny pictures with the tower.

Sweet.





Here is me at the train station. you can see the name of it in the backround. It was called Livorne Centrale.


I'm a dork.... i know. but it was awesome.




Also in honor of my dork of a father i made this in the sand....






Its funny cause everyone else just layed out and read or did nothing and i'm the kid that makes animals and plays in the water and picks up rocks.


awesome.


Homework tomorrow.

Wednesday, sept 5th....

Thank god for the school having free dinner and wine! they brought us to this BEAUTIFUL little setup on the grass 2 feet from the river looking onto the ponte vecchio.

It was so good and the it was free so, what can beat that?

It wasn't the whole school, because yesterday they had the same diner with half the school. But all the people we've been hanging out with were at this dinner, so it was awesome and we had a blast.














So after the dinner we went to Tori and Coris apt. for a glass of wine. Their apartment is giant compared to ours. But it is also like 20 min away from the school, and i leave for school 5 min before i have to be there. so.

Yesterday day i just had class, talked to mom and did homework.

Oh, i'm going to have a ton of homework this semester. i think i picked the hardest classes in the school. for real.

here is the yummy dessert i had....

So this is the yummy dessert i had at Za-Za's sunday night. The cappuccino has the word Za and so does the chocolate on the plate. the dessert was a eggless custard with chocolate sauce... homemade. yum.

Also, i went there tonight for diner with Risa, Mike and Sarah. I had the Fettuccine with a truffle sauce..... Oh.... My.... God. it was excellent. I think i'm going to bring my mom and dad there when they visit. its reasonably priced and SOO good. the Gnocki is also so good.

This is me shopping at the open markets for dresses on the 2nd day.
I had a blast. It was actually really cheap. I got 2 dresses for a total of 22 euro which is like almost 30 bucks. not bad if i do say so myself.







This is one of the dresses i bought.

Obviously it looks better when i'm not so sweaty and i have it on right, without the shirt underneath.


Its getting colder here and i love it.

I have so many sweatshirts. i want to wear them.



Today i didnt have class so i went to this dept store called Coin, and bought really overpriced, on sale sheets. and a blanket cause my sheets were really itchy.

then i came home and sat around. and made some food, and then went out for diner at like 9, like i said above.

oh, and i did some homework.

thats it for today.

tomorrow school.

Monday..

....i had my first day of school.

My schedule for the week is as follows.

Mon 12,00-2,30 Political Philosophy
6,00-7,15 Italian 101
Tue NOTHING
Wen 12,00-2,30 Greek and Roman Mythology
6,00-7,15 Italian 101
Thurs 12,00-2,30 The Age of the Heros; the Ined, the illiad and the Oddosey (all spelled wrong)

SO the week is awesome. i sleep till 10 then go to class RIGHT around the corner and hang out at home for an hour or 2 and study and eat and go back to class at 6. sweet.

So yesterday, i woke up went to school. the class (pol Phil) seems pretty awesome. its going to be hard i think. which may be good or not? the italian teacher is rad, yes, rad. He actually taught in america for 15 years. so hes pretty awesome. and i'm exited to learn it. i want to stop being so american and not knowing the language.

So in between classes i bought myself internet through this company called votophone. its kinda good. its like 100 hours a month for 30 euro. and the start up fee is 150 but the 1st month is free. so it comes out to like 60 euro a month for a 100 hours. so thats good. i really needed it. untilll... i found out that the internet that wasnt working in my apt is working again. so pissed. however i'm still glad that i have the internet because i can use it anywhere in italy and i dont have to depend on an undependable internet source.

so ya.

so i got home after italian and the roomies had made a huge delicious dinner. and our friend brian came over and ate with us. it was yummy....

Sunday..

.... I sat around and did nothing because my knee hurt really bad. REALLY BAD. so i sat around and watched tv on my computer while everyone else went and walked Fisole.

Then later on at like 8 when people got back we went to ZA, a resurtant like 2 minutes from my house. it was SO yummy. i have a picture of my dessert and capp. i'll put them up soon.

Two of my three roomies and racheal... in this order... Risa, Racheal, Sarah, Me.
Yummy Sandwich..... mmmm....... (i mentioned this below)
My other roomie and sarah's BF... in this order.... Sarah, Brenda, Mike, Me.
Me in Freaking Italy.

here is sept.1....

Saturday September 1

Today was really nice. After spending more than I wanted to last not (which was only 15 Euro but I wasn’t planning on going out! After all that’s why we bought groceries!), I decided to sit out on the trip to the beach.

I think everyone is trying to do everything too quick. They want to go EVERYWHERE ad do EVERYTHING but I think they are acting like they only have a week to do it. I want to go everywhere and do everything but in its own time. Not everyday. After all, I came here for ME not to go out and see everyone all the time. I need to be alone.

So I slept in a little, got up around 10, took a shower and decided to go find a park or something to sit and read. I walked for a while and ended up just walking around places that I thought were going to be parks but ending up being just government gardens or something. As I started heading back to my apt, I saw that right down the street from me there was a little park!!! DUMMY!

The park was nothing special. Just a few benches and some grass but it was awesome to sit there and read for a couple hours. After relized I was hungry I stated heading home again but decided to go into this open market thing in this warehouse. It was AMAZING in there!!!! Everything was super cheap and there was like TONS and TONS of like vendor shop things (its hard to describe without being there, I’ll try and take pictures next time) with fruits, veggies, meat, cheese, and other such items. I bought a chicken breast, green beans, two tomotos and a huge thing of iced tea for only 4 euros! That’s even cheaper than America!

I went put my future diner in the fridge, and made myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch. I ate and then started to knit while watching som funturama on my mac.

Then I heard the door ring, and it was Mike, Sarah’s boyfriend. Sarah had called him and asked him to come from sienna to help her with the money situation that she had going on, but because mike doesn’t have a phone, she could tell him that she went to western union and that she was fine for now….. oh, and that she went to the beach.

So mike and I hung out for a while, grabbed a bite to eat then walked around the city for a while until sarah and them got back. After they got back we made this HUGE meal with chicken, pasta, peas, rice and bread and ate all of it with some wine. It was SO yummy.

They decided they wanted to go out and convinced me to go too. We drank wine here (thank god) and went out to the Fish Bar (eh) for like 5 min, then were going to go to JJ’s but decided on Astor again. We went downstairs and danced, and after a while, my partner-in-crime and I decided that we wanted to go and so we left. This time though, we didn’t get lost!! HA!

It is just so beautiful here. Its hard to describe. There is just so much to see, and there is beauty all around you. The only thing I hate is the LOUD noise on the street at night. The street cleaner is so loud you think the world I ending. Its outrageous.

here is aug 31....

Friday August 31.

Well my second day in Italy was great. I got up late at like 12. And sarah and risa and I all met up with Rachael and went to get sarahs luggage across town.

While walking we really got hungry and stopped at this little hip food place on the way. I cant remember the name but it was really healthy moderately priced food. It was ok but not a fill-ya-up meal. So we walked over and got her luggage then took a cab back to our apt.

Risa and Rachel did their thing while I went to buy a fan and walked sarah halfway to the western union. I finally got the fan and brought it home and set it up.

After sarah got back her and I headed over to go grocery shopping and risa met up with us. It was surprisingly cheap considering everyone says that everything is more expensive over here. I think I’m going to be good with money as long as we just cook a lot….

Then, after we went shopping I sat around by myself for a while, walked over to the gelatoria and looked at the people around me while the sun set.

When sarah and risa got back, Brenda and them dragged me out to this place called pizzeria which is just past the Duomo and split a yummy calzone (ham and cheese) with Brenda and had wine. We met up with kellit, Lauren, and racheal to eat there and Lauren has lived in Florence for a year before this so knew the waiter which was pretty funny. He was really nice and his friends bought us lemon chello. MMM….

After that we met up with our friend Brian and went out to the Astor Bar which is an Italian bar and club downstairs. We had a drink and decided to go to a more busy club around the corner called Touche, which we call Twice. (spelled like touché but not said like touché). It was REALLY packed and sweaty and full of Americans, but it was free so we went in.

We saw tori and Cori there and danced for a while. Brenda and I aren’t exactly night owls so we decided that we were ready to head home. But the problem was that we were around the Ponte Vecchio and that’s like 20 min walking from our apt. we decided to tough it out and walk, BUT we got lost for an HOUR at 2:30. DON’T WORRY, we stayed on well lit streets. We actually were just going in circles for a half an hour and finally found our way back.

It was really funny because like 5 min later everyone else came home.

Oops.

So we went to bed and that was that.