Brace yourself..this is going to be a long one..

  ...but it's so worth it, because this past week I WAS IN ITALY. Ever since I was young I was always asked the question, "If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you want to go?" My answer to that question since the moment I spoke my first words (which were "big bird" in case you were wondering) was always Italy. Well now I officially have had a dream come true. This past week I traveled to Florence and Rome and I can truly say, it was everything I dreamed it would be and more. 

I traveled with a group of 9 other girls from around the US who are all studying at University of Limerick with me, sounds stressful right? Surprisingly it worked out really well, we were all very easy going and got along perfectly. We began our trip by flying into Rome on Monday night, and spending that night in Rome. We were all starving and extremely giddy so we immediately dropped our things off at our hostel and went to explore. Food was first on our agenda, and we were all in a pizza kind of mood. Thank god for that because this pizza we had that night was heavenly.

 This is my Margherita Pizza, and yes I will be showing you pictures of everything I ate. I'm a Grady, what can I say. This pizza was perfect, it was thin, runny, and delicious. We also all shared the wine that they had on the table and that was just as great. When my mom told me that the wine in Italy tastes different than the wine at home, I though to myself "It's wine, how different can it really taste?" Well the answer is, extremely different. It does not have that bitter taste that red wine usually has, which made it that much more enjoyable.

 After dinner we went back to our hostel to hang out because we were all pretty beat from traveling that day. We also got one free drink token for the bar in the hostel so obviously we had to use them. My friend Ana and I got an Italian Margarita, which was a regular margarita but with amaretto almond something in it. It was delicious!

 The next morning we got up nice and early and hopped on a train headed for Florence, where I grabbed breakfast in the train station. I have no idea what this pastry was called but it was flaky and hard on the outside, with a cheese type inside. It was so good I forgot to take a picture until I was half way done. Because we were all enjoying our pastries so much, we forgot to check ahead of time where our train would be arriving. At the last minute we all started to run to the platform, not really sure where we were going. We asked an Italian police officer but he wasn't too keen on helping us. We literally ran to the train and made it just in time. In the midst of our exercise we didn't realize you are supposed to validate your ticket by putting it into this machine that stamps it. What is the consequence for not validating your ticket you ask? 50 euro. The man was nice about it and since we were tourists who had no idea what we were doing, he only made us pay 25 each. It was still a bummer and definitely taught us to look for those stupid yellow boxes at every station from there on out.

 Once we arrived in Florence on Tuesday we went from the train station to our hostel to drop off our bags. We kept getting so distracted by the gorgeous scenery that it took us a little longer than needed to find our hostel. Stepped into the town of Florence was the moment that I realized just how big of a deal this week was going to be. I felt like I was in a dream, like everything I was looking at was fake and any moment I was going to wake up and have home work to do. I never thought a place could look so much like I dreamed it would, Florence absolutely blew me away.

 Our hostel was much nicer than we expected, we had private rooms, gorgeous furniture, regular beds, and en suite bathrooms; all things that we were not used to. This picture is the view from our hostel room.

I always heard there were Vespas all over Italy but I never realized just how many there actually were. There had to have been double the amount of Vespas than cars, I loved them!

After dropping our things off at the hostel we headed to lunch. We ate at Pizzeria Dante which was walking distance and again, we ordered pizza. This is Colleen and our friend Carley from Colorado (who actually reminds me so much of Angelica!).

The pizza I got here was mozzarella, parmesan, and spicy salami, obviously delicious!

This is the famous bridge in Florence called the Ponte Vecchio. It is called the "old bridge" and it was the only one that stayed in tact when the Nazi's came through Venice. It is lined with high end jewlery shops, and it is decorated with lights and decorations. 

 Now you can see what I meant about the breathtaking view. I just kept reminding myself that this was real life and I was actually walking around Florence.

 After lunch we headed to the Duomo, which was another reality check. Walking up to the building, it looked like a flat postcard. My friends kept saying, "There's no way that is a real building, it's too beautiful". It's just amazing because there is nothing like this back in the states, the detail that went into building this cathedral is unreal.

 This is the inside of the Duomo, just equally as beautiful as the outside.

 After visiting the Duomo we did what any good tourist does, got gelato. The first flavor I got was half chocolate and half strawberry. It was so good I didn't want it to end! When we were sitting there we got to talking to a group of Italian guys in their mid to late 20's and the topic of Jersey Shore came up. 

For anyone who isn't aware, the cast of Jersey Shore just filmed their last season in Florence. Despite the tasteless aspect of it, I am a huge Jersey Shore fan. I think it's hilarious so I was extremely curious to hear someone who was there at the time they were filming's opinion of them. When I asked them what they thought of Jersey Shore the one man immediately said, "F*** Jersey Shore!" so that answered my question quite clearly. They were not mean about it though, they had a great sense of humor and did not mind talking about it. Some of the comments they had were..

-"Snookie Monkey Face"- that is what he kept calling Snookie

-"I would rather be gay than go out with any of those girls"

-"In Italy we drink coffee to wake up in the morning. When we saw Snookie we went AHH (making a scared face) and didn't need coffee"

-"Nobody liked them here"

-"When they went into the discotecas here people would chant "Go home""

-"They are not American, they are not Italian, they are just bull shit"

I found this extremely interesting, because like I said they were not bitter or rude about it, they just laid out how they felt about them.

 Mmmmmm

 After gelato, we walked around some more and stumbled upon this square where some of the girls rode the carousel. It is just so picture perfect!

 For dinner that night we went to get pasta and if you know me at all you know exactly what I would order, gnocchis. They were very good!!

After dinner the girls and I ran to the grocery store next to our hostel, each grabbed a bottle of wine, and headed to Piazza Signoria. This is a scenic square where the David statue once stood.

 Well what else would you do besides sit around the plaque where the statue used to stand and enjoy the night with your friends?! This moment was probably my favorite part of the trip because it was the time that you thought "Holy crap, I'm in Italy, drinking wine in a Piazza, and just laughing with my friends". It was extremely surreal, and I will never forget that moment.

Wednesday morning we got up early and headed to the Leather Market first, which I can only describe as an Italian version of Canal Street in New York. They sell various leather goods, purses, scarves, trinkets, jewelery, ext. 

After that we headed to the Galleria dell Academia, a museum where the David is held. When I walked into the room where it's held I didn't see it at first. My friend motioned to it and when I turned around, it truly took my breath away. I never thought a marble statue could do that but this was so massive and so perfect, I just stood there staring. You are not supposed to take pictures of it so I kept hiding behind pillars and sneaking pictures.

 After we walked the museum we wanted to save money on lunch so we decided to get gelato for lunch. The place that we went was Emporio Gelateria Santa Trinta, and it was by far the best gelato I had the entire trip! I got two flavors, Buontalenti al Mascarpone and Pannacotta (caramel).

 This is a picture of all us girls sitting and enjoying our lunch!

 After gelato we headed towards Boboli Gardens, which seemed pretty dull walking up to it. Once we got inside though, it was probably the best view of the city I got the whole trip. Again, it didn't feel like a real place.

 For dinner we decided to check out the pizzeria that the cast of Jersey Shore worked at, just because we are all such big fans. The clothes line in the back of this picture is the clothes line where each cast member hung an article of clothing and that was cool to see in person also. They pizza I got was probably one of the best pizzas I had the entire time I was there, it had ham and spicy salami on it.

 

 Thursday we got up early and got a train into Rome to begin our second part of the trip. First stop, the Pantheon. This was interesting, but it didn't impress me much.

 

 Second stop, The Trevi Fountain. I obviously will be back in Rome so I threw in a coin with Ana and Colleen. I was so taken back by how massive this fountain was, like everything else, I just had to keep reminding myself that it was real and not a dream!

 

 This picture is just perfect!!!!

 We passed a bunch of ruins on the way to the Colosseum, I think they were the Forum but I'm not entirely sure.

 Final sightseeing stop for the day, the Colosseum. I know I keep saying it but each thing I saw I had to stop and reflect about how thankful I was that I was getting to experience these types of things. I was very impressed with the Colosseum, I learned about it all throughout school and it is truly as influential as I've always heard.

 

 Just standing inside there was so surreal, just thinking about how not only so many people in my family have stood in there, but how much history had taken place there was so interesting.

 That night we were starving so we ran to the closest restaurant we could find. We walk in, the people don't speak much English so we were off to a great start. The man told us the lasagna was good so we all closed our menus and shouted "I'll take one!" Little did we realize the lasagna had a little note next to it on the menu that read *Made from frozen. When we got it, it was still cold in placed and tasted like it was made with the cheapest ingredients possible. Leave it to us to find the only restaurant in Rome that would serve a bad, frozen lasagna. We were all so hungry though, we ate every bite.

After dinner we went into a store that I can only describe as heaven. It was busy, people were in a hurry and there was cheese. I almost started crying.

Friday morning we got up early, again, and headed for the Vatican. We stopped at a little cafe near it for breakfast where I got a panini with capicola and cheese and this delicious cappuccino.

 We wandered into Vatican square, with absolutely no clue where to start or go. We got in the first line we saw and a man trying to sell a tour approached us. He informed us we were in the wrong line and proceeded to sell us his tour. I immediately dismissed him, thinking I knew best but he informed us that the tour was only 25 euro, only 10 euro more than the regular admission. We discussed it and decided to go with the tour when we came to the realization none of us knew what we were looking at. 

Thank god we went on the tour, they explained so much that I never knew and showed us the highlights, which saved loads of time.

This is a picture from inside the Vatican, the architecture in this building was just unbelievable.

 This is a view from a window in the Vatican.

I learned so much about Michelangelo on this tour, along with what each panel of the Sistine Chapel ceiling meant. This was another place you weren't supposed to take pictures, but that just made me want to take it even more. This was probably the most impressive piece of work I saw the entire trip, my blurry picture just doesn't do it justice.

The Pope's balcony he comes out on!

 Inside St. Peter's Basilica, the most massive cathedral I've ever been inside.

 That night we only had time for dinner since we had to catch our flight home so we went to dinner at a place called, "That's amore". It was such a nice way of ending the trip, with such a great group of people.

 For dinner, I got spinach raviolis, delicious!

 And for dessert, tiramisu of course! Perfect way to end a perfect trip!

 Or so I thought.. Our flight was supposed to leave Rome at 8:30 and get into Dublin around 10:30, we would catch either the 11 or 12 bus back to Limerick and then off to sleep. Well that is wishful thinking, our flight got delayed to 11pm, which meant the next available bus we could take back to Limerick was the 6:30am one. What does this mean for a huge group of tired, pasta filled girls? Sleeping on the couches at the Starbucks in the Dublin airport. Despite my lack of comfort, this has been the greatest week of my entire life.