I love our apartment! It’s right in a cute piazza about a 2 minute walk to the Duomo, which is the exact center of the city. We were all nervous to see what our apartment was like because we’d heard things like “no hot water” and “tiny”, but my roommates and I were all pleasantly surprised when we moved in on Wednesday. It’s on the fourth floor, which means a lot of stairs but that can only be a good thing since it’s a required workout. We have two bedrooms, a bathroom, living room, dining room, kitchen and rooftop deck! Today was the first time I spent any time up on the roof and it was just so refreshing and relaxing. I’m hoping to layout up there come April/May! Our beds are cots but we all agree they’re actually pretty comfy. Maybe I just forget how nice my bed was at home, but I really like my cute little mattress. We have a lot of huge windows that open up right to outside – no screens or anything. They’re pretty old and don’t close all the way so it is pretty loud at night, but I haven’t had any trouble sleeping. Everything is really old, but our kitchen looks brand new. We haven’t used it yet because we never made it to the market today (oops!) but we are definitely going tomorrow. I can’t eat out anymore!
Today I had a lot of “firsts”. It was the first time I stayed in the apartment alone because my roommates all had to take an Italian placement test and I’m starting off as a beginner. I woke up to an empty place, took a nice hot long shower and finally finished unpacking. Then I went up to the roof to check out the weather and I spent some time writing in my journal. When they all came back around 1 they crashed and I was hungry so I ventured to find a sandwich shop for lunch. This was my first time leaving the apartment alone! My plan was to find a recommended place that’s a few streets away but when I turned down the street it was on the market was in full swing and it was a shady area where guys literally gawk at you so I didn’t want to go alone. So I turned and went towards home and decided I would go in a shop that looked good and if they spoke English I’d order, Italian I would leave (I can’t communicate much without my roommates! Hopefully this will change come next week). It took two tries until I found an awesome salad/sandwich place right outside my apartment. I ordered a panini that I didn’t know some of the ingredients but it had pesto and mozzarella so that just sounded delicious. I took it back to the apartment and ate it on the roof. OK now let me explain, I do not like tomatoes, like at all, but I do now. There were huge slices of fresh juicy tomato in the sandwich and I just closed my eyes and ate it anyway (my mother would be so proud!) and I actually said out loud to myself, “wow everything does taste better in Italy”. It was amazing. So delicious. I will probably go to that shop daily, and I want to try everything! So that was my first time eating something without picking out the tomatoes.
Then my friend Hannah came over and we started freaking out because other people have already started booking weekend trips to other countries and spring break! There are so many places I want to go but only so much $$. All I know is that next weekend we’re supposedly going to Venice for the “Carnivale”, which is like a huge masquerade party and basically the mardi gras of Europe.
We went to a Mexican place called Tijuana’s and got ginormous frozen margaritas. I had never had a margarita before so I got strawberry and oh.my.goodness it was HUGE! Like the size of my face. So unnecessary, yet so delicious. The food was good too, and we’ll definitely go again when we need a break from Italian food.
When we came home we decided to stay in and play cards and paint our nails, something I’m always down for. My boyfriend called all the way from Australia! It’s hard to talk with the time difference and long distance calling so it was so nice to hear from him! He’s on a trip to Port Stephens and I’m jealous he’s getting tan and I’m getting fat. Oh well, you win some you lose some.
Food & Wine and All Things Divine 