Very Python

     In several weeks I will be visiting my sister and my friend Sarah in New York. I cannot wait to finally go shopping. Both the exchange rate and the fact that I will be charged if my baggage is overweight have made me very hesitant about spending money on clothes here in Italy. I know I should be working on my project, but instead today I've found myself fantasizing about owning my very own, "very python" bag. 

Any suggestions on where to shop in New York City?

Just a Woman and Her Dog

Reminds me of someone I know

Pasta

Things That I Miss About the United States:
1. Ice cubes
2. Speaking English in public
3. Walgreens, and other like-minded convenient stores open 24 hours.
4. Eating food other than pasta

Things I am going to miss about Italy:

1. The fact that people actually say, "Mama Mia!"

2. Meeting people from all over the world every night

3. Good public transportation

4. Eating really good pasta

Paris

 This post is still in the makes, guys! I just wanted to give you a little taste of our trip. 

This past weekend we traveled to Paris. I will live there some day.

We flew from Rome to Paris on Thursday: in total we did over fourteen hours of traveling. We were lucky enough to fly over the French (?) Alps on the way there! What a beautiful show. By the time we got to our hotel and got settled on Thursday it was past midnight - even the bar at our hotel was closed! My first french baguette was out of the vending machine in the lobby of the hotel... glam.

French (?) Alps                                  Check the robe-age

Breakfast our first day in Paris, however, was delectable. Jam, croissants, sausages, cappuccinos and assorted cheeses... basically we weren't hungry again until dinner that day. After breakfast we decided to do what Kane and I do best... walk around. We first started off by literally walking down the street that our hotel was on and taking random turns. We happened upon a very quaint shopping center... but to be honest I couldn't tell you where it was. We then took the metro uptown and walked from the Eiffel tower down to the military school and over to the Hotel des Invalides. We decided to picnic at the Eiffel Tower to soak in some Parisian atmosphere. After that we once more hopped on the metro over to the Arc de Triumph! Woo walking!

 Keeping with the Amelie spirit on the Parisian metro!

At times in Paris it seemed as if we could see into the future - This creme Mini 

Cooper S series convertible with a black leather interior - it had to be fate. 

Our picnic under the Eiffel Tower        Crepe breakfast Saturday morning

That night we decided to grab some of those pastries (pictured above) and wine before for Regan arrived around 7pm. We ended up getting lost and being late... but thankfully Regan was even later. We spent the night relaxing and finishing off several bottles of wine with our dinner. I was so happy to see my old roomie! For breakfast the next morning we went to Les Crepes A Gogo, a very famous creperie on Rue Soufflot right outside of the Pantheon Monument (below). 

 

Outside the Pantheon Monument

After touring the Pantheon monument we walked over to the Jardin des Luxembourg, which was abbbbsolutely gorgeous. These gardens are enough to make you wish you lived in Paris. It was so cute to see all of the French (and some touristy) children waking their sticks along the side of the fountain while they yelled at their boats in the water of the main fountain. So cute. After the Jardin we walked  over the Iles de la Cite to see Notre Dame and whatever else we could that day.  

Jardin du Luxembourg

Notre Dame

 

The Notre Dame Notre Dame... Regan was really excited about it.

From Notre Dame we walked over to the Bastille and grabbed ourselves a well-deserved caffe frappe - or beer, in Kane's case. We then decided to scope out the line situation at the Louvre, only to discover that there was no line! Naturally, we had to go inside right away. However, we quickly learned that there was no line because the museum was closing within the hour. Regardless, we pledged to come back the next day, which we did!

 

Parisian street acts, Bastille, and the Apple store inside the Louvre!

The Louvre was great! But as far as the Jaconde... this is as close as you can get.

The Louvre

Relaxing at the Jardin du Carrousel... I just noticed the eyes on the back of Kane's chair.

 

See? It's that whole flash-forward thing.... crazy...

Keeping with the Amelie theme... The Sacre Coeur.

Enjoying the wine... and cracking my creme-brulee with a tiny teaspoon

 

Trying escargot (!!) during dinner near the Notre Dame Sunday night

Finishing up our trip with a prance down Champs Elysees and a bottle of Clicquot Rose! 

(If only my parents could have tried this champagne... hm...)

Au revoir, Paris!

Pre-Parisian Post

Hello All,

After a long day of traveling, I am writing to you from my small apartment in Perugia once more. This past weekend we traveled to Paris, met up with my old dear roommate Regan, and had an absolutely wonderful time. More pictures and posts to come, but here are some snippets from last week in Perugia.

The guys from the IT department found out that I played volleyball when I kept passing the soccer ball while playing goalie. They invited me to play beach volleyball with them, as they all used to be in Italy’s 3^rd tier professional league. SO much fun! We are now making it a weekly event.

On Wednesday my boss Helios took us out to Lago Trasemeno, a nearby lake, for lunch. Yum!

Kane after I had smeared Gelato on his face… so proud.  

Alright that's all for now. More to come soon regarding our wonderful trip to Paris. Talk to you soon!

Rebecca

Firenze

This weekend marked our trip to Florence. Overall it was relaxing and artistically satisfying.

     Florence this weekend was jolly good fun. We had a much more relaxed itinerary than we did in Rome - in fact, the only things we actually had set times for were the Uffizi and the Accademia, both of which were splendid (although photography is prohibited there... sorry, guys!). We just got back from watching the World Cup Finals.... No comment. It's nice to know that at least people here love soccer enough to keep watching the games adamantly even though their country is not in the running. 

     So essentially with our first day in Florence we arrived, checked into our hostel (Plus Florence - it was very nice), and toured the city along with the Uffizi Gallery. I wish my mom would have been there with me to tell me about all of the artwork I saw. However I did remember a lot of the art from those art history videos on the Renaissance that she made me watch before I left. Better than nothing?

Florence from Piazza Michelangelo. 

Our hostel was about a 20 minute walk to the right of the Duomo...

Ponte Vecchio

     Our second day in Firenze was equally as relaxed, with only the Accademia scheduled for the day. The Accademia was great, however we spent most of the day just walking around and enjoying the city without much of an itinerary... and for good reason; the high was 97 degrees both days. In the Accademia, I particularly enjoyed their Instrument Museum, which had a collection of Renaissance-period violins, cellos, pianos, and mystery instruments.

Eating Well, Snapping Pictures Often

"Ciao!!"

     This morning I checked the weather in Paris for practical reasons for the first time in my life. I am so excited.I am also excited to see that it is a full 20 degrees cooler in Paris than it is here (where we'll be in the high 90s all week). Wooo 70s!

     It's going to be difficult to make a language swap back over to French from Italian. Hopefully some solid review this week before our trip will spark my memory, although I hear that a larger percentage of people in France speak English than in Italy. We'll see!

     Oh one last thing! I am happy to report that my beloved old roomie Regan is going to be joining us in France when we go! She is staying in our hotel with us and splitting the cost of living for a few nights. We are so excited to have her with us!

That's all for now! Ciaoo!

This Dress

I found this amazing dress in a shop called Forma. I am going to try to save 

wearing it out until we go to Paris next weekend, but we'll see if I can actually last that long.

BCBG shoes, Anthropologie belt, mom's vintage cuff, Carlah dress

 

The designer's name is Carlah, which of course I can't find anything about online. I think that the proportions of the dress are just so great. This is definitely the most mature piece of clothing I have ever owned - its purpose is not to be sexy, but instead to be both beautiful and interesting. I think that I would rather be the latter as a person, too, so it's nice to have a dress that reflects those sentiments. That ring you see was given to me as a parting gift by this really old, cryptic Libyan man who hung out with one of our flat-mates all the time. He didn't speak a word of English. The ring is way too big for me but I still think that it's super cool if not only for how I got it. Also, last night when we went out our friend Nate Yontararak serenaded us at a local bar. Nate is from Thailand but studying piano in Italy in order to avoid having to go through with this required military service. He was incredible.

Okay well I've got to go. Apparently Kane is forcing me to watch

 Top Gun because I've never seen it before... sigh.