Siena Bound

          The time has come for us to travel north toward the rolling hills, cypress trees, and cute villas of Tuscany! Two weeks flew by and I am glad to say I feel like I conquered Rome. I could probably write a novel about everything we saw and did but how about I share a few  more photos and other highlights I haven't mentioned already...va bene?!

1.  Villa Borghese Gardens...OBSESSED! We went as a group to the gallery and museum and saw some pretty amazing masterpieces (my favorite was Bernini's Apollo and Daphne). I couldn't get enough it so a few of us went back to spend our last day in Rome there. This time, we were surrounded by families riding bikes, rowing boats, having picnics, walking their dogs, and just loving life! It's such a beautiful place and I WILL return one day. Before I forget to tell a quite interesting story...
         Next to the gardens is Piazza del Popolo which leads you to many shops and restaurants. A couple of friends and I were on our way to shop our little hearts out when we see everyone looking in one direction. Some pointed...some covered their eyes...some laughed...it was strange...so obviously we looked. To our surprise (or should i say disgust), we see a lady with a shirt on. And some shoes. AND THAT'S IT. Luckily, her belly had some extra rolls of skin that covered some of her anterior "treasures" but still...that's not ok in my book. I'm all for people feeling confident about themselves and their bodies but I personally would prefer not to see EVERYTHING you're working with. I will say it did get worse but I won't go there...you can ask me about that another time.

2. This may be a shocker...GELATO. I find it funny that our conversations revolved around

              1. where we were going to get gelato each day, flavor recommendations e.t.c.

              2. boys and relationships (we definitely have some great love stories in this group...

              I really gotta step up my game)

 I'm not exactly sure why we started eating gelato like it was our job but I'm guessing the fact that are 9123074524903 gelaterias has something to do with it. This and the "when in rome" mentality that all the girls kept reminding each other about. Even when I didn't really want any, I always had one of the girls by my side to provide some justifications for why I should get some...I can't decided if that makes them good friends or bad friends haha. After carefully reviewing the ones I devoured, my favorites were:

Mango and Blueberry from Flor
Oreo Biscotti from Giolitti
Blackberry from San Crispino

If you ever want the 411 on gelato in Rome...I'm your girl!

3. The Hotel Concierge/Staff at our hotel. Imagine walking into your hotel everyday and seeing a tall, chiseled man with brown hair and blue eyes, straight out of a Calvin Klein Catalog. Alessandro is his name and yes he was our first Italian love. I say our because we kinda had to share him. There were definitely days we fought over who got to ask for the key to the rooms or who he made eye contact with. My roommates even had me go find him at night to ask how we could fix our air conditioning but ALAS he was gone! Eventually, I moved on to the new boy named Giorgio. Shy men are just not my forte and Alessandro got nervous the second a girl made eye contact with him. Giorgio was at least capable of a charming smile and a"ciao." I can't finish this without mentioning cute baby faced Daniele who helped serve our dinners and "Haymitch" (looked like the guy from Hunger Games) who also served our dinners and scared me to death with his stern face and serpent eyes. I bet they are still sad that the cute, loud and giggly American girls are gone! (Or maybe relieved we are not there to mess with the wi-fi).

4.     My best souvenir so far... Breakfast at Tiffany's, or in this case Colazione da Tiffany! I figured this would be a very enjoyable way to improve my Italian skills  (my 2 year break from my last Italian class is kinda taking its toll on me). What a classy way to become more educated right?

5.       Attending church in Rome was such a great experience. We went to a local branch for two Sundays and the members were so welcoming. My favorite part of the meetings was singing the hymns in Italian because it was great pronunciation practice and music just moves me. It's true...No matter where you are in the world, you can feel at peace on the Sabbath day.

If you haven't been to Rome...have I convinced you to invest some time and money yet?! I hope so. The possible adventures are endless and don't worry...most people wear pants :).


xoxo,

Rita

Art + Food= happy camper

  I’m alive! I have been dying to give you all an update for days now but it seems like 24 technology-loving Americans,  spread out among 2 floors of a small hotel  has done a  little damage to the free wii-fi here. This week has been INCREDIBLE. I won’t go into too much detail but some of the highlights of my time here in Rome so far have been seeing the Pantheon (love the whole area), St. Peter’s Basilica, the Sistine Chapel, the Spanish steps, making wishes at the Trevii Fountain, roaming the gardens in Tivoli and of course hitting up all the best gelato stops in town! I was in heaven when I saw the work’s of Michaelangelo, Bernini, and Raphael. Learning about their works in my first humanities class my sophomore year was great but seeing so much of it in person was unreal!
   I’ve also loved exploring the streets of Rome at night with some of the girls after dinner. Rome is so alive at night and we walk about 5 (or more) extra miles which is great for burning off the gelato ! It reminds me of how different our culture is from the Italian culture. We have less than a week until we are off to Siena so we are trying to see as much as we can before we leave and start our school schedule. Keep looking out for more pictures (follow me on instagram: ritaargueta) and hopefully this blog writing will become easier once we get internet access regularly! Love you all

xoxo,

Rita

Discovering Rome

             It’s been two days and I feel like I’ve walked the entire perimeter of Italy! We had an hour break after getting to our hotel from the airport and went straight to a little Pizzeria for a quick lunch. YUMMMY!  The interesting part was that they asked us how much of the specific pizza we wanted and they whipped out scissors to cut it. I don’t know if that is sanitary but oh well…when in rome?? After that we walked to Vatican City.  HOLY AMAZING! My favorite part of the day was walking among the alleys lined with little shops, cafes, and ristorantes AND of course the cute cobblestone roads. I also love looking at the different fashion here. My heart melted when I saw two old men with fedoras, button ups, blazers, white/khaki pants, and sperry looking shoes. Even better they were cruisin on bikes, with not a worry in the world. Another highlight of my day was being on set for a commercial. We randomly saw them filming a guy dressed up in a bear outfit, in the back of a white taxi. Random but cool! After almost hours of walking around in 95 degree weather with 60% humidity, we were ready to find our way back to the hotel, change out of our sweaty clothes, and eat dinner. By 9:30, my jet lag had the best of me and it was lights out.     
          Today there was lots to see too! We had breakfast and went on our first metro to the Museum of Roman Civilization. Those Romans really did rule the world at one point! Then, we took the metro to the Colosseum and split up for lunch. We went to a cute outdoor restaurant and an amazing gelato place. They even gave us samples of nutella gelato that they had just made...DANGEROUS. TOO GOOD! I had Blueberry and Mango...gelato will be the death of me. The rest of the day, we spent time at the Colosseum and the Forum. Still not ready for the nightlife but don't you worry, I will adapt to this time zone pronto! Well time for bed... Buona notte!

xoxo,

Rita 

 

Arrivederci America!

It's finally here! I have been dreaming about studying abroad in Italy even before I started at BYU and the day has come! Waking up at 4 am was not the business but my parents and I did our best to get up pack my stuff and get on the freeway. LAX was kind of a nightmare as I predicted but other than that everything has gone pretty smoothly! Now I'm sitting here at the Newark airport waiting to board for my flight headed to Rome! I've never been to the East Coast and the views from the plane were awesome. I wish I could go outside and explore New York but I will save that for another day! Well we're starting to board so the next time I write I will be in Italy! I cannot explain how excited I am :D I'll try to do my best to share all my adventures often so follow my blog! Love you all and thank you so much for all those who supported me and helped make this trip possible. Especially my parents for all their help :) Ciao all you wonderful people!

xoxo,

    Rita

                   My cousin, Melly made me this cake for my last dinner with the family!

                                                      Hard to say bye to these puppy eyes

                                                                          Up in the sky