Mambo Italiano

I realize it’s been a while since I’ve updated my blog, but we’ve just been so busy! 

Our Art History professor took us to the Louvre last week, and it is absolutely amazing! There’s so much to see there, and it’s so easy to lose your way. We saw so many wonderful works of art, but the highlights of the day were the Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa. Da Vinci was commissioned to paint a woman’s portrait, but her husband did not like the finished product, so he refused the painting. Everyone talks about how small the Mona Lisa is and how disappointing it is, but I didn’t think so at all! I thought it looked like a normal-sized portrait that someone would hang in their home. Just being in the same room with all these incredible works by Da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, and others was breathtaking! 

We had barely stayed in Paris for three days before we left for Italy! Our first stop was Rome, where our schedule was filled with a tour of Vatican City. Vatican City is gorgeous, and I think everyone who can do it should definitely go visit at least once. The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is amazing in person! But the interior of St Peter’s Basilica took my breath away. It’s the most gorgeous place of worship I’ve ever seen. Vatican City was definitely the highlight of the first day, at least for me! We also saw the Trevi Fountain, which actually was a little disappointing. It’s not nearly as large as I imagined it to be, and it’s stuck in the middle of four large buildings, so the square is very cramped. We did find some of the best pasta we’ve ever had, however, right down the street. I got ravioli, and it was to-die-for! My first impression of Rome didn’t quite live up to my expectations, but I was so excited just to be there! 

The next morning we left for Florence. I am in love with that city! It’s one of Italy’s main cities, but it has the feel of a small town. We spent lots of time at the street market on our first day, and everyone left with some great finds! I found some gorgeous scarves, genuine leather bracelets, and an adorable straw hat. After the street market, we visited a couple of museums. Our first was the Accademia Gallery, where Michelangelo’s statue of David is housed. We were all in awe of this statue – he is so much larger and more impressive in person than he appears in any of the pictures I’ve seen. David is definitely worth making a visit to Florence! We had the afternoon free until our dinner at the convent. Yes, you read that correctly. We stayed at Convitto della Calza, a former convent that has been renovated to become a hotel. We really enjoyed our stay there, and the dinner they served us was amazing! We had penne pasta with tomato sauce, potatoes, cooked spinach, beef, rolls, and fruit. It has seriously been the best meal I’ve had in Europe so far. 

On our second day in Florence, we made a trip to the outlets, fittingly called The Mall. There were Armani, Fendi, Burberry, Balenciaga, Ferragamo, Gucci, Stella McCartney, and Alexander McQueen stores, among many others. I didn’t buy anything there, but some of the other girls found some great stuff! After our excursion to the outlets, we rode back into Florence and visited the Salvatore Ferragamo museum. He was a shoe designer, and many of his shoes are on display in the museum (which is in the basement of the Ferragamo store in Florence). We had a very cute, but very uninteresting an rather boring, tour guide. The museum visit could have been a lot of fun, because seeing all the shoes was amazing! There were also hats done by an English designer that were inspired by the shoes, which were absolutely adorable! If you ever decide to visit the museum, however, I would suggest doing so without a guide. 

We spent our final day in Italy by visiting Rome again. We visited the Spanish Steps that morning, and then looked around the shops in that area before meeting the group for our tour of Fendi. The tour was so much fun! Fendi isn’t extremely popular in America, but it is huge in Europe! While I don’t like their signature print (I think it looks kind of tacky), I love their leather bags, their shoes, their clothes, and especially their furs! We were given a tour of the entire store and were even allowed to try on some of the furs upstairs! After visiting Fendi, we wanted to visit the Colloseum, but we weren’t able to. We did ride over and took some pictures, but we didn’t have time to actually go inside. While I was disappointed, I was glad we at least got to see it. I do have to say, I don’t think I’ll be making another trip to Rome. It is a rather dirty city, and other than the ruins and history, I feel like there’s nothing else truly unique about Rome. At the end of our Italy trip I was so ready to get back to France. 

We ended our trip by visiting Nice, France, which is on the French Riviera. We happened to arrive on June 21^st, which is some sort of music and arts festival across France, so we watched lots of street performers and listened to some great music! It was a lot of fun! We had the entire day on the 22^nd free to do whatever our hearts desired. I went to lunch with the other girls, then we all scattered to do our own things.  I went shopping with Hannah, and we looked around the Galleries Lafayette, a French department store, for a while. There’s a full grocery store in the basement, and we found Karl Lagerfeld diet Coke! Of course we had to buy some! (For those of you who don’t know who Karl Lagerfeld is, he is the creative director for Chanel and the designer for Fendi.) We spent the rest of our afternoon relaxing and recuperating from our trip within a trip. 

I am so glad to finally be back in Paris!  I now know where I am, have a permanent (for the time being) place to stay, and am getting back into the swing of things. We’ve started working the fashion shows, and they are amazing! We are working two shows tomorrow, and that marks the end of the menswear shows. I will update as soon as possible on all the shows and what we’re up to in Paris! Au revoir!  

Making an Entrance

We finally made it! Our flight went smoothly and we landed sometime around 11 yesterday morning. Most of us were able to sleep the majority of the flight, so we arrived relatively well rested. We didn’t make it to our apartments until about 2, however. Parisian traffic is insane! There are no speed limits that we know of, and the only road with traffic lanes is the Champs Elysees (but even there people don’t follow them). Add traffic jams into the mix and you get what we experienced yesterday afternoon. I was so glad to get off the bus and finally be able to set my feet on the ground! 

I’m sharing an apartment with two other girls for the duration of the trip. It’s definitely very small, but not unbearable. There is one room, a little larger than my bedroom at home, with three twin beds, a table, three chairs, and two nightstands. There are three closets built into the wall, which each have plenty of room for storage (thank goodness!). Our bathroom is a decent size, and is actually nicer than I expected. We also have a kitchen, but we haven’t attempted to cook anything yet. It’s smaller than our upstairs half-bath! We do have a small balcony, and we are literally right across the street from the Paris American Academy, which is awesome! 

After we got settled in, we took a trip to buy our European cell phones. They are tiny flip phones with basic calling and texting capabilities, and the only extras are alarms and a calculator. It’s taking some getting used to since I have a touch-screen smartphone at home! Once we all had our phones, we decided to get a snack and head to Luxembourg Gardens. Dr. Ellis, our professor from Meredith, bought us Nutella crepes. As my little sister would say, they are “like Jesus!” (Which basically means that something is really amazing or makes us really happy.) As we finished our crepes, we walked into the gardens. Luxembourg Gardens is absolutely beautiful! There are certain areas in which you cannot step on the grass, because it is maintained so meticulously. Statues and fountains fill the garden, including a model of the Statue of Liberty. This particular one is the original miniature mold for our very own Lady Liberty in New York by the sculptor Batholdi. What I really want to find out is if the playground at the gardens has an age/height/weight limit. It is huge and has some seriously fun equipment, including a modified zip-line and really tall monkey bars shaped sort of like the Eiffel Tower. 

Last night 6 of us hopped in a van while Dr. Ellis and one of the other girls grabbed a taxi with Peter, president of the Paris American Academy.  We drove around the city, seeing some of the major sites such as the Champs Elysees, the Arc de Triomphe, the Pantheon, the Louvre, and the Eiffel Tower. This was yet another insane car ride, and I thought we were going to get hit trying to make it out of the roundabout to drive through the Louvre courtyard. After our ride, we ate a late dinner at a small restaurant by the Eiffel Tower. It only cost us 15 euros each to get a 3 course meal, which we thought was a great deal! Our dessert was two scoops of ice cream, so I ordered chocolate and caramel. It was probably the best ice cream I have ever tasted. Honestly. We ended our night with a visit to the Eiffel tower. That’s when it finally hit me that we are in Paris. And we got to see it twinkle on our first night! We walked down the steps to get our picture under the tower, then we headed back to our apartments. Taking the metro was an interesting experience. I’m definitely going to have to study a map so I can find my way around! 

Getting ready this morning was eventful. The shower works great and my new travel hairdryer was perfect, but my flat iron wouldn’t stay on for more than 30 seconds before cutting off again. I did find out that my curling iron is dual voltage (a nice surprise!), so I was able to make my hair look somewhat decent using that. My apartment-mate’s Chi flat iron (which is an extremely nice flat iron for those of you who don’t know) wouldn’t work either, so we decided we would have to buy an iron today. One of the girls in the other apartment had to buy one as well, so we decided to make a trip together after dinner. 

Today we had our first Art History class, starting around noon. Our teacher is so sweet and really knows what she’s talking about! We sat in the classroom for an hour before heading the Musee de Cluny for a tour. The museum is dedicated to the Middle Ages, and there are so many beautiful things there! There are stained glass windows from churches all over Europe, tapestries, wood carvings, altar pieces, statues, jewelry, and more! There are even roman baths in the basement of the museum. It was amazing to see all these structures and pieces that are such a huge part of history. 

For dinner we ate at a small restaurant on the same street as our apartment. The food was absolutely delicious! They served wine with our dinner, but after only one tiny sip I realized I definitely am not a wine person! It was extremely strong and left my mouth feeling very dry, which I was not expecting at all. The dessert, however, was amazing! It was chocolate mousse, and being a chocolate lover, I was in heaven! After we finished eating, we decided to make a trip down the street to find flat irons and look for postcards. Luckily we were able to find flat irons at a Monoprix, which is kind of like a French Target. We also found some beautiful black and white postcards right down the street, as well as several shops we want to visit later and two Starbucks (for when we crave a little familiarity!). 

It has been an amazing first two days in Paris! Tomorrow we have art history class again and will be spending most of the day in the Louvre. Hopefully the weather will turn out to be as nice as it has been the past two days!

PS: You should be able to view all my pictures by clicking on the link below! I’m going to do my best to upload my latest pictures each night!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2143635709256.137260.1197139952&l=c948545bda

You're Only a Day Away

I’ve been contemplating writing a blog for a while now, but I guess all I needed was a little push. This summer is going to be a whirlwind of new people, new places, and new experiences. The first of which is my month-long study abroad trip to Paris, France that begins tomorrow evening. Needless to say, I am beyond excited! In addition to Paris, I will be traveling to Versailles, Nice, Rome, Florence, and Antwerp, Belgium. This is the trip that I’ve spent the last two years waiting and planning for, and it’s hard to believe my departure date is so close at hand. I’m going to try my darndest to keep my blog updated on a regular basis so everyone at home can share in this amazing experience! The next time you hear from me, I’ll be in the City of Lights. Au revoir!