Fall Break

So I realize I have not been doing such a great job with updating. But I figured I would take a few of my free minutes to at least share some of my favorite pictures from my amazing Fall break with my amazing mama :) We traveled from Genoa to Monaco, the French Riviera, onto Provence, through Geneva and some Swiss countryside, and finally ended by paragliding in the French Alps and then onto Milan for our last night. It was an unforgettable week to say the least. 

Outside the Monte Carlo on Day 1 (aka Monaco Is Not All It's Cracked Up To Be)

Cannes -- beautiful city and beautiful mother!

At the Fragonard perfume factory in Grasse, an adorable little French town. I bought 2 perfumes there and proceeded to break the one that was in a glass bottle less than a week after purchasing it. If anyone is looking for a Christmas present for me, you can order Fleur de Vanille Eau de Toilette on the Fragonard website!

Outside the perfume factory with mama bear. Note the scenic French trashcans.

Van Gogh's inspiration for "Cafe Terrace at Night" in Arles. Sadly, since he painted it in 1888, the cafe has been renamed Cafe Van Gogh and painted yellow to emulate the way his painting of it looked. 

Our view of the Roman Arena in Arles from our dinner table. 

The spot where I fell in love with the supremely expensive Gruyere cheese at an open air market in Arles. My heart may never be the same.

Under the Pont du Gard -- we picknicked on the banks of the river the aqueduct is built over and saw jumping fish.

A castle where you can wine taste outside of Avignon. We drove through several of these scenic vineyards before choosing one to do a tasting.

Palais du Papes in Avignon. As my mom said, "one of our only cultural experiences of the trip." We even got the audioguide, complete with British-accented recordings!

Stunning scenery snapped while we may or may not have been lost trying to follow Rick Steves through Provencial wine country.

Just a snapshot of the adorable town of Le Crestet. We spent some time just exploring the village, which was covered with beautiful ivy and made of old, picturesque stone buildings. We saw maybe two people the whole time.

View from our impromptu picnic and hot chocolate stop in Seguret -- ostensibly the "prettiest village in France," but I preferred Le Crestet.

Lyon at night. I heard that the city had mastered floodlighting, but I didn't see much to prove that, beyond this picturesque scene of a castle on a hill. We did have the best meal of the trip in Lyon though, which redeemed the city in my eyes (cheese omelette, salad with gruyere cheese, chocolate mousse, and French wine)

Stop at a random but gorgeous lake. I have no idea where it is or what it's called, but I want to find it again in summer; it was just a smidge too chilly for swimming in October.

St. Peter's Cathedral in Geneva, Switzerland

Enjoying Swiss hot chocolate at the Place du Bourg-de-Four, an idyllic square in Geneva

The flower clock in Geneva. We met a group of Swiss students trying to learn English and made the mistake of asking them to take our picture, leading to semi-awkward interviews about our feelings on Switzerland.

Jet d'Eau in Geneva. 

Gorgeous wine country in Switzerland by Lac Leman.

In front of Mont Blanc! My English major heart was far too excited to see Shelley's inspiration.

Ice cave and unbelievably perfect background. Sidenote -- apparently you are supposed to wear gloves when you go to the top of mountains in the Alps. Who knew?

View of Chamonix and the surrounding Alps while paragliding.

That's my brave ("sporty," in the words of our guide) mom!

Loving life!

My guide (who spoke little and heavily accented English) asked if I wanted to pilot...I thought he was kidding, so asked if he trusted me; he responded "Yeeeeeeahhhh!" (imagine a French cookie monster for the inflection), and I got to steer for a few minutes!

Post touch-down :)

Eurochocolate

Word to the wise: if the weather forecast is for the 60s, and you question if you should bring a heavy coat but decide against it because you figure it probably will actually be warmer and you won't want to carry said coat around, think again. It will probably actually feel considerably colder due to unceasing and frigid wind, and there may be nothing you want more in the world than a heavy coat. Or a poncho. Or a Snuggie.

But, there is a bright side! This hypothetical situation actually happened to me (did you guess?) and it was at a chocolate festival. Being the person that I am, I can never stay too sad when surrounded by delicious, artisanal chocolates, even when faced with wind, my greatest nemesis.

Gorgeous views all around the festival

All this is to say that, overall, our day trip to the Perugia Chocolate Festival yesterday was a success. We navigated the train systems successfully (though barely), thus avoiding paying almost twice as much for a pre-planned tour and gaining freedom to get there and leave when we wanted. Basically, the festival consisted of an adorable town being overrun by chocolate vendors from all over Europe peddling a massive array of mouthwatering treats. I had a cup of what I hoped would be hot chocolate (the drink) and actually turned out to be more like hot chocolate pudding (still delicious), tried a chocolate kebab, had chocolate cake drizzled in hot chocolate sauce, some kind of chocolate granola bar they gave out for free, and probably far too many other plain milk chocolate varieties.

Just a glimpse of how many people were crowding the streets

Never happier than when I'm in a tent full of homemade chocolate

Fly away to chocolate planet?

Chocolate tents were everywhere, and at one end of the festival there was a giant display of a Lindt bear with a huge line leading up to it. With no idea what people were waiting in line for, of course we decided to join. Unfortunately, we never figured out exactly what we were waiting for, but I'm assuming it was to win something as we had to pick out a red ball from a container and open it to see if there was anything in it. All of ours were empty, so we only came away with pictures with the giant bear and tiny chocolate Lindt bears of our own (delectable), but at least we tried!

I'm not sure there's anything that could make me happier than to actually BE a bear made of chocolate

My tiny bear with the very BIG bear

Today, I leave on my week-long adventure with my mom through France and Switzerland! I can't wait to see the French countryside and go paragliding in the French Alps, and am anxiously awaiting my mom's (hopefully) imminent arrival.

Amalfi Coast

Sorrento at 8 AM

If you ever want to avoid getting any sleep for a couple weeks, go to the Amalfi Coast the weekend after you go to Oktoberfest and turn 21. I have been alternately traveling and attempting to catch up on work nonstop for the past couple weeks, but it's been completely worth it. The Amalfi Coast trip was another of the best weekends, and I definitely want to go back some day. 

About to get on the boat (which I kept calling a bus all weekend)

We left Thursday night, again, and got in pretty late/early Friday morning. We immediately crashed at the hostel and then had to be up in time to leave at 7:20 in the morning to go to Capri. Capri was one of the places I was most excited for, but it could not have gone less according to plan. It started off beautifully: we took a gorgeous boat tour around the island and saw the major sites (although the tide was too high to go in the Blue Grotto) and then docked at Capri and hiked to Capri Town to look around and go in a garden with scenic outlooks. Unfortunately it started to rain while we were there, which was just the beginning of the weather altering our plans for the day. We went to lunch, where I had amazing pizza and Ravioli Caprese (amazing), and then looked around at the handmade sandals and limoncello. We still had a few hours left, so we decided to take the chairlift to the highest point on the island (the top of Anacapri) to see the views, even though it looked a little foggy. Little did we know that the "little fog" would soon turn into the craziest lightning storm I've ever seen. Long story short, once we got to the top, we went into the little coffee shop, and watched the drizzle turn to pouring turn to hail, and then listened to the loudest thunder I've EVER heard, while lightning flashed overhead. Suffice to say, when the electrical sockets started smoking and the workers were freaking out, I've never been more scared in my life. But, moral of the story, we lived! Even though the chairlift broke in the storm and we had to hike down the mountain. 

The Green Grotto -- the most gorgeous color of water!

Lover's Tunnel

View of the coastline from the gardens

Custom-made shoes

Chairlift on the way up

Post-storm -- we survived!

Hiking down the mountain and finally seeing some views

That night, we went to one of the most delicious restaurants I've been to where I experienced Nutella pizza for the first time....something everyone needs to have before they die. It was called Nutella pizza but was really more of a calzone, and was, simply put, the most delicious dessert ever. Then we went to this outdoor bar/club where we danced for awhile until heading back to the hostel. 

Nutella pizza. To die for.

One of my happiest eating moments

Our group of the weekend, plus a random Italian man

The next morning we got to sleep in a little bit before heading to Positano for a beach day! We went out on a boat shortly after getting there to go cliff jumping, which was a big highlight of the trip. There were two different cliffs to jump off of, one of which you had to scale the side of the cliff to get to, but was totally worth it to jump off a higher ledge. The weather got a little iffy after that, but at least it didn't rain and we had a lightning-free day! That night we just stayed at the hostel's bar where there was a live band, which made for a really fun atmosphere. 

View of Positano walking down from the bus

Getting to the beautiful beach

Molly and I on the boat to go cliff jumping

Pre-jump

Here I gooooo!

I can't get over how pretty the water is!

As we were leaving -- the clouds made for a gorgeous sunset

At the hostel's bar

The next day we headed to Pompeii before going home. Seeing Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius was really cool, but it was very cold and got progressively chillier and windier, which made me ready for the tour to end. But overall it was very interesting and I'm definitely glad I got to see it.

A preserved man who died when Mount Vesuvius erupted

Ruins

It must have been such a pretty city

An amazingly well-preserved house and pretty garden

We made it back to Florence by 8 or 9, and as sad as I was for the weekend to end, this really does feel like home. I love that when I go on vacations here, I'm just as happy to come back as I am to have been on the trip. I can't even imagine what it's going to feel like to move back to America after living here; this apartment and city have a place in my heart that I don't think will ever be filled by another place.