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Getting to taste the wine and eat pasta all the time were 2 of the things I was most excited for when coming to Italy! Once I got here, I think I ate pasta for almost every meal and had wine at a good majority. Both of them exceeding my expectations! I also was a big fan of eating gelato at least 1-2 times a day (even 3 times in one day, when a few of us created a challenge) and all the other desserts such as strawberry cheesecake, tiramisu, pastires, cookies, macaroons, and the list goes on and on.

While abroad, I also got to meet and have a cooking lesson with the famous Italian chef, Imma Garguilo. She has her own cookbook that was published in 2012 with more than 40 recipes that can be paired with wines. We learned how to make tiramisu one evening with her which was super fun and it tasted great the next day when we ate it.

Before going to Italy, I had a lot of previous assumptions and expectations of what the food would taste and look like and the experiences I had were actually much different from what I was imagining. Italians do not season a lot of their food like Americans do. They also serve a lot of cured meat such as ham as appetizers before every meal which is something I did not know about the culture. Coke is also something they serve at almost every meal which I enjoyed because I love drinking coke. However, it was weird having to pay for water. In the United States having free water available to us all the time, is something I took for granted.

Pisa is the city in Italy known for its leaning tower. This tower can be climbed using 294 spiral steps, carved into the tower walls. The tower started to be built in 1174, however once it reached the 3rd story, it began to sink and the construction was paused. For 90+ years the tower remained like it was. The tower itself was offcially completed in 1370.

I never knew any specific information about the Leaning Tower of Pisa besides the obvious.. it doesnt stand up straight! I think coming to this city was super fun because I got to learn so many facts about the people who helped construct and build this tower as well as all the history behind it.

For me, this was a fun little day trip where we also got to explore Lucca beforehand and ride around the city on bikes and take a mini tour. I enjoyed coming to Pisa after to take fun pictures with the tower while doing different poses and holding up ice cream cones and gelato infront of it.

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Before I even left for Italy, I told everyone that I was going to see the Pope while I was there. People would say “What are you doing in Italy?” and I would always respond with “Well I’ll be seeing the Pope and ….” Experiencing the Pope was something so cool to me if though I am not catholic. I think it is pretty cool to say that I have been blessed by the Pope because not many people can say that, unless they’ve been to Italy themselves. 

Visiting St. Peter’s Square and Vatican City is one of my favorite memories to this date. I don’t have any specific reasons, but the city itself holds so much history and charm that I really enjoyed experiencing while I was there. It is interesting to see how important the Vatican, from about the 1900’s has so much significance like the forum from the B.C. Both tell a lot about history in Italy, even being so far apart. I just loved learning about the Italian religious beliefs and culture through this experience.

While in the Vatican City, I also went to a little postcard shop and sent home to my family and myself a postcard that is stamped from the Vatican City which is super cool to have. I described this to be one of my YOLO experiences while in Italy. My dad also appreciated the postcard and how it was stamped because he was super jealous, I got to go see the Pope and Popemobile without him. 

Capri Island was one my favorite days in Italy. I knew we were going but I did not know what this trip entailed at all. We had 2 boats between our group and the one I spent my day on was named “Spice Girls.” We spent all day on the boat listening to music, tanning, taking individual and group pictures, as well as taking the boat around the whole island and getting close to it to see how clear the water was and how the rocks on the side looked.

Another one of my favorite days was when we went snorkeling and kayaking. This experience brought different views of Italy. It was awesome to kayak by the Capo di Sorrento and the Baths of the Queen Giovanna. Once we kayaked to a little shore off the coast of the water, we put on gear to go snorkeling.

I have been both kayaking and snorkeling before and in my opinion, I think Italy had a lot better views when it came to kayaking but I believe when I was in Hawaii, the snorkeling experience was better because I was able to look at a live coral reef in the sea beneath me.