a fat girl's heaven

the only word to describe italy is delicious. yes it is certainly one of the most culturally rich cities in all the world and has truly amazing cities, sites, art, and history........ but the food is like......... mind blowing. yeah okay i know you really can’t go wrong with pasta most of the time i know this because i myself can even boil pasta but i swear to god every meal was life changing. i think i am just gonna go through every day and detail what i ate and then go back and talk about the cultural stuff we did.

rome, day 1, wednesday dec 5, ella’s 21st bday

lunch: ella and i do halfsies on a broccoli and spinach pizza and a vegetable pizza at a local place near kelly’s apt

dinner: dar poeta. this. will. change. your life. i think if i had to rate our meals this goes down as my favorite. we each got a pizza which was like small/medium individual sized and i would literally make love to the pizza i ate. it was called the lucia de foro (i think) and it had two different cheeses, pepperoncini, spicy salami, and tomato sauce. it was one of the first spicy things i’ve eaten in a while and this pizza was quite literally making me sweat. but it was awesome. then for desert we ordered by just about everyone in the world’s recommendation: the nutella and ricotta calzone. that sounds really weird but it was easily the best dessert i have ever had in my life. this whole thing seems like a hyperbole but it is NOT. i was in heaven. i was the only person to eat all of my food basically licking my plate clean. if that’s wrong then i don’t wanna be right.

rome, day 2, thursday dec 6

lunch: ristorante alla rampa, it was a cute little place near the spanish steps. we were all so hungry and delusional from being at the vatican all morning that this meal was very rewarding. i didn’t get anything special just some tortellini with alfredo sauce but even something this simple was 1 million times better in italy. i was a satisfied girl. other notable choices to come from this meal were becca’s veal stuffed pasta and ella’s bowtie pasta with a cream sauce that had a hint of pear flavor.

dinner: trattoria de something i also forget this name i suck. it was in tratsevere by ella’s friends recommendation. i once again didn’t go to crazy but made a really great choice with the spaghetti carbonara. i effing love carbonara pasta i was stuffing my face. unfortunately i had had like 15 pieces of bread waiting for my meal to come out but i was determined to finish it. i only had a few bites left when kelly decided to tell me how carbonara is made. i won’t share cause i lost my appetite afterwards but still..... my fave

florence, day 3, friday dec 7

lunch: after getting really lost trying to find our hotel we were once again delusional when we got to lunch. we ate at this sandwich place called salumeria verdi's and i got the bufala sandwich that consisted of bufala mozzerella, spicy salami, hot sauce, and turkey pressed on a panini. i could have probably eaten 14 of these sandwiches they were so good.

dinner: trattoria de anita. ella and i also went halfsies at this place and it was genius. we split two different truffle plates, one being a spaghetti with a white truffle sauce and the other being tortellini in a red truffle sauce with sausage. both were actually to die for. later on when i would burp i would relish in the tastes of these pastas because they were so good. also this meal ella and rachel taught me how to eat like a real human and not scarf down my food. apparently its 18 chews per bite and 23 for meats. who knew? now ive been trying to think about it and i don’t eat myself into an uncomfortable oblivion. i’m so mature now!!!!

florence, day 4, saturday dec 8

lunch: trattoria de 4 leones. this place was really swanky and i liked it. it was kinda tucked away behind the ponte vecchio but so worth deff up there on my favorites. here i ordered the tuscan soup which is kinda like a softer and smoother, more flavorful version of stuffing. actually to die for. 

dinner: ella and i went on a solo mission to gusta pizza. everyone raves about this place. we once again got a spicy pizza with the spicy salami (not as good as dar poeta) and then we got a pesto and mozzerella pizza which was bomb. the best part of gusta pizza was 1. the cute waiter and 2. the dough on the pizza was so light and fluffy and delicious i could have eaten it plain. 

florence/rome, day 5, sunday dec 9

lunch (florence): antica sosta. a healthy thing for a change! although none of my meals made me feel too full or sick in anyway, i hadn’t had vegetables in a very long time. ella and i split a massive salad with turkey, tomato, pesto, mozzerella. it was definitely a refreshing change of pace and got my digestive system moving again which was nice. tmi idc.

dinner (rome): random little place near the bus station cause we couldn’t find any of the recommendations. wasn’t the best and didn’t help the waiter was a weirdo but i got penne alla vodka which i hadn’t had yet and definitely enjoyed and then ella got lasagna which was really really good and i had some food envy

in between all of this i ate 12 scoops of different gelato flavors most of which i don’t remember the names of but some notable flavors:

kiwi 

yogurt

whiskey and cinnamon

nutella and marscapone

chocolate mousse

hazelnut

stracciatella

carmel creme

and many more in between.......

okay well now that i’ve detailed every meal i ate which is the most important part obviously i’ll get to the cultural aspect of italy. the first day we got there ella and i walked around in the freezing cold and rain (we literally bring rain wherever we go) and saw the colosseum, the forum, and went and made a wish in the trevi fountain for ella’s bday. the next day we woke up early to get to the vatican where we were able to see all the vatican museum and then the sistine chapel. most of this time was spent imitating statues and me being the token catholic explaining all the stories i knew about the catholic religion and the vatican (which sadly was heavily based on conspiracy theories i had gotten from angels and demons. robert langdon is real ok?). we then re did all the stuff we did the day before with becca rachel and kathryn and also went to the pantheon and spanish steps. things got really weird at the spanish steps after we had eaten i won’t give all the details but kathryn deff tinkled a little bit on ella’s head. for some reason i was not expecting much from rome because i had heard it was too much of a city/dirty/etc but i was honestly so impressed. i loved the city so much and there was so much interesting history to see there i was really blown away.

trevi fountain. the only normal photo we took in italy

imitating some hideous fountain outside the pantheon, we did a pretty good job amirite?

religious tapestry in the vatican museum.... WOW

on friday morning we made way to florence by train which was long and scenic. ella and i had been reading up on a florence and even watched a documentary on the medici family so we were pretty excited to head to the heart of the renaissance. florence was much smaller but for some reason much easier to get lost in. we got so lost looking for our hotel we had to get a cab. our hotel sidenote was so cheap and so so so lovely for what it was. it was in a great area and when the 4 of us stayed there we had a HUGE room like ballroom with its own shower in it. they had awesome breakfasts and great location we liked it so much ella and i stayed another night. after we got to the hotel we got lunch and gelato and then decided we would go to the uffizi gallery to check out some major renaissance art. it started raining, naturally. and we got really really lost. does this sound familiar to like basically every place i’ve been in europe? anyway it was brutally freezing and raining and could have been a situation where we hated each other and got so mad but instead we were laughing about the whole thing and making rap songs to entertain ourselves. we made it the uffizi looking like bloody hell but it had some really amazing stuff including the birth of venus by titian which revolutionized renaissance art. we went home since it was dark and we were freezing to shower and warm up. we had a nice relaxing ladies night over a good dinner and wine.

our ballroom of a hotel room. worth the hour lost trek to find it

on saturday we saw the other major sites in florence including the duomo, michelangelo’s tomb and the medici palace. we also went to this lovely little christmas market and did some fun shopping there. then we headed over to the ponte vecchio to check out some really expensive jewelry we couldn’t afford. later that day we met up with kathryn and her colgate friends that are studying in florence at the piazza de michelangelo. this piazza had an amazing view of the whole city so naturally everyone had to get photos in front of it. since i dont really know how to take a serious photo by myself ella proceeded to document my awkward middle school imitations overlooking the piazza. i am a class act. we went back pretty early cause we were chilled to the bone once again and had to warm up. becca and rachel left that night and ella and i went out with kathryn’s friend and i even got to meet up with natalie’s sister lucy who is studying in florence for a drink.

ponte vecchio being tourists

how uncomfortable does this photo make you?

sunday morning ella and i woke up and went to mass at the duomo. please alert all my irish catholic relatives that i went to church in europe and in one of the most important churches too. i am the best catholic of all time. minor detail is that we left early. but its a cool story right?? ella and i did some more wandering and some shopping for lola and jesus for the rest of our day. we had to leave around 3 to get a train back to rome where we had to then get a bus to sleep in the rome airport overnight. this was the second time i have had to sleep in the airport on my trip abroad and unfortunately not my last. ella and i got all comfortable in a bunk bed situation (ella on the floor underneath the chairs and me on the chairs) until the people kicked us out and made us go to this freezing cold terminal where we got zero sleep, froze our butts off, and just were generally very uncomfortable. oh and also my glasses fell off in my sleep and in an attempt to find them when i woke up i snapped them in half. so that was good traveling around blind for the rest of the trip! we then took a 6 am ryanair flight back, a metro to the bus station, a 5 hour bus ride from madrid, and a city bus to our homestay and we were finally home and made it in time for our 6 pm classes. i would say we are just about pros at this kind of stuff now.

ella and i bunkin' up at the rome airport. luxurious lives we lead huh?

so italy was a major cultural experience and one of the most beautiful places i have ever seen. when i am rich and successful and have so much free time to travel (aka never) i want to go back to tuscany and do a wine tour and rent a car to drive around the country side because there is so much more to the country. but lets all get real...... the food made the trip and as it was our last trip abroad i would say that we quite literally left our travels with a good taste in our mouth (how punny am i????)