Italy Trip (Catch-Up): How To Make Pasta From Scratch

One of the highlights of my trip to Italy last summer was the cooking class through Food And Wine Academy of Florence! All cooking classes are expensive. But for the price, I picked this one compared to lots of others I researched for a few reasons: 

• It's a long course (about 6 hours) so it takes your whole day, BUT you get a huge meal out of that would cost some hefty Euros at a restaurant (plus drinks, seating charge, etc.).
• These classes have a 10% student discount, PLUS I was able to add in a Rick Steves travel guide code that was in his book. Bonus! 
• Class begins with a tour of the Central Market of Florence where you get your ingredients for the day, AND a cheese/balsamic vinegar tasting (food education + snacks!)
• You walk away with the recipes from the day PLUS some other ones to try at home

In this class, we made pasta and tiramisu, but I'll save the tiramisu for a separate post. Here's a shot from above of our work space for the day! This was after a couple hours at the Central Market (also saved for another post). 

Prep materials! 

Chef Giovanni taught us a lot, even though he was slightly condescending to American food culture (but hey, I'm not blaming him when we have McDonald's to be proud of...). He dispelled a lot of myths, like: 

• Fettuccine alfredo is NOT ITALIAN. Italians use smaller noodles with white sauces (angel hair, penne, etc.). 
• Spaghetti would also not be used with a meat sauce. Italians use the thicker pasta noodles (like the pappardelle we made that day) for hearty meat sauces because they can withstand it. 

He started by measuring out our individual flour portions. We used Tipo "00" flour, which is a finer type of flour. I can't seem to find it in the US except for on Amazon in huge portions, so I have semolina and all-purpose at home. 

Start out by making your pile in a neat circle, then using your thumb and first few fingers, create a well in the center. Plop your egg in, some olive oil, and pinch of salt. Take a fork and scramble the egg, and every so often add in some flour from the side of your well until fully incorporated. This is a messy step, so when I'm at home I do this inside of a mixing bowl then will put on a flat surface to knead. 

Speaking of kneading, do it for about 15 minutes. Yes, you will get tired if you're like me and incredibly out of shape. I also blame my height for not having enough leverage to use my body weight. You want to keep kneading it until it becomes smooth on the outside, and create a pretty ball. Then you're going to wrap it very tightly with plastic wrap and let sit for 30 minutes. This lets the dough soften for when you roll it out. 

In the meantime, Chef Giovanni took us to the stove to make the Bolognese sauce. It was in here I answered his quiz question that the sauce got its name because it originates in Bologna (go me!). 

Once the dough is finished sitting, roll out the dough. Put some flour on the counter and on top of the dough. Every now and then keep flipping the dough as you get it thinner and thinner. If you think the dough is thin enough, keep going. We were told to roll it until you can see the granite through the dough (if you look really hard you can see it in the picture). 

To make the pappardelle, lightly fold the dough and simply cut it to pappardelle thickness! The order of noodles from thinnest to widest are: Angel hair --> Spaghetti --> Fettuccine --> Tagliatelle --> Pappardelle 

We used half the dough to make pappardelle, and the other half to make ravioli. The filling is a simple ricotta and egg mixture. 

Similar to the pappardelle, fold the dough but this time to the thickness of your ravioli cutter (in this case, a glass!). In the first step, do NOT cut the pasta, just use the glass to get the correct width. Instead, first cut the dough in long ribbons with the correct width. Place the ricotta mixture in a small ball on one ribbon, and then place another on top. You may need to stretch the top layer slightly to make it over the ricotta. 

NOW you can cut the ravioli in pretty circles. Take a fork and crimp the edges to seal. Be careful not to puncture the cheese in the process! 

Here are the fruits of our labor for the day! 

 As we ate some bruschetta that was made for us, Chef Giovanni put the dishes together:

• Pappardelle with Bolognese sauce
• Ravioli with butter and sage sauce

I've already made these dishes multiple times at home. And although I can't re-create the exact flavors because the meat in Italy is fresher, I believe it still tastes good! I have also been able to teach family and friends how to make pasta as well, which is always fun! 

I highly recommend doing any cooking class of some sort if you're interested in that sort of thing. It was relatively basic, but I was still able to learn something from it and makes a great store. It's an experience you'll never forget! 

Catch-Up: Utah School of Alcoholism and Other Drug Dependencies

So many things happened this summer, and school started so busy so quickly that I have tons of catching up to do! 

Out of the many adventures I had, one of the most life-changing ones was my trip to Salt Lake City, Utah for the Utah School of Alcoholism and Other Drug Dependencies. 

It is a whole week of lectures about the pathophysiology of addiction, anonymous meetings (alcoholics, narcotics, al-anon), and speakers. There are so many disciplines in attendance (pharmacy, medicine, social work, etc.) and each have their individual sessions along with large sessions where everyone comes together. 

The pharmacy section is hosted in partnership with APhA-ASP. The UNC chapter placed 3rd place nationally as part of the Generation Rx Community Outreach Project, and each of the top 3 schools sponsored 2 students to attend the meeting. I was one of the lucky 2 to represent our school! Five students total attended from UNC. It was an honor to be a part of this session and to be surrounded by pharmacists in recovery from addiction, and fellow student pharmacists eager to learn about the disease. 

I stayed in a dorm for the first time in many years! It was pretty chilly at night, since the air is so dry that it doesn't retain any heat. The temperature rose tons once the sun came out again, though! 

The walk every morning from the dorms to the lectures was extremely beautiful. As a Floridian, my eyes still widen at the site of mountains. And while North Carolina has the Appalachian, there's no comparison to the Utah mountains! The suspension bridge on the way makes for a perfect photo op. 

Unique to the pharmacy programming, the Generation Rx nationally ranked schools presented their year to inspire other chapters and share their successes. It was tons of fun creating a poster and developing a presentation in front of student pharmacists from all over the country. I'm incredibly proud of our school and the Generation Rx leaders who made the project one of the best! 

One of the biggest treats was a performance from the Utes, a Native American tribe from Utah. Check out the video of the finale - it's amazing! 

This week opened my eyes to the fact that addiction is a disease, not a choice. Addiction is a disease with no cure, just like any other chronic disease (hypertension, diabetes, asthma, etc.). It's our responsibility to be informed about addiction to create a movement of erasing its negative stigma. 

For more information, see these websites:
http://www.pharmacist.com/apha-asp-generation-rx
http://www.drugabuse.gov/
http://medicine.utah.edu/uas/

Italy Trip: Food in Rome

Food is extremely important... especially in Italy! In Rome, I didn't necessarily learn as much about food history as I did in the Tuscan region, but as our first stop in Italy, Errol and I learned a lot of the "traditions" and restaurant etiquette. 

COLAZIONE:

I rarely ever eat breakfast... I prefer to sleep right up until I have just enough time to change and run to the bus for class. But when you're trying to have enough energy for the physical and mental toll that Rome takes out of you, carbo-loading is a must. And eventually, it became part of my stomach's food clock that has even rolled over to now! 

Of the three places we stayed in Rome (and in the other cities - more on those separately), the breakfast was the same: cappuccino, bread, pastries (filled with cream, nutella, etc.), and various spreads. Another benefit of breakfast was that it was always included in our hostel/B&B, so we saved Euros that way. 

PRANZO:
We always wanted to have light but filling (is that possible?) meals for lunch so we didn't get food coma. That usually meant pizza! Pizza in Italy is quite a delicacy, and made me forget the greasy dough I used to get from Little Caesar's for $5 for a quick college dinner. We had lots of different types of pizza, but all menus had generally the same kinds:

• Margherita - tomato + mozarella
• Napoli - 4 to 5 anchovies spread across the pizza; only need a little bit for the full effect! 
• Prosciutto - self-explanatory; delicious, melt-in-your-mouth slices 
• BIG TIP: "Pepperoni" in America is "salame piccante" in Italy, and is much better! 

My absolute favorite pizza was in Dar Poeta in Trastevere, a quaint area in southeast Rome. This pizza had the perfect combination of tart and savory, and I couldn't get enough of it:

buffalo mozzarella with artichokes topped with parmigiano reggiano

Just as a heads up, restaurants try to maximize tables in a small area, so every place has an outside area. We almost always chose to sit outside! Just keep a look out for the scooters and Smart cars that try to squeeze through; they get pretty close!

ANTIPASTI:
Probably one of the more expensive places we ate was at Enoteca Cavour 313, recommended by our Rick Steves guidebook. These pictures are what we had for dinner one night, but count as appetizers in my book. We got to have some delicious cheeses, and a first - beef carpaccio! As you can see it's raw beef sliced extremely thinly, topped with olive oil, red onion, capers, and a couple of anchovies. Surprisingly it was almost too salty for me (those who know me know that's a rarity!), but I still really liked it.

PRIMI e SECONDI PIATTI:

Another restaurant we went to was our first full meal with multiple courses, and we learned a lot.

1. Water is never free in a restaurant. You order one water for 2 people, and they bring out a 500 mL bottle that you ration on your own (generally 2-3 Euros a bottle!).
2. Sitting costs money. There's lots of standing eating, or getting food to-go and eating at a square. In fact, when I think back I think only tourists eat at restaurants because true Italians think a cover charge is ridiculous (which it is). It will cost 2-3 Euros per person tacked onto the bill. 
3. BIG TIP: If there's a cover charge, DON'T TIP. Really, don't. 
4. There's a charge for bread, and you get it no matter what. Most Italian restaurants in America give you bread with olive oil and herbs, or garlic breadsticks. In Italy, you get bread with olive oil and vinegar (balsamic or white wine). And that's normally 2-3 Euros. 

With that, you already have added at least 6 Euros to your bill before you've even had your meal. Crazy, right? As we progressed through the trip, we ate at restaurants less often simply due to all of the extra hidden costs. 

That being said, the food at this restaurant (whose name escapes me) was delicious! Top left is buffalo mozzarella (absolute fave), bottom left was spaghetti carbonara (on my food bucket list), and bottom right was Errol's veal. 

If you are sick of pasta - which you are bound to be no matter how much you love it - there are kebab places all over the place! Super cheap, super delicious, they're essentially the gyros you know of, but in wraps. Once we discovered these, we ate at one every couple of days. I wish we had more places like this to replace McDonald's! 

DOLCI:
Last but not least was the sweets! In Rome, I didn't have very much dessert. However, we did have plenty of gelato at any time of day! There are little window shops everywhere, where you can order your cone or cup and be on your merry way. There are tons of flavors, and some are quite interesting... but Errol's favorite was mango! Here he is holding one of the dozens of mango in a  "cono piccolo".

The only other dessert we had in a restaurant in Rome was the nutella calzone... I think you can guess if I liked it or not.

Another dessert on my food bucket list was panna cotta, a creamy dessert that is a mix between pudding and jello and is delicious! I grabbed one of these in a window shop for a couple of Euros.



Overall, the first city in Italy gave us a great introduction to food, and the best was yet to come! If you ever go to Italy, I hope you learn from our restaurant mistakes and try a lot of the things we did.

Italy Trip: Castel Sant'Angelo

To be honest, I didn't have high expectations of this place. I wasn't feeling well (I unfortunately caught a mild cold), the facade isn't pretty (compared to the art museums), and it was raining almost the entire time (as you can see from the gloomy pictures).

With that in mind, we got the audio guide. It wasn't very entertaining, but it helped. It takes you step by step through the fortress and also has separate numbers for the specific art pieces.

By the end, I came to have great respect for the monument. There is so much history here, as it was once the Pope's fortress! Originally commissioned as a mausoleum for Emperor Hadrian and his family, it was converted to a castle at the start of the 14th century.

Walking towards the Castel Sant'Angelo, we had our very first glimpse of St. Peter's Basilica! Even in the dark clouds it looked majestic, but we wouldn't be visiting there on this day.

As you start climbing up the stairs, you get amazing glimpses outside, such as the Ponte Sant'Angelo (Bridge of Holy Angels) that crosses the Tiber River with statues sculpted by Bernini. Each angel is different: with the column, whips, crown of thorns, nail, cross, etc. These beautiful sculptures seem to guard the fortress themselves!

At the top of the Castel, you get an even better view of Vatican City! On the righthand side of the picture, you can see what looks like a brick wall. If you look a bit closer, you will see that on top of that wall was a covered walkway that the pope used to get from Castel Sant'Angelo to the Vatican safely. 

The museum doesn't have the glamorous, Renaissance art that you see in the Vatican museums or other big-name places, but I definitely recommend it. It was a nice introduction of the history of Vatican City!  Plus, if you're into Assassin's Creed my sources tell me it's a big part in the game...

Italy Trip: Capitoline Museums

It was about this point on or first touring day that we became utterly exhausted. Jetlag was cajoling us with full force to ditch our schedule and take the Metro back to our hotel to sleep the rest of the day away. In fact, we found a nice sitting area within the museum and managed about 30 seconds of sound sleep before Errol woke me and I saw one of the staff staring at me. Not wanting to mean anymore disrespect to the artwork, we managed to carry on. YOCO, right?

TIP #1: There are 2 separate museums that comprise of the Capitoline. As you arrive at Capitoline Square, you have to enter through at the right hand building.

TIP#2: Be careful because when you go to the Cafe there, you have exited the museum (we learned this as a staff member asked for our ticket when we entered... And all we had to show was our Roma Passes and an explanation that we had just exited a few minutes prior without realizing it.

TIP #3: There is only ONE entrance to the museums. In order to get to the left side, there is an underground floor that connects two.

Yes, these tips are based on our own mistakes. We exited the museum twice and has to explain ourselves twice. The attempt to get to the left half of the museums must have been a common mistake because they just let us back in no problem. 

I would highly suggest the second part of the museums. Sounds bad, but they must make you go through the first part initially so that they are not skipped. The second half is where it's at.

Not only was it our first glimpse of the awe-inspiring sculptures of the Italian renaissance, but you also get an amazing view of the Roman Forum from a distance.

Elaborate busts

Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome

I swear I respected the art...

High-fiving Constantine

Overall this was a good museum. I'm sure we would have appreciated it more without the jetlag haze, so I would suggest not doing Colosseum + Roman Forum + Capitoline Museums not being done on the first day of your trip! 

Italy Trip: Ancient Rome

It seemed appropriate to begin our journey at the start of Rome's majestic history!

Colosseum: 

Started the trip off with a bang with this colossal (pun intended) structure of Ancient Rome. With this site, we used our first audio tour from the Rick Steves iPhone app. It is very normal for people to have audio guides (that look like old-school telephones) taking them around various locations, so us holding our phones with headphones in didn't look [more] touristy compared to everyone else.

The audio guide, though a little cheesy, is highly recommended (and free!). We started at the cross on the West entrance and were led around the first floor, second floor, and even great look off areas where you can clearly see the Arch of Constantine and Roman Forum.

With Rick Steves, you get about an hour's worth of information and site seeing, but you can definitely spend a lot more time here thanks to the exhibits - ours in particular was of Constantine's life. The timing was perfect, because right when we finished the audio tour, it started to thunderstorm. The exhibit proved to be a perfect way to pass the time as the God-like thunder resounded through the Colosseum's archways.

Our homemade itinerary originally had us spending a mere hour in the Colosseum, but it ended up being closer to 3 hours because of the rain, and consequently, the exhibit. By this time, we were extremely hungry but we tried to stick to the itinerary, which had us eating lunch after Roman Forum. What was the solution to holding off until then? Errol's first Italian gelato (pistachio)!

Palatine Hill and Roman Forum:

Honestly, after the Colosseum all I wanted to do was eat. But the first day we couldn't possibly veer from the itinerary so we chugged along with our snacks (beef jerky and trail mix from home) and took another couple of hours seeing the heart of Ancient Rome's government and activity.

We saw the Palatine Hill first. With a ticket to the Colosseum, you get combo tickets to Palatine and Roman Forum (which are both the same entrance, so technically you just get 2 entrances in one).

Maybe I was spoiled by Rick Steves who doesn't have an audio guide for the Palatine Hill, but I didn't find It that interesting. It could also have been the hunger and jet lag haze that prevented me from fully enjoying the experience. In general, it's difficult to imagine it in its hay day (palace upon palace of glory - in fact, the word "palace" comes from "Palatine". I guess I did learn something!).

The Roman Forum is a much more classic place. We've all seen the pictures of the few remaining columns, the grand arches, etc. on top of that, there's a Rick Steve's audio tour for it!

This first full day was quite exhausting, especially when we remembered we were not immune to jetlag. However, it was impossible not to awe at the massive structures carved with everlasting masterpieces of art. 

Italy Trip: Getting to Rome

Starting May 28th, the day after my little sister's 16th birthday, Errol and I embarked on the trip of a lifetime! After months of planning and saving up, I was excited for my FIRST trip to Europe: 2 weeks in Italy. We would spend it in four cities - Rome, Greve in Chianti, Florence, and Venice.

Errol's mom dropped us off at the airport very early (4AM!). Looking back at these pictures of the beginning of the trip, we look quite refreshed. While the trip was a dream, it was also pretty exhausting!

The schedule of events:
Orlando (MCO) --> New York City (JFK): 6AM-8:30AM
JFK --> Moscow (SVO): 2:20PM-7:45AM (Russian time, 9 hours total)
SVO --> Rome (FCO): 9AM (Russian time) - 10:45AM (Italy time), total 3 hours

First time on a Russian airline, and I must say we didn't like the plane food all that much. Sorry, Russia! I hope to someday have some of their true delicacies, and not through air travel.

BUT, they did have a TV for everyone with some good movie selections! Tried to sleep as much as possible, but still managed to watch The Hobbit, Tangled, and Pirates of the Caribbean :)

By the time we cleared customs, got our backpacks (which we gladly checked for free through Aeroflot), and figured out our next move it was around 1PM.

First step was to purchase a ticket from the airport to the Termini Train Station in order to walk to our hotel. There's lots of places to buy tickets (bigletti) so we just picked whatever looked most official (many tobacco [tabacchi] stores sell tickets too). 

It's a €19 ticket on the Leonardo Express train to the Termini. There are other trains with stops but we didn't want to take the risk, with our first time riding (more on train travel later... it's quite simple!). Even with no stops it's still about a 30 minute ride. 

Hotel Corallo was the first place! (I'll have a separate post about Rome housing)

We refused to let jetlag get to us, but 3 hours of napping later we felt quite refreshed. Not wanting to waste the entire day, we set off walking around. We found a place for dinner that was empty because it was only 6PM, and Italians eat a couple of hours later. There's one way to look like a tourist!

It was a Napoli pizza (mozzarella and anchovies) on for dinner along with 250 mL white wine and an Italian beer (birra). A lovely first day in this amazing city. 

End of one vacay, start of another!

After the end of a grueling semester, I won't lie and say I didn't want to spend the past couple of weeks on my own to recuperate. But after spending the last 3 weeks working for hours and [literally] laying in bed for hours on end, I think I am fully ready for the next few weeks to come: backpacking in Italy!

Getting from North Carolina to Florida was an adventure in itself. My flight was at 3:15PM, but went to the airport at 10AM to catch a ride with a friend who was also flying that day. It was fine, had some shows to watch and some reports to write and edit. Around 1PM I was getting excited to eat adobo and sinagang at home for dinner, and even skipped lunch to keep the appetite.

Also around 1PM, I got an email to check the status of my flight and I saw this:

Apparently, the plane we were originally going to use had a malfunction bad enough to warrant needing another one, which was coming from Baltimore. Lucky for me, we all got $100 vouchers for the inconvenience. Woohoo!

There was one final delay to 8:55PM, and I finally landed in Orlando at 10:45PM. My mom and sister were waiting for me at the airport, and then finally got home around 1AM after waiting for checked bags.

FINALLY! Good bye, North Carolina, see you in a month!

Italy: Putting Together an Itinerary

The flights were booked and housing was determined. At this point we had the bare bones of an itinerary: 5 nights in Rome, 2 nights in Chianti region, 3 nights in Florence, and 4 nights in Venice. 

Now... what to do to fill the days? To figure this out it has taken days, hours, dozens of websites and blogs, and a Rick Steves guidebook. 

I had no idea how intricate planning each day would be. It's not like this was our first trip. But actually, it's the first one requiring multiple location changes in a different country. The trip to the Bahamas we stayed on a cruise ship, and in Cancun we stayed in a timeshare. So cheers to us, on our first completely independent vacation.

What makes it so complicated? It's a like a huge puzzle, where the pieces include: 

• Bucket list: The advice of so many travelers is to ditch the list and use your instincts to take you from one place to another. However, with such a financial investment I find I must ensure I create some sort of idea of what to do so as to not waste time. Again, this is probably going against Italian culture to plan to the point of placing "Get lost in Venice" in an itinerary but e' la vita. 
• Rome: 
• Ancient: Colosseum, Roman Forum, Pantheon
• South: Trastevere, Appian Way, Catacombs
• North: Borghese , Spanish steps, Trevi fountain
• Vatican City: Museum, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica
• Chianti region:
• Wine tour, ride a Vespa along the hills
• Florence:
• Accademia (+David), Duomo, Bargello, Ufffizi
• Venice:
• Cruise along Grand Canal, Rialto Bridge, St. Mark's Square + Basilica, Doge's Palace, Bridge of Sighs, Murano island (glass making!)
• Transportation: According to Google maps, this trip is going to be nothing short of exhausting. We'll be getting from city to city by train. It was originally an automatic assumption we would use the Italy Eurail pass, which is $195 for 3 rides within 2 months. Using www.raileurope.com we discovered that a train from Rome --> Florence, Florence --> Venice was only ~$120. Money saving at its finest! Rome is quite large, and there are also metro and buses that can take you to different sites. I'm assuming there will be plenty of walking, however. Florence seems very walkable though. And Venice, you have water travel. 
• Entrance passes: The main culprit of the puzzle. Rome, Florence, and Venice have unique 72-hour passes that took a lot of research to be sure it was worth the cost AND arrange things covered by the passes within an itinerary that has more than 72 hours in each place. 
• Rome: Roma Pass (€30) - FREE entry to the first 2 sites, and DISCOUNTED thereafter. 
• Major advantage: SKIP THE LINE to all places and free public transportation.
• Florence: Firenze Card (€50) - FREE entry to ALL sites covered. 
• Major advantage: SKIP THE LINE to all places and free public transportation.
• Venice: Vaporetto Pass (€18 if you are <30 years old when you also by a Rolling Venice card for €4) - Unlimited vaporetto rides! Normally €7 per ride, and if >30 years old is €18/2 hours, €20/24 hours, €25/36 hours, €30/48 hours, €35/72 hours. Even if you are >30 years old, the vaporetto pass can pay for itself quickly with a day + night joyrides, to and from hotel, trip to lagoon, to train station, and when you don't want to walk anymore! 
• Major DISadvantage: Unfortunately nothing in Venice provides discounts to sites
• Downtime: Still trying to figure this one out... like will it exist?!

Once we've actually done the trip, I'll do a before/after comparison of what I've planned versus what actually happened! There's much more on the itinerary than from my Bucket List that have been added based on research. 

A little preview of our plan for a day in Ancient Rome:

Next up: Travel Essentials (Part 1)

Italy: Housing

As we all know, Europe has a plethora of ways to travel on a budget. Nonetheless, it's still expensive! Thanks to our housing fund, we had the opportunity to book a mix of hotels, hostels, and beds and breakfasts (is that how to properly "pluralize" that term? Eh, B&B's!). To save the surprise, I'll hold off on where we are staying for now, and do that post trip.

But here are some things I learned throughout the process:

1) Do LOTS of research before you book a place...

• We used websites like booking.com, hostelworld.com to look up locations
• Once we were matched with places that matched our dates, we looked at the ones with the highest ratings overall and then delved into the individual ratings. Read the ratings, but start with LOWEST and MOST RECENT. I am always skeptical of high praises (cynical, I know). But the longer a rating message is also more trustworthy because it means someone took the effort to provide an honest opinion. Who knows, the praising reviews might be from the owners or someone who was paid to say those things! Again, sorry for the cynicism. 
• Pictures don't necessarily speak a thousand words. Being negative again, I don't trust photos from official websites either. I used tripadvisor.com to get first-hand pictures from real people (as opposed to professional pictures from the website). This is also a great place to read some more reviews, and it will also "rank" the place you're looking at. 

2) Once you've picked a place, go to the official website to make sure the price is the same as you see on the other websites. Sometimes those sites can have a surcharge! 

3) This was supposed to be a list, but I can't really think of more big points. Oops! 

Anywho, the process took a really long time to piece together places we are going in Italy. Errol didn't want to stay in one place for more than a few days, so we are staying in 2-3 places per city! Our strategy is to stay in a hotel the first few days we arrive and leave so that we may be more comfortable before the long travel. Then staying in hostels and B&B's the days in between. The cheapest way to do a hostel is use the dorms, but we will be staying in double rooms with an ensuite bathroom. It's still cheaper than staying in a hotel overall! 

A little teaser preview of a place we are staying in Venice: 

View of the Grand Canal from our hostel! 

Next up: putting together an itinerary 

Italy: Purchasing the Flight

This trip to Italy has morphed from a tag along trip with Errol and his mom, to a romantic two-week excursion with just him and myself. Unfortunately, his mom couldn't go anymore and gave us our blessing as well as funding for housing throughout the trip so we could still go. A wonderful gift that I will forever be grateful for!

Purchasing the flight took a lot of time. First step was to decide on dates! Took a lot of thought because we wanted it to be as early as possible in the summer but we couldn't finalize until I got my summer rotation schedule. I requested July for the rotation, which is likely why I got my first choice. No one wants July! 

Some things I learned in the process: 

1) It's cheaper (if not cheapest) to fly from JFK in NYC. We booked the cheapest possible to JFK and back, instead of using search engines from Orlando to Rome. 

2) Analyze your layover times, try something "off-label" (i.e., not Delta, AA, United, etc.) to get the cheapest flight. We picked a Russian airline that goes to Moscow then Rome. But because the arrival/departure dates were the best, we get to Rome at 10AM and leave Venice at 11PM giving us nearly a whole extra day! 

3) You must be patient to find the ticket that fits the best for your trip. However, once that moment comes, you must have the courage to make the leap! If you plan right, your credit card can handle it. Mine did... just barely!

Next step: Housing

How-To: Make a Towel Bunny

If you've ever been on a cruise (and even if you haven't, now you know), each time you enter your room, you will find a towel animal hanging out on your bed. This summer, one of the classes on the ship was how to make some! So I thought I would share with you all how to make one! I'm not as good as the staff on board, but I tried my best. It's hard to explain in words how to make these, but hopefully the pictures help. Please leave a comment if you have any questions! 

Things you'll need:

1 large towel

1 medium-sized towel

Step 1: Place your large towel in a landscape position and roll the left and right ends to the center.

Step 2: Fold towel in half so that the crease is on the outside

Step 3: Twist the ends out a little bit (this will be the feet of your bunny). 

Step 4: Take 2 legs into each hand and pull outward (this part is hard to explain, try to follow the picture!).

Step 5: Put large towel aside. Now take your medium-sized towel and fold in half, landscape-wise, and have the folded side facing away from you. 

Step 6: Put your finger in the center of the top of your towel, take the bottom right corner of the towel, and pull straight down. Do not fold, just pull. 

Step 7: Repeat on the right side, and you will have something that looks like a bat. 

Step 8: Fold the top corner underneath, a couple of inches. 

Step 9: Fold the sides of the "bat" towards the center, like you did with the large towel. 

Step 10: Flip over the towel, and it will look like this! 

Step 11: Pull the ears down a little bit, and you have your bunny head! Place it on top of the large towel. 

Step 12: Accessorize! 

The class was provided as part of a campaign to sell their how-to book, Towel Creations. The campaign is part of a larger effort for Carnival Cruiselines to raise $1,000,000 for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital! I ended up buying it on the ship for $14.95, and 100% of the proceeds were donated.