Welcome to the world, Pumpkin!

It's Official! 

Pumpkin was born on June 19th, 2010

And she will come to her new home on August 14th. 

I am the luckiest girl in the world, and so grateful. 

Look forward to lots of puppy pictures, because I am going to be a proud mamma!

Wine Tasting

This weekend my friend Devon and I rode a bus to Greve, fifty minutes outside Florence and home of a huge wine tasting place.  

It was amazing.  You walk downstairs to this giant cavern type place with hundreds and hundreds of bottles lining the walls.  When you get there you buy a card with 10, 20, or 25 euros and they give you a wine glass for the day.  Then throughout the place there are these circular tables where you insert your card and then press a button above the wine you'd like to try, place your glass underneath and down it pours.  The best part about it is most of the tastes were about 60 - 80 cents, for a good amount of wine!  Devon and I brought our notebooks, and read through two wine books as we traveled through the stations, smelling and tasting all the wines and taking notes on what we'd tried.  It was awesome.  The whole day I ended up spending about 8 euro and tasted around 15 different wines... places like this just don't exist in the US.  I should make one!  

On the bus to and from Greve we passed vineyard after vineyard, it was beautiful!  I learned that Tuscany, and the area around Florence is the Chianti region, and I'm opening my tastes up to red wine, which I used to hate.  The process of how wine is made, the types of grapes, and the variety of flavors and descriptions is huge.  Coming here has really given me a new found appreciate for the art of wine.

This was the first full weekend I've spent in Florence since I got here, so on Saturday I went on a solo adventure, exploring the city at my own pace.  It was perfect and something I've been wanting to do for a long time.  I took my time in the leather market, walked across the Ponte Vecchio, got gelato at my favorite place, explored the other side of the Arno, shopped but bought nothing, and ate a delicious margarita pizza all on my own.  There is something so freeing about being by yourself in a new city.  You can go and do whatever you'd like at your own pace. 

Last night's sunset: 

 

I miss New York.  I miss home.  The two are simultaneous.  I love Italy, but I'm getting to the point of too much closeness, not enough alone time, too many roommates, too much commedia, not enough english or american food.  I miss free water and my boyfriend and my life back home.  Don't get me wrong, Italy has been an incredible adventure, one that is surely one of the best decisions of my life, but I'm getting ready to go back to real life. 

Things to look forward to: 

Paris 

London 

New York City! 

Returning to the US on 4th of July

Seeing Nate after six weeks 

5k run at Nate's school 

Getting a bike, and biking around Manhattan & Long Island

Going back to work 

Dedicating two months to a yoga practice 

Driving down to Virginia 

Pumpkin 

My Uncle's wedding 

Not having classes on Fridays

Puppy obedience school 

The last four months of college

Having pumpkin & savanna together next Christmas

It's going to be good.

The most beautiful sunset I've ever seen

Roma

My entire commedia class went to Rome last weekend.  The program paid for it so we got to stay in a hotel, which was WONDERFUL after living in my permanately messy dorm room with two other girls.  We were there an entire weekend so we got to explore a lot.  My favorite parts were the Trevi fountain and having drinks on the rooftop bar of our hotel.  I bought some super comfortable shoes and two paintings to hang in my apartment.  Pictures describe the trip so much better than words, so here they are:

Ruins, lots and lots of ruins.

Ashley and Devon at lunch

Kyle's giant beer.

My amazing bruschetta.

The Colosseum

Views from the Forum

Rooftop bar at our hotel

I love the Trevi Fountain!  Probably my favorite place in Rome.

Wine bar before dinner and my favorite photo of the trip

Fountain at the bottom of the Spanish Steps with my beloved Sigg

I am estatic. 

#1 I got an email my from puppy mom saying quote "Paris (the pregnant mom) is the size of a small cow now".  I cannot begin to describe how joyous that image makes me feel.  And the pups should be here Thursday or Friday! Five days sooner than the original due date!  Five days less agonizing, worrying and obsessing!  I have prayed, and hoped, and WORKED, so damn hard in the last four months.  And when I finally get little pumpkin I am going to be so infinitely grateful. 

Keep your fingers crossed and send some positive vibes my way! 

#2 Nate has his bolt bus ticket booked for 4th of July! What an amazing day it will be.  Greeted back to the US by fireworks, patriotism, FREE water (I loathe having to pay for water in Europe), and my love! So happy! 

#3 Ashley and my rent will not go up significantly if we renew out lease for another year! I have worried and worried about rent going up and having to find a job quickly enough to be able to pay for it come January. So stressed about the thought of comming back from Italy, finding another roomate, another apartment, a cheaper place and moving all before school starts, but it looks like we won't have to.

Thank you, universe!

Cinque Terre: 5 towns, 1000 pictures

 So I am a little behind on the blogging.  

Last weekend we went to Cinque Terre, it means five villages. 

We hiked, and I mean hiked, villages 1-4, and took the train from 4th to 5th.  And let me tell you, it was intense!  Huge cliffs. And over three hours of hiking.

Here's where we started:

The Second Town.

Cloe! 

If you look closely you can see the last town far, far off in the distance.

THE steps.

The Third Town

The Fourth Town...Finally!

The Fifth Town.

That was alot of pictures.  Cinque Terre was just so beautiful.  I couldn't stop snapping photos.  This is a place I must come back one day.