Napoli

Last weekend our school took us our last trip of the semester (I know I don't want to talk about it!)

We went to four different cities: Pompeii, Sorrento, Capri and Naples.

Our first stop was Pompeii! So cool! One of our professors used to work there so she gave us an amazing tour!

Mount Vesuvius in the background!

Our hotel was in Sorrento and here was the view outside my window:

More of Sorrento.

On Sunday, we had the whole day free to ourselves! So after mass, Nora, Megan, Jason, Carolann and I headed to the island of Capri! After a pretty rough boat ride (never again will you find me on a boat of any kind) the sea-sickness was totally worth it. We hiked all over Capri. It was too gorgeous for words.

On the last day of our trip we went to Naples. Naples was... dirty. Hahah I loved seeing another city in Italy but I don't think I'd go back. But! I did eat the best pizza that I've ever had in my life since pizza was invented in Naples!

Piazza in Naples

The trip was the perfecting finishing trip to such an incredible semester!

Mom and Colleen visit!

I was so so blessed last week to have my Mom and sister Colleen come and visit me for a whole 5 days in Rome!

We had so much fun together! We saw all of the "must-sees" in Rome and walked everywhere!

Cool Mom chillin' at the Circo Massimo.

This is my favorite picture! Look at these beautiful ladies!

Not only did we get to explore Rome together but we also went with my class to a day trip to Assisi. Hands down, Assisi was the most beautiful places I've been to in Italy. You could just feel the Lord's presence through the whole town!

Inside the Duomo of Assisi.

The most beautiful sister in the world!

I am so happy that we got to spend this extra special girls weekend together- we will never forget it! 

We even got to go to the Vatican for Palm Sunday mass! 

Parigi

I can't lie: out of all of my trips this semester, Paris definitely took the prize. Ahhh Paris! It was one of the only cities that I feel like I really MUST go back to visit again in some point in life. Megan, Jason, Nora and Megan's cousin Trish all rented an apartment for the weekend (best idea ever) and we were pretty much obsessed with it from the beginning. It was so cute! And our pet cat for the weekend was charming.

We did sooo much over the weekend (we were there for 3 nights) that I'll just give you the highlights. We got there Thursday night so we got up early on Friday morning and went exploring. We went to Notre Dame, walked across the "key" bridge

Notre Dame!

Love me some Saint Joseph.

Couples write their names on a lock and put it here on the bridge to symbolize their ever-lasting love for each other! So Paris!

Is it bad that I totally recognized this fountain because it's where Ann Hathaway has her self-awackening moment in "The Devil Wears Prada"?

We went to Versailles! It was SO HUGE! And breath-takingly gorgeous.

The gardens.

Just soaking up some sun by the lake!

After seeing the Chateau, we walked around the town of Versailles which was just lovely and they were having a flower festival that weekend!

We also went to the Louvre! It was also giant. 

The Nike of Samothrace.

And of course we saw the classics:

All and all, it was such a magical weekend with wonderful friends and I can't wait to go back someday!

Spring Break!

Ok here is the run down on my Spring Break! We were out of classes from March 2-11 (awesome 21st birthday gift!) so my great friend Lauren and I decided to make the most of our time and head to 4 different cities: Munich, Salzburg, Vienna and Prague. What a crazy trip! I knew it was pretty safe to say that I would never be in 4 different European cities in 8 days so I tried to live it up as much as possible! We had so much fun!

We headed to Munich first. It was much more modernized than I thought it would be, but I loved it!

The very center of Munich.

We were lucky enough to meet up with the Rugels, the family my boyfriend stayed with last summer while studying in Munich. Their daughter, Agnes was kind enough to show us around the city for the weekend. Agnes was so kind!

Eating some grub at the Augustiner (forgive my German) bier haus!

The roof tops of Munich.

After staying in our hostel (which was great) for 2 nights, we took a train to Salzburg. And yes, the first thing we did when we got there was take the "Sound of Music" Tour since it was filmed in Salzburg! I know we're dorks, but literally it was one of my favorite parts of the trip. It brought back so many great memories of watching the film with my family and grandparents. Still my favorite movie of all time!

Look familiar?!

While in Salzburg we took a tour through the Festung Hohensalzburg, or Slazburg Castel. Gorgeous view!

Of course while we were in Salzburg we went to another Bier Haus. I don't like beer in the states but of course Austrian beer was fantastic! Salzburg was so quaint and definitely what I thought of as the classic Austrian town.

After another two nights we hopped aboard another train and whisked away to Vienna. It snowed for about a day while we were there and I loved it! The city was so beautiful in the snow. My favorite place visited in Vienna was the Belvedere Palace. It is a fabulously huge art gallery where I got to see Klimt's original "The Kiss." I was dying of happiness!

We got to meet up with a friend from school and she took us to an amazing 800 year old, underground restaurant. The food was so yummy (and the peach champagne wasn't too shabby either!)

The top of Vienna!

We finally made it to our last city on Friday morning. The first thing we did was climb to the top of the highest point in the city and snapped some photos. 

The main square in Prague.

We were so happy that we finally got some sun!

This is the way I've described Prague to several people: if a director decided to film a fairy tale movie, Prague is the place to do it! I felt like I was in a fairy tale the whole time- the architecture and atmosphere of the city was very classy and most of the city is still stuck in the late 18th century. Love it!

We got to pray to the Infant Jesus of Prague!

Also stopped by the John Lennon wall! 

Lauren and I absolutely loved our time traveling. It was one of the most memorable weeks of my life! But we were so happy to return to our lovely home (and hear Italian again!)

Home sweet home!

Milano and Mozzarella Farm

Okay I'm going to combine two trips here.

One: the Mozzarella farm! One of my main goals while here was not only to travel to different countries but really get to know Italy the best I can. These two trips allowed me to do just that!

The school set up a trip for whoever wanted to come to a beautiful farm, about 3 hours south of Roma. I didn't really know what to expect but I was delightfully surprised! The farm that we went to was beautiful! Not only did they make their own delicious mozzarella but they also run a resort on the land that they own. The resort had a restaurant that we ate at and all the food that we were served was organic and home grown!

the buffalo!

Deacon Mario petting the baby goat.

I was so grateful to get out of the city for a day and spend time in the open air! It was SUCH a relaxing day.



Two: That next weekend, Nora and I booked everything to spend a weekend in Milan and left very Saturday morning. We got to Milan and my first impression was: "Wow! This is a real city!"haha. It is much more industrialized than Roma. We headed right to the Duomo which is in the center of the city. It was GORGEOUS! It was an amazing example of Gothic style architecture.

The Duomo of Milano

inside

After exploring, we ate lunch and discovered that we had arrived in Milano in perfect timing: it was fashion week! So we got to attend a free fashion show!

There were 4 different collections shown and this one was my favorite!

After the fashion show we had tons of fun being girlie and doing some window shopping and walking around seeing sights.

On Sunday, we made a pilgrimage to Cimitero Monumentale to see the grave of Father Luigi Giussani. Giussani is the priest who started the international Catholic movement that I am very involved in back at CUA. (learn more about Guissani and Communion and Liberation here: http://www.clonline.org/storiatext/eng/biography.htm )

I was overjoyed to be able to make a pilgrimage to his grave to pray in front of a man who has changed my life so greatly. I later found out that on Feb. 22 a request was made by the bishop of Roma for the cause of Guissani's beatification and canonization! So exciting!

And it might sound strange, but Nora and I loooved the cemetery! You can find out so much about a culture through studying it's cemeteries. The Cimitero Monumentale was filled with very passionate and personal grave stones, markers and sculptures.

mourning the loss of her beloved...so tragic!

It was such a perfect weekend! I am so blessed to have seen so much of Italy already!