This is 'alloweeeen

I didn't expect Halloween in Italy to be that exciting. It's fairly new here, so I was surprised to see store windows selling Halloween decorations. Now, they definitely go for the more scary themes here, whereas I prefer to ignore the creepy parts of the holiday and take advantage of the pumpkins and leaves and princess costumes and massive amounts of candy. My favorite part of Halloween here is how the Italians pronounce it: they either over-pronounce the H, as in "hhhhhhhaloweeeeeen," or they don't pronounce it at all, as in "'aloweeeeen." It's cute.
My study abroad group decided to throw our own little Halloween party, but we had it on Monday night instead of on real Halloween since we have a midterm due at midnight tonight and we knew we'd all be working on that (I would like to point out that our American professor who knew full well that tonight is Halloween and we should not have to be working on school is the one who made our midterm due tonight. *cough*). We all dressed up as whatever we could come up with what we had brought with us to Italy. I decided to be a zucca (pumpkin)! If abundance of pins on Pinterest is any indication, I figure people must really be in love with pumpkin lately. I just wrapped a blanket around myself and zipped my orange hoodie over it. Easiest and comfiest costume ever.
At our party, we ate cake and gelato, played this fun charades game, and had a variety show. We had been forewarned about the variety show and each set of roommates was encouraged to do something at it. Well, my roommate Katie and I are not very talented. So we didn't really prepare anything until the night before the party when we were laying in our beds. For some reason, we started singing "You're the Inspiration" by Chicago to each other. Why? I don't know. It was neither the first nor the last time spontaneous roommate duets would occur. As we laid there after a long day, weak and weary, performing the song at the variety show seemed like a really good idea. But we knew sometimes ideas that seem great at night don't seem so great in the morning, so we decided that if it was still a funny idea by breakfast the next day, we would sing our duet in the variety show.
It didn't seem funny in the morning. But when we were at the party, after having played a crazy charades game and having eaten gelato, it seemed like a good idea again. So we sang (not lip-synced - SANG) and danced to Chicago's "You're the Inspiration" for our study abroad group. I think it went swimmingly.

I don't know.

Happy Italloween!

Misc.

It's been sort of a slow week (yes, that can happen in Italy, too). Not much to report, except that my roommate and I taught Relief Society in Italian on Sunday - that was pretty cool! I think it went well. We mostly followed a script we had written in advance, but sometimes we had to improvise. It was scary, but a good experience! Anyway, I thought I'd just post some miscellaneous pics for fun since I don't have much to blog about. Enjoy!

The Ponte Vecchio

More Firenze

The Fortezza in Siena. Fall has... Fallen?

The Siena Duomo

Siena, ti amo.

The end!

Livin' the dream.../nightmare?

How do you condense eighteen hours and twenty miles into a small-ish blog post? I don't know, but I will try.

On Friday, we had a day off school. We've already done all the must-see's, so a few of us decided to have a relaxing stroll around the Tuscan countryside. So we awoke at 5:30 AM and hopped on a bus to Pienza. The plan was to hike from Pienza to Monticchiello to Montepulciano - thoroughly planned by one of our friends and estimated to be about 6 miles. Doesn't sound too hard, right? We got off the bus in Pienza, which is famous for its pecorino (sheep cheese), so we explored the adorable little town and found a market at which we bought pears and cheese. Then we enjoyed said pears and cheese overlooking a breathtaking Tuscan landscape. So far, livin' the dream.

Pecorino!

BTW, I forgot my camera that day. Because I would forget my camera on the day featuring my favorite thing ever, the Tuscan countryside. Oh well. I just used my iPhone (which only lived for part of the journey...). After our little snack in Pienza, we hiked to Monticchiello. This part of the hike was glorious. We walked along a dirt road, enjoying the sunny day, and there weren't many hills. As soon as we got to the entrance of Monticchiello, I had an overwhelming deja-vu moment - probably because I really had deja vu'd this town with my family last time I came to Italy. It turns out the adorable, quaint little town I think about all the time when I remember my first trip to Italy is actually Monticchiello, and I just didn't pay attention enough to the names of towns when I was 12. All these memories came flooding back to me, and it made me miss my family! I could remember sitting by my mom on the steps to the church, and my dad laughing (probably politely, I now realize) at me sticking my finger in this little hole in the church (kind of the same concept of the Mouth of Truth - it was an inside joke?). I think Monticchiello wins the world's most picturesque town award.

Monticchiello

After we ate our panini, we were on the road again. Now, here's where I have to condense. We found the trail we were supposed to take, but it was marked "Privato," so we were too nervous about getting in trouble to take that one. We could either accept defeat and turn back to Pienza, or we could take this other road that we figured would eventually lead to Montepulciano. We chose the latter. At this point, we should've only had a few miles left if we could've taken the private road, but it turns out the public road is super long. And it turns into a highway, where cars go swooshing past you, and occasionally they honk. But it waits to turn into a highway until you've walked so many kilometers that you no longer have the option of turning back. It's so helpful when Italians honk at for walking on the side of the road. I feel like yelling, "BUILD A STINKIN' SIDEWALK IF YOU DON'T WANT ME TO WALK HERE!" Sorry. This has happened to our group a lot in Italy. Anyway. I was having a good attitude, and it really wasn't hard to until we had been walking on the highway/jumping into the ditch on the side of the road as cars drove past and a praying mantis decided to pray on my ankle, which was not only freaky but kind of painful. And, for me, that's when the day really went south. See, it was pretty hot outside, and we'd walked much more than six miles at this point, and one of the girls in my group became extremely dehydrated, to the point where we couldn't walk very fast or else we would get separated. In the attempt to condense, I will just say that after walking for a very long time, we came to a sign saying "Montepulciano: 4km" and after 4 kilometers, we came to another sign saying "Montepulciano: 6km" and that was still a lie (Mom: "Scottish understatement much?" comes to mind). Eventually, we made it to Montepulciano, 10 minutes late for the last bus out of Montepulciano. Commence panic mode. All of our stressful-situation sides came through. It turns out distressed Anne gets very quiet and just mourns inside. It started getting dark, and eventually we made our way to the train station, which was closed (as was the tourist information center), and my phone died. We found a hotel, and decided before booking it we would call our host parents from a payphone to let them know we would not be home for our delicious dinner that night. Luckily for me and Katie, Paola and Marco came to our rescue! We really do have the best host parents ever. We said our goodbyes to the other girls (they decided to take a taxi home), went to the Conad, and feasted on a curb while we waited: bread, prosciutto, cheese, chocolate, and Diet Coke - the works. That night, we didn't set our alarms for the next day. I had the best night's sleep ever. One girl calculated it using Google Maps, and it turns out we walked about 20 miles, probably more when you add in exploring. It wasn't really that hard, it was just stressful - you know I'm prone to panicking!

Tuscany!

(I'm still glad I went - I wouldn't have wanted to miss out on this!)

Anne vs. Food: Florence Round Two

Last weekend, we went to Florence again. Our first day, we did all the educational stuff - the Uffizi, the Academia, the Medici chapel, etc. Unfortunately, they don't let you take pictures of any of that. So, suffice it to say that all of that was really cool and amazing and I love my life.
That night, we were on our own for dinner. Because of the good reviews we heard from some of the girls the last time we were in Florence, we knew exactly where we were going for dinner: The Diner. Yes, a real American diner, complete with English-speaking waitresses and free pitchers of water.

CHOCOLATE CHIP PANCAKES

Let's pretend it didn't rain that day and make my hair really frizzy and weird in that picture. I went for the breakfast-for-dinner option and ordered my very favorite thing in the whole world, chocolate chip pancakes. It's been too long, CCP. I almost couldn't finish the three massive, delicious pancakes they brought me (the depressing thing is that this was probably fewer calories than my usual dinners with my host family). I couldn't even bring myself to feel bad that I was eating at an American restaurant in Italy. I eat authentic Italian food every single night - I kind of missed American food. We had a blast speaking really loud english, putting our elbows on the table, shamelessly taking pictures, guzzling our free water, eating the free candy, using the free bathroom, etc. We had a typical American restaurant experience, and I have to say it was just what I needed after more than a month and a half of suppressing my inner-American.
Going to the diner for dinner wouldn't have been that shameful - I mean, I think it's pretty understandable to be craving some good ol' American comfort food after such a long string of Italian meals. But the truly embarrassing part is that we returned to the diner for lunch the next day... Apparently the pancakes didn't hold me over for long. What I really needed was a hamburger.

Not just any hamburger - a BACON CHEESEBURGER.

Oh man. Finally, real bacon, not pancetta. This picture was snapped in the one millisecond I could restrain myself before shoving this delicious hunk of amazingness in my mouth, grease streaming down my hands. And let me tell you something about the Italians, they have magic potatoes. Like, their fries are better than in America. And that's the beauty of the Italian diner. Well, that and the fact that, like the other restaurants in Italy, you don't have to tip.