Amalfi Coast//Positano

This post is absolutely a picture overload, but I can't help it! On Saturday we got up and took a bus to Positano. The road that took us there is called Nastro Azzurro, the blue ribbon. It's a road that winds along the cliff overlooking the beautiful ocean. While we were there we drank beer named after the road! Positano is an area known for their customized sandals, but I didn't get any. Instead we walked down to the beach and spent the day there. First we rented a boat, it was Chloe, Olivia, Grace, Vero and I and we went with another group of girls we didn't know because they didn't have enough boats. We bought Nastro Azzurro beers to drink while on the boat. The girls we met were really nice and it worked out well for pictures! We stopped to swim in the ocean, which is crystalline blue and surprisingly warm. Then the man driving the boat took us to an area where we could "cliff jump," which in reality was just jumping off a large rock. It was a blast though!

After the boat ride we spent time on the beach before going to get inexpensive, gigantic sandwiches from Vini Panini. There wasn't a list of options like most sandwich shops, you just went up and said what you wanted. I got a sandwich with prosciutto, mozzarella, tomato and pesto! I'm not exactly sure why I decide to eat the heaviest meals while in a bikini, but I was smart enough to take pictures BEFORE eating a pound of meat, cheese and carbs. After taking a nap on the beach we took a bus back to Sorrento. Once again, we didn't go out. Instead we went down to the bar area and played cards, which is all I wanted to do.

I'm pretty sure my eyes are closed

There were strays everywhere! They're all photogenic too. 

Olivia and a dog bonding

The Beginning

The fox all ready to go (Dad's feet in the background)

I just got to my new apartment and I'm so happy to be able to sit and digest the last 24 hours. It's been a hectic whirlwind, but the second I got off the plane it seemed to be worth it. On my flight from JFK to Rome I sat next to the nicest man. He was from Montenegro, the former Yugoslavia, and was going to visit his parents. The entire flight he couldn't have been more pleasant about helping me with my bags and moving when I needed to get up. We both had connecting flights, so when our plane landed 50 minutes before I was supposed to be on my flight to Florence, we banded together to shove our way through security (he managed to get a closed security line to open up for us) and then again through customs. I managed to make it on my flight, but only because of him.

To my pleasant surprise when I got to my apartment I found out that I am not only am I in a triple, but in a suite that sleeps nine! There is one bed that is empty, so right now it is just eight girls. I honestly couldn't be happier. I think this is a great environment to be in. All of the girls are so nice. Three of the girls are from NYU, one is from Duke and the other three are from a school in North Carolina.

Today we spent the day in orientation. We covered everything there is to know about Florence - how not to get pick-pocketed, expected behavior, emergency numbers, ways to stay healthy, etc. It was then followed by a tour of the neighborhood around the apartment. My building has three floors of NYU girls, 9 girls to a floor. It is directly sandwiched between the Duomo on one side (via Ricasoli dead-ends into it) and the statue of David is on the other side.

After orientation my roommates and myself got our first experience food shopping. Luckily everything has pictures of what it is on it, though with my small vocabulary of food probably I probably could have squeaked by without buying something like cat food thinking it was tuna. I have decided that I'm going to try something new every time I go on a big food shop. Today I bought tiny glass bottles of yogurt with honey. ALSO - I managed to find notebooks with animals on them at the grocery store. "Un mondo di cuccioli" means a world of puppies...yes.