Our Humble Abodes

Somehow I got lucky almost every place I stayed. The first room in our Paris hotel was a triple, which was twice the size of a regular room. I was not as lucky at the hostel in Florence, but in Venice my roommate and I happened to get the corner room, which was one of the biggest. When we went to Milan, our room again happened to be the one on the corner, where we got a wrap around balcony on the third floor, with amazing views of the city.

View from my Paris hotel room

Fashion Museums

We went to different fashion museums in each city, starting with the Madame Gres exhibit in Paris at the Bourdelle Museum. This woman was a master at draping and created many beautiful dresses, coats, and more. She gave her final dress to Givenchy, who financially supported her final collection. Her garments had a 17th century art work influence. You can follow the link for more information on the collection:
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/features/article/madame-gres-paris-exhibit-is-ode-to-draped-fashion/

The following museums we entered were Pierre Cardin and Yves Saint Laurent, which I mentioned previously. We then went to the Roberto Capucci Museum in Florence. We saw many great works on display, but unfortunately could not take any photographs so below is a copy of a postcard I bought in the museum of a dress on display. Capucci is one of Italy's most influential and imaginative artists, which you can see in the modern color, form, and silhouettes of his clothing.

Next we went to the Salvatore Ferragamo Museum in Florence. Here we got to see many, many of his incredible shoes on display. I have also included a link for more information about this exhibition:
http://museoferragamo.it/en/mostre-incorso.php?id=28

Classic

Milan

Our final destination on the trip was Milan. Surprisingly, this was my least favorite city, as it lacked the beauty of the other places we had been and looked a lot more worn down, with graffiti covering many buildings. It was definitely not as much of a "city" as I had hoped it would be. It was our first day here, June 27th, that I turned 21, but it didn't matter anyways since you don't get carded for alcohol unless you are at least about 16 years of age.

I was lucky to have made such good friends on the trip who ensured that my birthday was amazing! We went to Corso Como after eating dinner at a delicious sushi restaurant. Corso Como is known for its fun club and bar scene. It was just too bad my birthday was on a Monday, the least popular night to go out in Italy.

Gondola Ride

Since we were in Venice, we just had to go for a gondola ride! Apparently the people who row these boats need schooling and are very experienced professionals. Our boat rower said he has seen many proposals while taking someone out. Wonder if he's seen anyone say no?

really liking to take advantage of tourists.. we all paid 20 euros for this

Venice

On June 24, we took a bus to Venice, which has a completely different feel than Florence. It is amazing how an entire city is surrounded by water, a place where a boat is required to get around. All of this water and the bridges made for a spectacular, beautiful city! One day, we even went to Lido beach, much like any beach in the United States, except that most women were topless and men wore speedos.

Leather Making

We went to the Leather School in Florence, where we got to witness how the leather is crafted into handbags. We also got to learn about the different types of leather and how to know when it is real. For example, calf leather is stretchy and I learned that alligator leather doesn't last a very long time because it dries out.

ALL kinds of leather

Creating..

Voila!

If you want to sign up for a class during your visit:
http://www.scuoladelcuoio.com/scuola-del-cuoio-about-us.html

A Trip to Piza

One afternoon my friends and I decided to take a bus ride to Piza. I mean, who doesn't want that epic picture holding up the Leaning Tower of Piza? It only took about an hour from Florence and was about 10 Euros. The tower was wider and smaller than I imagined, but pretty cool nonetheless. While we were in this small town of Piza, we passed a long street of shops, and had a pasta dinner where we had great view of the tower.

Historical Places in Firenze

This is a city of many old and historical buildings, which are all pretty much centralized in the city. We visited The Duomo of Florence, a huge and beautiful cathedral. This is located in the Piazza del Duomo, where many shops and restaurants are located, a very touristy spot.

Il Duomo

We also went to the Medici Chapel, the Palazzo Vecchio, the Ponte Vecchio, a bridge going over the Arno River, and the Santa Maria Novella, another church in Florence.

Palazzo Vecchio

Italian Food

Florence is where I had the best pizza of my life! This was at Gusto Pizza, where we had to go more than once it was so good and try a new flavor each time.

There were so many choices of pasta at each restaurant we went to, and each one was delicious!

And of course after all of the delicious pastas and pizza, we had to have dessert. And everyone that has ever been to Italy knows that dessert would be GELATO. There was a Gelateria on every corner of Florence. Some places had about 20 different flavors, including Nutella and Yogurt, which were my favorites.

Onto the next.. Florence

We took a flight from Paris to Florence, or Firenze as Italians say, where Maddie and I somehow got bumped up into business class. The seats weren't any bigger, but we at least got an entire meal and sat up front. The weather in Paris was always a little chilly, never reaching above 75 degrees Fahrenheit, so it was a shock to me when we stepped off the plane in Italy. It had to be at least 80, which was a great change. It was about time it felt like summer. Florence has a completely different feel than France. The buildings looked a little more run down and the hills in the background of the city were beautiful. One night we even hiked up to the top of a hill, Michelango's Point around sunset and had the most amazing view of the city. This was my favorite night in Florence.

Beautiful Florence

Michelangelo's Point

Macaroon Cooking Class

What trip to France is complete without taking a class on how to make real macaroons, just like the French! Taking about two hours, a lot of teamwork, and sometimes a couple of tries, we finally created the most delicious white chocolate raspberry and dark chocolate filled macaroons. Macaroons may seem like a simple cookie, however, the process to make them and keep the meringue just so, is a lot trickier than it looks. This place we went to, La Cuisine Paris, was really superb, with highly experienced and friendly bakers, and charming kitchens.

Be sure to check them out and if you're ever in Paris, I highly recommend one of these classes:
http://www.lacuisineparis.com/index.php?article_id=1&clang=1

So happy!

Mixing the filling

Making the cookie

The final cookies

Motorcycle Protest

Does it seem normal to you to have hundreds, maybe thousands of motorcycles all of a sudden start to drive by on the street in front of you? No, so I'm sure you can imagine my surprise when this began to happen and I was unable to cross the street for about ten to fifteen minutes, waiting for this line of motorcycles to end. Spectators lined the street right next to the Louvre to watch as all of these drivers had decided to protest the French government. Even the media was there to catch this scheduled event on camera, while the police were there to keep everything under control. It's too bad I had no idea what was going on until finally someone understood me and told me about how happy they were that people were protesting their "horrible president."

This is a news article about the said event, which apparently happened throughout the country, not just Paris:
http://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/anatomy-of-a-french-motorcycle-protest-ride.htm

Museums, Museums, Museums

I have never gone to as many museums as I did while I was in Europe than I had in my entire life combined. And boy were my legs tired. By the end, I sat at every single place possible, including the floor at one point. What? I had reached my max.

Our first day in Paris, we paid a visit to 2 museums, the Louvre Museum and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, or the Museum of Decorative Arts. After that, it honestly becomes somewhat of a blur as to what museums I went to since there were so many.




The Louvre


Let's start with the Louvre, which looked a lot like it did in The Davinci Code. It is also where the famous Mona Lisa and Venus De Milo are kept. Just as everyone says, The Mona Lisa really does look small in person, but it also looks a lot more beautiful. I now understand why it's one of the most famous paintings ever created. The Louvre Palace itself was amazing and the museum inside is one of the largest and most visited in the world. Inside the Louve, I also got to explore Napolean's quarters.

Just like the movie..

The Mona Lisa

Venus de Milo

The Museum of Decorative Arts


This museum was very.. interesting to say the least. It held a lot of random objects, including chairs and other furniture, toys, cars, clothing, and so much more. This museum is in the western wing of the Louvre, which is why it was so easy to go to both places at once. 

Couture pieces, including blue feather Dior heels

Furniture Display

Musée de l'Orangerie


This museum is just a short walk from the Louvre and holds impressionist paintings, including a permanent exhibit of the Water Lilies by Claude Monet. I had no idea how huge these paintings really were until I saw them myself, taking up entire walls.

Water Lilies

Water Lilies

#1 Attraction in Paris.. the Eiffel Tour, of course!

Even though it is perhaps the most visited place in Paris, the landmark this city is known for, Sarah and I waited until our last night in Paris to actually go see it. I mean it's not like we didn't see the Eiffel Tower every day anyways since it is so tall. But this night we went, took our typical tourist pictures in front of it, got gelato, and hung out under the tower. This was by far one of my favorite moments during my visit to Paris.

<3

Architectural Beauties of Paris

Montmarte

June 12, we took a tour up this famous hill where we saw many landmarks on the way and an extremely amazing view of the city at the top. On the way up, I saw the place where Vinent Van Gogh lived and views from which he painted, as well as a location for a popular French short story and its monument, as well as vineyards. The walk up the huge hill did not seem too bad because of all of the interesting stops on the way up. Once we did reach the top, however, I got to see the inside of St. Pierre de Montmarte, one of the churches that claims to be the oldest in Paris due to some of its extremely old pillars inside. After seeing this church, I climbed many stairs and entered another church, the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur, or the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Paris. This was one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen, from the inside and out. The wait to just get inside took about fifteen minutes! And on the way down the hill we got to see Moulin Rouge.

Vincent Van Gogh's home

Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Paris

View from the top of the hill

Arc de Triomphe

The best view I have seen of Paris, considering I never did go to the top of the Eiffel Tower, was from the top of the Arc de Triomphe, or the Triumphal Arch. It was built to honor soldiers who fought in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Too bad we didn't get the subway quite right because we had to walk more than half an hour down Avenue des Champs-Élysées, a long, seemingly never-ending, street of luxury shops, including a glamorous Abercrombie & Fitch, go figure. Because after that walk, we had to climb up almost 300 steps to get to the top. But it was worth it, as you can see the gorgeous 360 degree view of the city.

Arc de Triomphe

View from the top

Palace of Versailles


We took our own day trip to this city, expecting it would take all day to walk through, but it only took a couple hours. Oh and there was basically a monsoon that day while we had to wait in line outside, making us each completely soaking wet. You can tell from the gigantic rain cloud in the picture just about how bad it was. However, we didn't let this ruin our day since the entire palace is filled with glamour and gigantic paintings. And of course it would be since it was once the center of politic power in France, built by Louis XIV.

A room inside the palace

The gardens of Versailles are just as beautiful and large as the palace itself.

Gardens of Versailles

We also tried to visit Marie Antoinette's quarters, but they are located so far from the palace itself, it would have taken over half an hour just to walk there.


Notre Dame Cathedral


This is a gothic style Catholic cathedral my friends and I visited. The outside and inside are equally magnificent. There was stained glass covering the inside, and a clearly very tall cieling. Many people were visiting, while others lit candles and had a seat to pray. Visiting this monumental cathedral was very touching.

"French" Fries

Parisienne food. All I really have to say about that is.. baguettes. Every corner someone was carrying home a baguette or two. Every restaurant served bread with each meal. Just bread. No butter. Bread and cheese was a common meal. With about every kind of cheese. Which is easy to get tired of so by the end of my ten days in Paris I can definitely say I was done eating just bread. I'm also not really sure how Parisiennes stay so skinny with all of the carbs and glasses of wine they consume each day. It must be their fruits and vegetables, which are the freshest I have ever seen!

I've tried everything from the typical croque monsieur, the hot ham and cheese, to Thai in a Box to McDonald's, which I must say was somewhat different and still very delicious. They give away a special white sauce to put on their fries and have a special grilled ham and cheese sandwich. The Paris McDonald's also has a cheeseburger with special bread (of course) white sauce, onions, fresh tomatoes, two kinds of cheeses, and ketchup, which I got and was DELICIOUS! And their fries are the same as American fries, but they have a choice of potato fries as well. I am now on a mission to try the Italian McDonald's specialty meal.

McDonald's mmm

Chicken curry

As for desert here, that's a whole other story! From crêpes to chocolates to crème brûlée to macaroons I tried them all, including Nutella crêpes which seem to be the most popular. Each one was amazing. I went a chocolate tour and learned to make macaroons in a cooking class, which I will talk about later!

My nutella crepe and I

Creme brulee