Benvenuto in Italia

Approximately three days ago, I jumped on a plane looking for an adventure. And well, I think I found it.

This semester I am studying abroad in Reggio Emilia, Italy. "Reggio" as the locals call it, is a medium sized suburb of Bologna, Italy. It's a cute little town found in north central Italy between Florence and Milan. The region is known for their parmesan cheese, balsamic vinegar, and luxury cars. You may have heard of a few of them... Lamborghini, Ferrari, Maserati... Anyway, Reggio is beautiful, everyone in my program is awesome, and my Italian is still nonexistent. 

Our first stop in Reggio was to the local pizzaria, where we ate our weight in pizza, and finished the night with a traditional dessert consisting of sweet bread, cream, and melted chocolate. It was heavenly! We ended the night with a short tour of the city, and spent the night in the oldest hotel in the city. 

The next morning we moved into our apartments; I am sharing a room with Emily, a super sweet girl from Colorado. After unpacking and settling in, we set out to explore the city on our own. We also took our first swing at the local super market. Note to self: be sure to put on plastic gloves before touching any of the fresh produce. If you don't, you will get bad looks and yelled out by locals. Either way, we made it out alive, and we look forward to the day when we can confidently request prosciutto and cheese from the butcher. For dinner, a group of us found a local wine bar that offered the most amazing pasta. I had the tortellini de zucca (homemade pumpkin tortellini), which was so good! It's not hard to figure out that everything in Italy is delicious.  

Friday we had orientation for school. We met our professors, explored our school, and got ready for classes to start this coming Monday. We also got the chance to meet some Italian students that are in a student group called UNILIFE. The group meets puts on events and socials for Italian and exchange students. Essentially they partner with program to meet American students and learn english, and it gives us the opportunity to test out our Italian. 

This morning, we went to the city market in Reggio. Local farmers from around the region come together on Saturday mornings and bring their freshest produce to the city of Reggio. We met some very nice farmers that loved speaking english and gave us a ton of free samples for asking questions about their food. 

We then took our first adventure to Parma. Parma is a neighboring city that is about 10 minutes by train. We were so proud of ourselves for getting tickets, maneuvering our way through the train station, and actually boarding the train that we didn't realize that we completely got on the wrong train. Of course we didn't realize this, until about 15 minutes later when we asked a woman how long it would take to get to Parma and her eyes widened and she said "oh no, get off" and pointed in the opposite direction. Whoops! We eventually made it to Parma, toured the city, had a croissant, and visited the cathedral. We made it home without any problems. =)

Apparently it's a big deal when the American students come to Reggio. Everyone, and I mean everyone, knows the Americans are coming. Someone even said there was a news article about our arrival. So we get a lot of dirty looks when we walk into a caffe or restaurant, because we stand out quite a bit. We walk in large groups, we dress differently, we talk very loud, and of course we speak English. Each day, we try to blend in just a little bit more. Today we were pleased to be greeted in French and German, instead of the typical English. This means we are finally starting to blend in and look less American. Mission accomplished!

Also, some random highlights of the trip so far include seeing the northern lights from the plane, kinder eggs and of course LEMON FANTA! 

It has only been 3 days, but I am super happy and excited to be living in Reggio Emilia for the next few months. More stories and pictures coming soon. Ciao!