Italy 2018

We are getting down to our last few weeks here in Italy. Classes are starting to finish up and we only have papers and presentations left to complete. We have 3 weeks left of school and two more weekends to travel, which made this weekend the perfect time to visit Cinque Terre! After our last Italian Food and Hospitality class on Friday, Christina and I left for Cinque Terre. Emily's parents were in visiting this week and wanted to visit Cinque Terre with us, so all 5 of us took the short 3 hour train ride across the beautiful countryside of Italy. We stayed in Monterosso, the smallest city on the far end of the park (oh ya, Cinque Terre is an Italian National Park). After we checked into our airbnb and Emily and her family into the hotel, we met up with Emily's family for dinner. We walked along the beach to get to old town Monterosso, where we found an amazing seafood restaurant. Emily and her mom aren't big fans of seafood, but Christina and I had a blast trying new se...

It is finally starting to feel like spring here in Europe. The sun is out, the earth is warm, and it has been so fun getting to explore more of Reggio in our free time. On Wednesday this week, my hospitality class and I took a field trip to a balsamic vinegar distillery. Our professor owns a few properties in the hills outside of Reggio, one of which is a distillery where him and his family have been making balsamic vinegar for the past 100 years. For our field trip, we ventured up to his property which had beautiful views of the Emilia Romagna region and beyond. It was beautiful! We got to take a tour of his main property which is now a farm-style restaurant and hotel. We learned all about balsamic vinegar and the production process. We learned that there are two main types of balsamic vinegar. Industrial vinegar is what you commonly find at the grocery store, which is a mix of grapes and chemicals that help speed up the fermentation process. It can be made in a few short hours, and...

Ciao! Ciao! It has been one crazy week here in Europe! Last week was spring break for us, so you can only image all the crazy things we have done in the past week. Christina and I managed to visit 4 countries and walk 85 miles in the last seven days! It was nuts, but we did it and we lived to tell about it. Warning, this is going to be really long.. so prepare yourself. Sunday: Our week of adventures started on Easter Sunday. Christina and I attended an Easter Mass service in one of the beautiful churches here in Reggio. It was really cool. We didn't know what was being said, since it was completely in Italian, but that's ok. They spoke very fast, and the only words we could pick out with our limited Italian was: "everyone", "Easter", and "Jesus". So that was cool! After mass, we stopped for a quick cappuccino to celebrate the Easter holiday before packing our bags and heading for the airport. That afternoon, we flew from Bologna to Edenhove...