Notte Bianca. White Night.

In Italy, the 1^st of May is Labor Day, which usually involves demonstrations for better benefits or more work on the high rate of unemployment. The night before the first of may, has also become it’s own holiday over the last few years. Notte Bianca, white night, is a idiomatic expression in Italy for when you spend an entire night awake. By not going to sleep, it theoretically doesn’t get dark, hence the white night. So, since the majority of the country doesn’t have to work on the 1^st of May, Notte Bianca takes place on the 30^th of April. It is a big party in the city, with concerts, games, performances, and of course drinking. So, seeing as this was our last week in Italy, we didn’t have class on the 1^st, and it is a big party, our group decided to have one of our traditional family dinners where we all cook. We decided to go extra big this time seeing as it was our last family dinner. We had a lot of good food. There was homemade egg rolls, bruschetta, stracchino, pesto pasta, sausage bread, cinnamon/sugar bread, breaded chicken bites, chicken fried rice, and dessert. I wanted to make a birthday cake for my celebration, since this was when I would be celebrating my birthday. I didn’t have time to make a cake, so since it was very hot that day I brought a bunch of ice cream treats instead. They were a big hit. In addition to the food, we obviously had drinks. I was given two bottles of wine to drink, and to properly celebrate turning 21. I drank both bottles, by myself.   Do not worry, I had no hangover the next morning!

 Our whole group was there, so we had to split up into two rooms. There weren't enough chairs, so a lot of people had to sit on the floor. 

 He's my "biggest fan".

 Empty! 

After dinner, and after everyone was ready to head out, we all grabbed our drinks and headed out. By the time we left the apartment it was around 10:30/10:45. We then walked around to all the main piazza’s of the city, checking out all of the different activities! There were a lot of street vendors out trying to sell light up trinkets. I ended up getting light up ears for free! I was really happy!!!

It was really cool to see all of the people out in the streets, and that the people were actually Italians, not just big tour groups. We got to see some performances of hot air balloons, a dancing/singing performance that was suspended in the air, as well as an interactive area of wind chime swings! Our group managed to all stay together til about 2 am, but then we ended up getting all split up. I then ended up wandering around with 3 or 4 other people until about 4 am when we went back to one of the apartments to crash for a little bit. Because it was a big party where everyone stays up all night, the buses were running as well, except for about an hour and half between 3 and 4:30. I ended up falling asleep until about 6 am, when I woke up and realized it was light out, so I decided I could walk to the bus stop and head back home.

Packed streets and Piazzas!

One of the performances that was suspended in the air. 

Me on the wind chime swings.

It was nice walking back through the city when it was empty. The sun was rising, everything was quiet, and the streets were empty. (Except for a lot of broken glass and bottles in the streets.) The only people that were out were the workers who were cleaning up the streets. I got some good pictures of the city empty. Overall the night was a big success.

 The Duomo Piazza

 The Uffizi Piazza

Buon Compleanno! Happy Birthday!

Hello Everyone!
Well, I'm sure many of you know, I am now back in the United States. Do not worry though, there will still be a few more blogs! I have to catch up on the last week in Italy as well as giving you all updates about how the readjustment to American life is. So, do not get sad yet. So the last place I left you all was on Monday morning, April 29, my birthday.

I’m 21!!! Well, as I’m sure everyone knows, your birthday is almost like Christmas day, and on Christmas Day, it’s literally impossible to sleep in. You’re usually so excited for the day that you get up well before you alarm. Well, my birthday was no exception. I woke up almost an hour before my alarm went off. So I had a leisurely morning. I showered, got ready, cleaned up my room, and even updated you all on my blog! I also had breakfast with my mom, who was very excited to be the first one to wish me a happy birthday.

 My breakfast: I had my usual cereal, which I’m going to miss a lot, my chocolate yogurt (even more delicious), my chocolate filled brioche, blood orange juice, and THEN chocolate cake!! It Was a flourless chocolate cake, but it tasted more like a delicious brownie than a flourless cake. They are really similar, but still a bit different. The cake made me really excited to go home and make a big pan of gooey brownies. J Well, after all of that food I was stuffed! Which was a good thing though. Because Monday was the beginning of our last week of class, I had my “final” for Literature. We didn’t have a written final, rather we all read our final stories that we had written. (These were the ones that we drew names for and we each killed one other student in the class.) All of the stories were amazing! It honestly was a great end to the semester. We all incorporated what we learned about writing and different genres as well as little inside jokes from throughout the semester. Despite us all getting killed we were all laughing as the stories were being read. In addition to reading our final stories, we had a little pizza party. Which was even more exciting because it was my Birthday! So we had pizza, chips, popcorn, soda, oranges, and chocolate!

Our feast!

 I got quite a few cards in the mail for my birthday! This one was exceptionally big! :)

The death count from our stories. I really didn't think it was fair that I was killed the most on my birthday. :( Oh well. 

Then after class was over, I had to go to a one hour review for my Art History final that would be on Thursday. That finished at 6pm and then I had to rush to my bus stop because I was instructed by my mom that I needed to come home right away after school was over. So I finally got home around 6:40. I walked in the door and they were all ready, waiting and said “are you ready?” I wasn’t exactly sure what I was ready for, but I said yes! So we all headed out and we went to a very famous pizza place in Florence for my birthday dinner. 

It was delicious! First we had some antipasto with 3 different kinds of meats, and crostini with liver pate. 

Then I had a sausage and cheese pizza. 

Then afterwards we got to choose from an extremely delicious sounding dessert list. I was debating between the chocolate cake and the chocolate cheesecake. I went with the chocolate cheesecake since I had chocolate cake for breakfast. It was very good. There was a piece of cheesecake with a very rich chocolate sauce on top. Yum!

My family got me a little present for my birthday. The earrings are beautiful, and my favorite color! Barbara saw them and she said she instantly thought of me. J So sweet.

 There was a little note wishing me a happy birthday to the best American girl they have ever had! Reading that made me extremely happy.

This isn't the greatest picture of us. It was very hot in the restaurant, so forgive the crazy looks. :) 

After dinner we headed home and I was able to skype with a few people from home. It was a great birthday, but I can’t wait to celebrate with everyone at home as well.