What were you grateful for this week?
This week I am grateful for strangers that go out of their way…I know it sounds weird. But being out of the country and then living in a small city here in Italy sometimes it gets tough with not being able to understand people, or people not being able to understand us. Sometimes you start to feel awkward. This week K and I met multiple people who were just so friendly and it felt good to not feel so out of place. Between sharing stories, and wanting to know about us, even a cute lady at a local shop who said she will help us with Italian.

What was the most difficult or challenging part of this week?
I feel like since being in Italy, I’ve been really emotionally stable. But there was one day this week that I kind of just had a little bit of a breakdown. It felt good though to get out and clear my head. Not to mention I have the greatest host mom who talks with me and just knows how to make me feel at home.

Tell us about a “wow” moment you had this week. 
There are lots of kids in the house, and the babies especially love to watch things on the phones. My host mom saw that I had a clip stand for my phone that makes it so the phone stands up perfectly (kind of like a pop socket) which she doesn’t love the pop sockets. Anyways she wanted to know where I got it, and looked on Amazon IT and couldn’t find it. However on my Amazon I could, so I ended up telling her we could just order it from my phone and have it sent here. Now the babies will be much happier when we go out for coffee in the mornings and the phone isn’t falling constantly hahaha. 

Tell us about your week! 
Somehow the weeks just keep flying by. I love my days and weeks here in Italy. I love that I am finally getting into a routine of things. I’ve started getting up in the mornings and working out or going for a run, which for me has been so good, because that is the one thing I miss about my routine at home. Not to mention the humidity here in Italy makes the morning perfect for a run or even walk around town.

 

I also just enjoy my host family more and more everyday. They are so wonderful, fun, and just easy! This weekend we actually stayed in our city, but traveled to Milan during the day on Saturday and Sunday. 

 

Friday night there was an Urban Street Food fair going on in our city’s center. There were lots of food trucks, cocktail trucks, music and people LOTS of people! I think that was the first time we realized wow there are more people in this city than we thought! It was super fun, but honestly the highlight of the weekend was definitely Milan. 

 

We used the local trains and metro to travel there and it was nice to figure that out and feel comfortable getting to and from there. BUT WOW IS ALL I HAVE TO SAY ABOUT MILAN! I really don’t think there will be a place I don’t say I’m absolutely in love with, but I feel like Milan was made for me…honestly K and I were planning out how we can move there! We visited the Duomo which is absolutely incredible, we did lots of shopping, we met up with some other au pairs [Rome Abroad Travelers] who live in Milan. Which was so awesome because we had such a fun time together that we decided to plan some more trips together. 

 

I think my favorite part of this weekend was going to the FIRST and ONLY Starbucks in Italy. It’s a Starbucks Reserve Roastery, and wow what an experience. All I can say is any thought or expectation you have about any Starbucks you’ve ever been to. Basically this place will blow your mind. Whether you are a coffee lover or not, I’m pretty sure you will fall in love. The coolest part is it opened the day that my friend and I started our travels to Italy, and we are both coffee fanatics! Not to mention we love our Italian coffee, but man was it nice to get an iced coffee!