25 January 2018
The big journey began by taking British Airways into London and then into Bologna, Italy. The plane trip was about 9 hours total. I watched movies (Girls Trip and All Eyes on Me) and TV shows to get through it.
We got a huge meal on the first flight.
Of course I ate half of it before taking a photo.
After flying into Bologna we went through a passport check and grabbed our luggage. Our professor was waiting for us with a bus, and we drove for two hours before reaching Urbino.
A large group of students from Texas put the dorm at full capacity, so a few people in our group are staying in apartments in the main town until February. The rest of us live up a large hill on a street called Cappuccini. We cannot complain about the hill, because once we reach the top we are greeted with an amazing view.
Once we were settled in, we had an aperitivo, which was chips, crackers, and an assortment of appetizer-like foods. This was accompanied by wine, as it should be in Italia.
Next, we had dinner in our dining hall, which is already winning compared to Iowa State's, in my opinion.
At this point we called the day to a close and trekked back to our rooms for the night. I was able to FaceTime my loved ones, and that put a great end to my first day in Urbino.
26 January 2018
After grabbing a quick breakfast of a cappuccino and a croissant, I went with my group to fill out some paperwork. This took a long time, because all of the forms were in Italian!
We had a break and me and one of my best friends (who I am so glad is on this trip with me) went to the grocery store and got cleaning supplies and water and brought it back to our room. This is important because on the way we saw an adorable cat who almost followed us home!
We walked back into town and did some more paperwork, followed by us starting the process to get our Italian phone plans.
After that our professor took us to the shopping center, which also has the main bus station. I bought some cute gold off-brand converse for only 5 euros! Then we had aperitivo again, this time with spritz at the Sugar Cafe. Our professor knows the owner, Giovanni, and he gave us all a coupon for a free "special coffee."
27 January 2018
Today we had another busy start. We went to the post office and had to complete filling out our forms for residency. Once we finished that we ventured off to the market, which takes place every Saturday (Sabato).
It was a lot of fun seeing all of the different things that people bring into town.
I bought strawberries (fragole) and oranges (arancia) with a friend, and also bought myself a super warm scarf for only 8 euros. I am sure you will see it in photos to come :)
We decided to revisit the cafe where we had our free coffee coupons. Giovanni brought us all our special coffees, which were fantastico. It had espresso, rich chocolate and the fluffiest foam on top.
He also brought us so much food that we did not even need lunch. Giovanni is the best.
At 5:00, we needed to get our Italian SIM cards, which changes our phone number.
This allowed us a bunch of time to explore the city and see great views. We walked through allies and side streets.
We went back to one of our apartments and hung out until it was time to go to the phone shop. Everyone in my group is super nice and since we do not know each other, we never run out of stories to tell.
Once we got our SIM cards we went into all of the shops we could. This bookstore had the prettiest notebooks and beautiful cards.
We had dinner at 7:30 at what point my phone died, so I could not take a picture of the delicious pizza we ate. I am 100% sure that I will have plenty of pizza pics in the future.
Well, that is it for my first few lovely days in Urbino. I have successfully found yummy coffee and started to create new friendships. Tomorrow, we might head to Pesaro to check out the coast, which you will definitely hear about and see photos of in the future.
Until next time - Ciao!
Kennedy