The Rest of Rome and the Move to San Casciano!

Rome
Day 2: We started with a delicious breakfast across the street from our hotel that was included with our stay that consisted of croissants, espresso, orange juice, eggs, cheese toast, and a salad. It was so good! We sat at the table facing out the window which made for quite the photo op! :)

~Morning coffee on our terrace~

~Breakfast~

We ventured out to (and got lost in) the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, met a new friend at the Colosseum, got our tiny Italian phone, and had a delicious tapas-style dinner on our terrace!

~Finding our way around Rome~

~Lost in either the Roman Forum or Palatine Hill... still not sure where one ends and the other begins...~

~Dinner~

~Tiny cups and tiny phones~

Day 3: After another great breakfast, Janet and I took a taxi to the Vatican. We toured all over the Vatican and Sistine Chapel then snuck in the secret short cut to St. Peter's Basilica reserved for tours so we wouldn't have to wait in line again! (Thanks, Rick Steve's tour book!)

~Sneaking into the short cut~

~Inside St. Peter's Basilica - the letters on the wall are 7 ft tall for reference!!~

~Outside St. Peter's Basilica~

Next was visiting the square of homeless kitty cats that are taken care of by a group called Torre Argentina. They were all so cute!!! We headed back to the hotel for another tapas dinner then off to bed!

~Janet and the kitties~

~Haley and the kitties~

~Home of the kitties~

~Dinner~

San Casciano
Saturday: We got up Saturday morning and were taken to the Peugeot dealership near the Rome airport to pick up our leased car! It was plenty big for Janet, mom, me, and all of our luggage, which was a relief! Once we were packed up and I got our address plugged in the GPS, we were off for my first Italian driving experience! It was about a 3 hour drive from Rome to San Casciano, and it was a surprisingly non-traumatic experience! I had been so nervous about driving here, but (at least on the highway) people stay in their lane (for the most part), and go (just slightly over) the speed limit!

~Our car! Still coming up with a name...~ 

~Giant sun roof!!~

We got to our apartment imagining the worst - a one bedroom apartment with a double bed we had to share, and no kitchen supplies. We felt like we had gone so long on the trip without any hiccups, surely the apartment was going to be terrible. We were wrong. Our apartment is a 2 bedroom, one bathroom apartment with a fully stocked, never used kitchen straight out of IKEA, and two windows looking out over San Casciano. Our landlord even had some staples waiting in the kitchen for us - coffee, sugar, salt, pasta, pasta sauce, crackers, jam, olive oil, etc. IT IS SO CUTE!!

~The kitchen~ 

~The first two windows on the top floor are ours!~

Once we watched the orientation video for clinic, we drove my mom to Florence where her hotel is, said our goodbyes, and dropped her off. On our way back to the apartment, Janet and I stopped in at Coop.Fi, our neighborhood grocery store, and got us enough food to get us started - all for 35 euros each, including lots of delicious produce, some staples, 5 bottles of wine, a vodka, and a coffee liqueur!!

~My first shopping trip! All of this for 35 euros!~

~One of our favorite purchases, our basil plant - named St. Peter BASILica~

That night, we just made ourselves dinner (harder than it sounds, as it took a good 30 min to figure out how to work the stove...), had some wine, and enjoyed the view from our window. We started the show Stranger Things on Netflix (very intense!!) and then headed to bed... Until the fireworks started! The National holiday Ferragosto is on Monday and there is a festival going on in the park right around the corner from our apartment! We were already in our PJs but we ran out to watch with the rest of our town. We like to think that the fireworks were really in celebration of our arrival in the town! :)

~We finally have fire!!~

~Sunset from our window~

~Watching fireworks from the park~

~Thanks for the warm welcome, San Casciano~

Sunday:
Because of the holiday on Monday, we won't start clinic until Tuesday so today is really more like our Saturday!  I didn't fall asleep until 3am so I slept in to 11:30. Once I was up, I made coffee and got to work unpacking my suitcases. So far, I've taken most of the day to unpack and get my room set up! Janet and I took a quick walk around the block to get a good look at the view from the park across the street! We have no plans the rest of the day other than enjoying the view from our window and getting used to our new apartment! So far, we are loving our new home of San Casciano and can't wait to explore the town and neighboring areas!

For the video I've taken during the time of this blog, check out my vlog! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uN56CYIOds

Ciao for now!

Rome Day 1 Update!

We made it!

Janet, mom, and I made it safely to Rome yesterday with very few problems! For the long version, continue reading here! For the short version, check out the video diary/vlog I made (Bear with me as it was my first video to put together!) Hopefully it works, wifi here is spotty at best! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGpQ_hTm8sg&feature=youtu.be

~At the Atlanta Airport~

Following the Delta power outage incident and 2 cancelled flights to Rome from Atlanta on Monday, we didn't think mom would make it on the flight as a standby passenger, but Delta had already been able to take care of everyone from Monday's cancelled flights and got on! ...In first class, lucky... We watched movies, ate food, and made airplane sangria out of free wine, sparkling water, and cran-apple juice (highly recommended!). The flight went well, though I got in total about 1 hour of sleep. Janet was able to sleep a bit better, but there is just no way to get good sleep on a 9 hour flight!

~Ready for the flight~

Once we made it to Rome, we were taken to our bed and breakfast, Navona Gallery Garden. When we got there, we were told that there was good news and bad news. The bad news: they were unable to put us in the room we booked. The good news: because of that, we had been upgraded to the largest suite they had!! 'Neat!' (Mom and I have learned this is Janet's go-to phrase and have adopted it very quickly...)  We were unable to check in to our room yet, as it was only noon, but were told we could come back at 2 to get checked in. This was slightly discouraging, as all I could think about doing at this point was taking a nap. We took the 2 hours to check out the Piazza Navona about 2 blocks from our hotel and get some lunch. When we were finally able to check in at 2 (and made it through the 30 min of instructions on how to use every single key and electronic device) we were FINALLY able to get a much needed nap!

~Door to our suite~

~Entryway to hotel~

~Entryway to hotel~

~These columns are 2,000 years old~

After about 2 hours of sleep, we made ourselves get up so we would be able to sleep that night (though it is currently 5:02 am in Italy, 11:02 pm in Georgia, and I am wide awake as I type this, so I don't know how well that did). The plan was to do a free walking tour I had found online, but right before we left, I realized it was something we needed to get tickets for in advance and have printed out. This turned out for the best because we were able to go see everything we wanted in the order we wanted and spend as much or as little time at each place as we wanted.

We took off to find the Pantheon (about a 5 min walk). This place is an architectural masterpiece, especially when you think about how long ago it was built and what resources they were working with!

~Pantheon~

~Pantheon~

From there, we headed to the Trevi Fountain to toss our coin & make a wish. It was very much full of tourists but was amazing to see! Mom said they were cleaning it when she was here a few months ago and you could definitely tell, it was so clean and gorgeous!

~Trevi Fountain~

We decided to continue on and find the Spanish Steps next and got there to discover they are closed for cleaning! So though it was a giant staircase with a pretty church at the top, it wasn't quite the same view with the barricades all around it. Oh well, we went, we saw, we can check off the tourist list! :)

~Spanish Steps~

It was time for some food and gelato at this point and we headed toward Giolitti, a gelato stop my dad recommended. We got chocolate dipped cones with 3 flavors of gelato (chocolate, Bailey's, and black cherry for me!) and crema (delicious fresh whipped cream)... SO good!!

~Giolittis Gelato~

~Giolittis~

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped in at the restaurant next door and picked up pizza, bruchetta, salad and to-go glasses of wine (this is a real thing here, literally a plastic cup of wine with tin foil on top... totally legit.) to eat on our private patio/terrace. The weather was perfect at this point to just sit and enjoy the food and terrace; I took some time to upload pictures and piece together the vlog while Janet read up on some of our stops for tomorrow (Colosseum, Roman Forum, Palatine Hill).

~Dinner on the terrace~

After dinner, we just got ready for bed and Janet and I colored in coloring books (because we are adults) until we were ready to go to bed. Alarms are set for 9 am to get ready and get breakfast before setting out on another adventure! It still hasn't sunk in that this amazing place is our home for the next 2 1/2 months! Probably once we have gotten to our apartment in Florence on Saturday, I will finally pinch myself to make sure it's not just some epic dream!
Okay, it is now 5:45 am and I am going to see if I can get back to sleep for a few hours before it's time to wake up!

Ciao for now!

End of Clinic III and Prepping for Italy!

Hello, blog world! I am about to head off to a clinical rotation in Florence, Italy for 2 1/2 months! To keep everyone up to date on my travels, I've decided to try to keep up with my blog again! So here's a little life update:

Clinic III

~Neurosport clinic~

I just finished my second full-time 8-week clinical this past week. I was at an outpatient clinic in Alpharetta called Neurosport all of June and July and had an amazing time! It was a welcome break from classwork to be doing hands-on work in a clinic setting and really feel like I could put together everything I've learned in the last two years of school. I loved everyone I worked with and learned so much this summer about the outpatient setting and PT in the performing arts world! It has felt so weird not going to work this week and seeing all my co-workers!

~Co-workers at Neurosport~

Moultrie
Also during this clinical rotation, I went with some classmates down to Moultrie, GA to provide PT services to migrant farm workers in the area for a week. It was an eye-opening experience to treat patients through an interpreter on fold-out tables under a tent with minimal supplies. Definitely makes you appreciate the resources we have in most PT clinics!!

~Classmates and professors in Moultrie, Ga~

Italy Preparations
We are officially to 4 days until Janet and I leave for Italy! We will be leaving Atlanta on Tuesday evening and will arrive in Rome on Wednesday morning. My mom is going to fly with us to Rome and hang out with us there until Saturday when we pick up our car in Rome and drive to Florence! When we arrive in Florence, we will get the keys to our apartment and have some kind of orientation then just take a few days to get settled before we start work.

~San Casciano (apartment) and Impruneta (clinic)~

-The Apartment-

Janet and I will be staying in an apartment in the town of San Casciano, about 25 minutes south of Florence. We have been told that we will have wifi in the apartment which is a huge relief! Also, there is a market once a week right outside our apartment with about 50 vendors, which will be fun to explore!

-The Clinic-

We will be working at a multi-pupose facility in Impruneta that treats patients with neuro conditions and ortho conditions and also long term/nursing patients. It turns out that the day we were supposed to start clinic (August 15th) is a holiday so we will actually have our first day off! Following this holiday, many medical personnel in Italy take a 2-week vacation and this clinic won't have enough patient load for us so they are sending us to an outpatient clinic in Florence for those first 2 weeks, then we will shift over to the long-term clinic starting our third week.

So, until Tuesday, I am just making sure I have everything prepared for our departure, trying to learn as much Italian as possible, and visiting with my grandma who is in town visiting for the weekend! Once we get over to Florence, I will try to keep posts up on this page to keep everyone updated with our adventures around Italy!

Arrivederci!

Some quick recipes!

I'm on lunch break at my first clinical day, so this will be quick, but some people were interested in recipes for the picture I posted yesterday, so here goes! (Most of it is very approximate, no real recipes!)

1. Smoothie ice cubes: this way you can get a fresh fruit/veggie smoothie in the morning without having to prep all the ingredients each day!

*2 bananas

*1 mango, cubed

*1 apple, peeled, cored, and diced

*a handful of (unsalted) almonds

*a handful of kale

*a handful of spinach

*1-2 scoops of plain yogurt

*just enough coconut water to make everything blend in the blender

You can really put any fruits you have in this! Just remember if you want it to be a pretty green color, you can't blend in any blueberries, strawberries, ect or it will end up a gross brown color! Just white/yellow  fruits! A lot of times, I'll put some frozen blueberries on top of my smoothie once it's blended so it still looks pretty! :)

Just throw everything in the blender and blend until it looks like a really thick smoothie. Then poor it in an ice cube tray and freeze overnight.

To use: throw ~5 cubes in the blender with either water, coconut water, or milk and blend until smooth! (I used a mix of coconut water and some milk!)

2. Caprese quinoa salad (another very approximate recipe)

*cooked quinoa

*cherry tomatoes

*fresh mozzarella

*fresh basil

*olive oil

*balsamic vinegar 

Cut cherry tomatoes in half, mozzarella into small cubes, and basil into small strips. Mix first 4 ingredients then drizzle oil and vinegar in to taste! The end! Enjoy hot or cold!

3. Quinoa Berry Bliss Protein Muffins

I got this recipe off Pinterest and just added 1 scoop of vanilla protein powder! Here's the link! http://www.damyhealth.com/2012/06/quinoa-berry-bliss-bites/

I did everything exactly the same, just added the extra protein! 

4. Hummus Veggie Wrap

*tortilla (or I used Flat Out brand wraps)

*hummus

*red bell peppers

*shredded carrot
*cucumber

*1/2 avocado

*tomato

*edamame

*1/2 slice cheddar cheese

For prep: I just chopped all the veggies into thin slices. I brought the avocado half still in the shell! I packed everything in a Tupperware with the hummus and brought the tortilla separate so the wrap wouldn't get soggy.

To eat: just assble and devour!

Well, back to work. Didn't have time to edit, so hope there are no typos! 😁