Ciao Bella!

This Sunday, our girls group explored a little slice of Italy right here in New York City.

This weekend’s outing to Little Italy had great member turnout. We even had the pleasure of welcoming a new group member! Our members were so eager to explore this portion of New York City that everyone was early to our meeting location on the Upper East Side. Many of our members completed their travel training worksheet, which outlined a few different travel routes we could utilize to make our way to our destination, beforehand. This before-group planning was very beneficial to the group, as a whole, because it allowed our members who completed the worksheet to mentally process and become familiar with the various route options. One of our group members was then able to facilitate the explanation of our travel route to the entire group, which showed her improved independence and leadership skills. We could not be more proud!

After referring to the app Google Maps, the group decided to take the downtown 6 Train to Spring Street and then take a short walk to Little Italy from the subway station. We made our way up 3rd Avenue, turned onto 86th Street, and soon found ourselves at the entrance to the downtown 6 train. With Metro Cards in hand, we went into the subway station and through the turnstiles. As we waited for the 6 train to arrive our group decided to put their travel training to the test! The group broke up into two smaller groups and decided on two different travel routes. The first group would remain at the platform for the 6 train and take this local train to Spring Street. The second group would take the downtown express 4 train to 14th Street Union Square where they would then transfer to the local 6 train and get off at Spring Street. With excitement in their eyes, the second group scurried off to the 4 train platform while the first group eagerly waited for the local 6 to arrive.

After a trip of around twenty minutes, the winner of the race was: THE SECOND GROUP! The group that took the express train arrived just minutes before the group that took the local train, but our members in the first group did not let defeat get the better of them.

Little Italy welcomed our girls group with open doors and great food, for even better prices. The two groups met up at a wonderful Italian restaurant called La Bella Vita for lunch and had an amazing time filled with great conversation, good food, and even posing in silly manners for a Mannequin Challenge! Our members chowed down on great Italian favorites such as Ravioli, Pasta Fagioli Soup, Penne Alla Vodka, and of course: PIZZA! Our members were able to take advantage of La Bella Vita’s lunch specials which helped everyone to enjoy great food for a great price. Our members all had enough money for their meals and even had remaining funds for dessert and souvenirs!

With walking direction assistance from the Google Maps App, the group left La Bella Vita and made our way down Mulberry Street to a dessert store and restaurant named Ferrara’s. While here our members had a wide variety of tasty desserts to choose from such as gelato, cakes, and cookies. Although there were endless options to choose from, our members chose smartly with regard to their appetites after eating lunch and their budgets. Although some of our members bought desert from Ferrara’s some of our other members decided they would rather get dessert from a cupcake store front called Baked by Melissa. Once again, Google Maps was our go to app for the fastest walking directions to this bakery. Once the travel route was in order, our members made their way to our next fun-filled destination.

On our way to Baked by Melissa, our members stopped at various shops along the way. While being conscious of their budgets, some of our members decided to buy small items to remember their trip with Teenz in the City to Little Italy, while others practiced budgeting and only window shopped.

We soon arrived at Baked by Melissa which was surprisingly very close to the 6 Train. Our members decided to take the faster route (the uptown 6 train to 14th Street and transfer to the Express 4 or 5 train) back to our meeting location on the Upper East Side. Before boarding the 6 train our members discussed how they would be getting home after session. Two of our members stated that if they remained on the 6 Train instead of transferring they would be able to get to a stop closer to their homes. These two members decided to stay with one of the group facilitators on the 6 train until they were closer to home, showing their improved travel skills. We boarded the uptown 6 train and had great conversation until the group parted two ways at 14th Street.