Ciao!
I’m sitting here on the train from Florence going to
Rome! The craziest events happened in
Florence and it is safe to say we loved Florence but Florence did not like us
back. I will explain.
After getting to Florence from Venice, we had to take 2
buses to get to our hostel. Within that
time frame, Bridget ended up getting pick pocketed and they took her
phone. As bad as the situation is, her
camera was broken and she couldn’t take pictures and her WIFI never connected
so who ever did this probably thought he was getting a great phone but no. The person (we don’t know who it was and we
were sooo confused by how this happened) only took her phone so luckily she
still has her wallet, money and camera.
This was the starting of the unfortunate events that were to come for
us.
Don’t get me wrong, Florence itself was amazing. After we got to our hostel (which was one of
the better ones we’ve stayed at), we met Bridget’s friend from home who studies
abroad, Tori, for lunch. We went to a
really cute café and ordered panninis and coffee. The place was filled with American students
who are studying abroad there doing homework.
There was cute decorations all over the walls and we sat there for a little
bit since it was raining outside. Tori
had come to visit us in Barcelona a few weekends ago so it was a lot of fun to
see her again!
After a late lunch, she showed us around Florence. We walked across the Arno River and took
pictures by the bridge that crosses it.
She also showed us a pretty church that was close to our hostel. Finally, we found our way to the Duomo. I had seen pictures from other people’s study
abroad pictures from Florence but it is so different to see it in real
life. I have never seen such a massive
building in my life! “Duomo” means “dome” and the one on top is the biggest
one! It is in the middle of a Piazza (which means square, not to be confused
with pizza which is circular…) that is surrounded by high end stores and restaurants. All around the Duomo were Gucci, Prada, Louis
Vuitton and more. While walking around,
I found a Pandora store to get a charm to add to my bracelet. The charm I got was one with a Fleur de Lis,
which is the symbol of Florence and also had a wine bottle which is very
fitting.
We decided to walk around for a little longer and bought a
legit jug of wine. We were each going to
buy our own bottles but this jug was 5 liters and it was cheaper for all of us
to drink this one and it ended up more wine for each of us this way. I’ve learned that Europe has no open
container policies so everyone is always drinking in the streets. We sat in another little piazza with a
carousel and had a few glasses of wine before heading back to the hostel.
Later that night, Tori had to go back home to her host
family for dinner but she gave us a great recommendation for dinner. It was called La Prosciuttoria and it was all
meat and cheese platters. It was perfect
because we were still full from our late lunch but still wanted to eat
dinner. We ordered 2 bottles of house
wine and a meat and cheese platter that came with salami, prosciutto, different
kinds of ham and a few kinds of cheeses.
It also came with a lot of bread, which we loved. It was so good and we left there feeling
really silly and full!
The next morning, we got coffee and stood in line to climb
the bell tower that is part of the Duomo.
We wanted to go the top of the dome instead but the line was almost 2
hours long and we had a lot to do during the day. In order to get to the top of the bell tower,
we had to climb 414 STAIRS. THERE WAS NO OTHER WAY TO GET UP THERE. The stairs were so narrow and it smelled
really musty and gross and you could barely pass by other people as they were
walking by you. Every 100 steps or so
(Bridget started counting but then lost track), there was a look out point and
places to rest. It was seriously a hike
but it was an amazing view of the city when we finally got to the top. We could see everything from the top and we
realized that our favorite views that we have seen have been from up high where
we can see everything.
After the 414 steps back down, we went to a local panini
place called Vino Voe recommend by Tori.
I got a panini with pesto, brie, turkey and caramelized onions. It was so yummy and a perfect size for
lunch. We then walked to the Academia
where the David was and were so excited to see it. However, it was closed on Mondays so we
couldn’t go inside and we were really sad.
We wanted to see the David! Then
we decided to go into the Basilica of the Duomo instead. We waited in line but then they didn’t let in
Alyssa, Bridget or Lainie because they were wearing short dresses. They would have let me in because I had a
sweatshirt and a long maxi skirt so once again, Florence did not like us. Strike 3 already.
Finally, we decided
to get gelato instead to brighten our moods.
Since we were feeling sad, we each splurged and got a cone with
chocolate and nuts. I had chocolate
mousse gelato and it was so rich that I couldn’t finish the entire thing. But of course we had to get gelato because we
were in Italy!
Tori met up with us again and she showed us around the
leather flea market. They had so many
bag, purses, wallets and belts but I was surprised how expensive it would be.
Usually flea markets are really cheap but maybe because these were made of
leather they were more expensive. You
could still bargain with the vendors but they don’t decrease the price that
much. I liked walking around here because
it was fun to look at all the bags and get inspiration for the next one I want!
After the flea market, she took us to Piazza Michelangelo,
which we had to get to by climbing more stairs!! When we got to the top, we sat
on the steps that over looked the whole city.
There was a man playing a guitar and singing songs. It was nice to sit for a while after walking
around so much! It started to get really
windy so we headed back to the hostel.
That night for dinner, we went to a restaurant again recommended
by Tori. It was one of her favorite
Italian places where a lot of abroad students go. We ordered 2 bottles of the house wine again
and this time, I got 4 cheese gnocchi with chicken. Alyssa got penne alla vodka, Lainie got
cheese risotto and Bridget got tortellini.
The food was amazing and on top of that, we got a lot of bread!
Tori met us when we were done eating and took us to one of
her favorite bars called the Lions Fountain.
It is a total abroad bar because on the ceilings, there are different
college t-shirts and you sign the shirts of your school when you go. I found the UMass one but it was too high for
me to sign but I took a picture! Bridget signed her SDSU shirt she found. We weren’t there for too long because Tori
wanted to take us to another bar after.
The next bar we went to was also a popular study abroad
place but this one had locals as well.
We sat at a table for a little bit before heading out. I saw some UMass girls that I knew there
too! On the way back to our hostel, Tori
showed us the secret bakery. They are
open late at night and they serve nutella croissants. So yummy and sweet! We ate them on our walk
back to our hostel.
On Tuesday, we had a 1:10 train to Rome. We were going to try to get up early and see
the David but we slept through our alarms.
Instead, we went back to the café that Tori took us to on our first day
and I met Anna there! I hadn’t seen her
in so long and was so excited to see her!
She could only stay for a few minutes because she had to go to class but
I was so happy to see her for a few. She
doesn’t come home until the end of May because after her program she is
spending 10 days in Greece. Lucky girl!!
After getting our food to go, we were super crunched for
time and we had to rush to get to the train station in time. We probably looked funny walking quickly
throughout Florence with our huge bags of clothes for 10 days. We were so stressed about printing out our
tickets on time and making the train but we made it with plenty of time. However, our tickets didn’t have seats
assignments on them so when the guy came around, we had to pay an extra 5 euros
each because we didn’t get it validated.
Strike 4. On top of that, this
train is almost 4 hours when it should not take that long to get to Rome at
all. But when you study abroad you need
to save money somehow!
So here we are, sitting on the train for 4 hours so we can
get to Rome. We loved Florence but
Florence did not like us back. We’re off
to our last Italian city that we planned on our own. Hopefully, we can see the Pope and the
Colosseum without any problems. Until
then…
Ciao!
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