Florence, Firenze, or as I call it....Awesome.

A group of us at the rest stop

This past weekend (Friday through Sunday), all of us Americans went to Florence! It was a three hour bus ride that left Carpi at 7:30am. Although I was tired, I couldnt sleep on the bus so I enjoyed the beautiful views surrounding me. Once we got to Florence, we had to stop and get a pass that would let our bus get closer to the city. Buses and other large vehicles have to have permits to go through the city because the streets are litte, there are a lot of people, and no room for too many big buses. We were dropped off near the train station and had to walk ten to fifteen minutes to get to our hostel.

Amazing view from the bus!

At the hostel, we were told check in was at 2:30. However, it was only about 11 when we arrived. They let us lock all of our belongings in a back room to keep them safe until check-in. Thank goodness, because my bags were heavy. All of the girls in my room stuck together and decided to find food and come back and check in at 2:30 and rest. So we were off! We walked by several cute places with outside eating but we didn't like the prices or the food, all we wanted was pizza. Eventually we found this cute little place called "The Red Tomato" or "Pomodoro Rosa" They had an extra menu in english so we could read the ingredients. I got a four cheese pizza that was pretty good. We also got the cheap house wine. When we were brought the bill, it didn't come separately like they do in America and we couldn't split it so we all had to pay cash and figure out who owed what and how to split it at the table! It was stressful but we finally managed to figure it out.

In Italy, lunch (and any meal, really) is very leisurely i.e. it takes forever. It was around 1pm when we had finished lunch and Lauren wanted to find the Duomo or the church. We could see the dome from our restaurant and thought we would walk that way to find it. We ended up walking through the market as well! That was so much fun! The streets were lined with stalls filled with scarves, purses, leather goods, and nick-knacks. We browsed for a bit and then went in search of the dome. We used our little map as a reference and found it! When we walked around the corner and saw it, we all stopped dead in our tracks and our mouths hit the ground. I have never seen a more ornate, more grand building in my life. This church is massive. The biggest building ive ever seen. The majority of it is made of white, green and red marble. I later learned that these colors represent something special related to Italy. We stood for a while and just admired this masterpiece. I had to tilt my head all the way back to see to the top of it. It has three huge doors on the front that people were talking pictures with. There is so much detail and so much work was put into making this church. It is something I recommend everyone seeing at least once in their lives!

The girls and I in front of the Duomo!

The girls in my room +Melissa N.

After this, it was almost 2:30 so we headed back to the hostel to unpack and relax. Our feet were already killing us and we were tired from our early morning. We had to use our passports to get out keys (we each received one even though the professors said their might be one per room). We picked our beds and sat down for about an hour. After we felt rejuvenated, we went out to explore again! We walked through Accademia where the actual statue of David is housed. We wanted to see it but didnt want to stand in line for hours and pay money for it, we wanted to find the fake David statue that was shown on our map. We walked through the market and we each bought some scarves and leather bracelets and other little things that we had seen earlier that day. We went into some shops and walked past the Duomo again. We looked at the octagonal building infront of the Duomo and looked at the golden doors that are said to be the doors that sparked the Renaissance. It's hard to believe these buildings are so old and hold so much important history. It makes me wonder if the people building and creating these things realized their impact and importance for the future. After the Duomo, we saw some of the nicer, more modern shops and clothing stores then we began to see big, name brands like Gucci. We finally found the statue of Fake David (We refered to it as Fake David the rest of the trip) in front of the Uffizzi Museum. We took pictures and walked on. We eventually made it to the Ponte Vecchio which is a bridge that has many expensive jewelery shops. The scenery was beautiful! There were so many people and so many sparkling window displays! By the time we were done, we were exhausted! We walked back toward the hostel and ate dinner at a restaurant down the street. Then we showered, laid in our beds, and talked for the rest of the evening.

Saturday:

We got up early on Saturday and walked past the Ponte Vecchio to meet up with a big group of people to go to Tuscany on our Accidental Tourist group outing. Half of this group would be hiking, the other half would be cooking. But first, we took a sketchy, bumpy, van ride up through hillside to this really neat house. The story is that a rich family in Milan owns it, but only goes there once a year. Which, to me, seems ridiculous because its huge and the view is amazing! This is where we were given a tour of the wine cellar, showed how olive oil and wine are made and then given a wine tasting. We tried two red wines and a white, dessert wine that was as thick as syrup. We also were given bread and olive oil. Delicious! and so much fun! When this was over, we were put in a car and taken a few miles down the road to learn how to make pasta! The process is quite simple and im excited to do it at home. We made the dough, kneaded it, and pressed it with a pasta machine. We made a fettucini like pasta and angel hair. Our group was sent up to the tower to hang out in the sun while the family who owned the house cooked the meal using our pasta. When we came down, the woman who owned the house told us this story:

When she was a little girl, she had a huge crush on the neighbor boy who babysat her. He didn't notice her because she was 5 years younger. When she was in high school, he finally noticed her and they dated a little. Then she went to study in America and they lost touch. Many years later, her father was sick and she came back to the area to help him. But the boys house was empty and he was no where to be found. After her father passed away, she was cleaning out the house and found a box. It was full of letter that the boy had written her for her first two years in the US. They had all been dated, but the boy hadnt been sure of where to send them. She tried to find a match and was going to light them on fire and forget about her past and start new. But she couldnt find one so she kept them. Then, she was on her way to another country and ran into this boy in a airport in Denmark. And they've been together ever since! HOW ROMANTIC. and it's a true story!


We got done eating and back to the hostel around 5pm. I was beyond tired and so i rested a bit. Then the girls who went to Tuscany with the group decided that we would get something light and fast for dinner. So we decided on McDonalds. We ended up getting a little lost but found it eventually. When I got back to the hostel, I showered and then slept my life away.

Sunday:

Sunday we toured the Uffizi. The Uffizi used to be the offices of the important people in Florence many many many years ago. Now, it's an art museum that houses famous work from Michelangelo, the Birth of Venus, and many more. However, I wasn't feeling well and my allergies were acting up. The tour was supposed to be over by 12:30 but by then, we werent even a fourth of the way through the museum. A few girls left early with me and we went and ate and I had a nice pot of hot tea to sooth my throat. Before we left that morning, we had to check out of our rooms and put our things back in the same locked room. We all ended up going back to the hostel and sat and relaxed until 5pm when we walked back to the bus and had our three hour bus ride back to Carpi!


Florence was a beautiful city full of rich history! I had so much fun and saw so many things while I was there!