Firenze (Florence)

This weekend I traveled to the beautiful Florence! It was absolutely beautiful! (especially because the sun was out, which is sadly the second time I've seen it since I've been here :/) Anyways, it was perfect weather for sightseeing! I traveled mainly with Elyse, Caitlin, Laura, and Cait, though we met up with various people throughout the trip- I think about half of our program was in Florence this weekend. We took the train early Friday morning, checked into our hostel, and went to go see the Duomo. It is insane how detailed and beautiful it is!

It took over 350 years to build- no kidding! The marble-work is just amazing! We went inside, which is just incredible,
but then we decided to go up to the top (climb the 467 stairs? something like that...). The views were just unbelievable!) here are some pictures:




















After going to the top of the Duomo, we walked around a lot of Florence. There are stores everywhere (gelaterias too!!)! I had gelato twice while there, and of course, they were both delicious! The interesting thing is that prior to going to Florence, I had only had gelato from the grocery store, because in Perugia, people look at you funny if you order gelato in winter. Many gelaterias aren’t even open right now. In Florence (and I’ve heard Rome too), because there are so many tourists, all of them are open, and they people are always walking down the street licking a cone.

We walked to Ponte Vecchio, and took some GORGEOUS pictures of the views along the water and of the bridges. (Look to web album for that one....) We also saw the fake David and another church, called Santa Croce. The architecture in these cities is just amazing!!!

Then for dinner, my friend Laura’s uncle had suggested a restaurant (because he’s been to Florence many times). They didn’t open till 7:30, but we had gotten there at about 7 and were already in line behind people. Obviously this was a very good restaurant! We were drooling outside because all the waiters get to eat before they open, so for a half hour, we had to stand and watch them eat! Another interesting thing about Italians is that dead animals don’t seem bother them at all- there was a pigs head just sitting on a table and pig legs hanging all around the restaurant as decoration! This didn’t scare us away though, and thank God, because it was delicious! (It didn’t hurt that the waiter was really cute…check my pictures!) The food was just amazing, and it was perfect way to end a day of walking around for hours. We had two kinds of pasta, family style, and bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar (a stable at nearly every dinner). Sooooo yummy!!

Later that night, we met up with other people from our program at a local pub/bar. It was really fun- they had karaoke! I sang Oasis-Wonderwall with Hillary/Caitlin, and Ace of Base with Nick and James…..really, really fun. Obviously, you can see that here all the music is truly American- Soulja Boy plays ALLLL the time! It’s kind of weird, but also funny at the same time. The best is when old-school *NSYNC or Backstreet Boys come on….always a good time!

The next day I spent mainly with Elyse and Caitlin, and we just shopped around. January is the sale month here, so everything is about 50% off. This sounds great, but you have to keep in mind that everything is soooo expensive here! Italians spend at least 40% of their incomes on clothes and buy fewer, more expensive things. It was really fun to look and try on though! I did buy another pair of skinny jeans! Another random shopping observation: Italians have no concept of personal space. If you are looking for your size in a stack, they will reach into the same stack at the same time and get theirs.

So Florence was beautiful, and I had a blast! The one thing I did notice was that it is definitely more Americanized than Perugia. In Perugia, many people have little or no English knowledge, but in Florence, if you walked into a store or bar (name for a café in Italian- funny huh?), they would revert to English right away if they sensed you struggling with Italian. Just an interesting observation….

Coming back to Perugia was really different because the weather was actually nice! No more rain (*fingers crossed*), and it’s actually been sunny! Also, the other two universities: University of Perugia (for Italian students) and the Stragniere (for study abroad students taking classes in Italian), were back in session, so there are a ton more people my age here. It’s been great!