Firenze has heavenly gelato

Wednesday February 20

Zoiks, I thought getting up early for other excursions was rough, but this time we had to be on the bus at 5:30am! I pretty much immediately made myself a bed and slept for a large duration of the ride to Firenze (Florence). Once we got there we went up to the Chiesa di San Miniato al Monte which overlooks all of Florence. It was an extremely large church and then we walked over to Piazzale Michelangelo. It’s this large tourist town square that has a great view of Florence and lots of vendors sell tourist junk there. We even saw a couple who had just gotten married getting their wedding pictures taken there.

Then we checked into our hotel, which was called Hotel Unicorno. Yes, they had unicorns everywhere, it was pretty funny. The rooms were slightly cramped, but it was a bed so I’m not complaining! For lunch we ventured over to this big market that is indoors. It literally had every food imaginable for sale there and all of it was very fresh. We located this guy who makes incredible sandwiches and so we ate those along with some pasta.

After that we bobbed up and down roads to meet everyone at the steps in front of the Santa Maria del Fiore, which is the famous Duomo of Florence. We viewed the inside and saw the mosaics of the dome and the beautiful doors of the Battistero first (just outside the church). Brunelleschi designed the dome of the Santa Maria and the inside of it was absolutely amazing! I’ve never seen such artwork before. Every crevasse had something different and no picture was repeated twice. The amount of time that had to go into that is unfathomable to me and I can only imagine that the men that had to work on it had the worst neck cramps ever.

Break time followed the viewing of the Duomo, so my hotel mates and I went back for a much needed nap. Then we got ready and went to dinner with the group at Ristorante Tirabaralla. We had our own little private room in the back. We were served red wine and a tomato based pasta, very delicious, which was followed by steak served with a salad. I had been craving some real meat and it definitely fulfilled my craving. We decided to go explore Florence’s nightlife after dinner so after calling my local friend, Kimmy, we got directions to the Lion’s Den pub. It is basically a pub where many Americans go. So we headed there and ended up having a good time, but I desperately wanted to sleep! So I lead the group back to our hotel, and to my amazement found myself already familiar with my surroundings and how to get to and from places around Florence.

Thursday February 21

Day 2 of our Firenze extravaganza led us straight to the very top of the Cupola (dome) of the Santa Maria del Fiore. It is over 450 winding steps to the top, but the sweating and shaky legs was totally worth it to see the view from the highest building in Florence. I had no idea how high I really was until I looked over the edge to see little humans running around that looked to be the size of ants. We spent time up there and took lots of pictures to be sure never to forget the amazing view! Then we climbed back down, but got to walk around the top of the duomo on the inside, right up against the paintings. It was awesome to see a close-up of the artwork that filled that place with such beauty. After finally making it back to the ground floor we gathered together and headed to the Galleria dell’ Accademia.

This gallery is home to the David! I mean there’s other artwork in there too, but quite honestly nothing can compare to seeing the David! I also had NO idea how gigantic the sculpture was. I mean, holy moly! He was also created with an extra large head and right hand in order to symbolize wisdom and strength. Pictures weren’t allowed, and the guards were definitely on top of everyone to make sure none were being taken… but we may or may not have been sneaky and gotten some. Although I am not trying to incriminate myself, I may be posting those pictures later… if they even exist of course.

After walking around the David in total awe we headed out to a Japanese restaurant for lunch. I was originally stoked because I thought they would have sushi, but alas, they did not. But we loaded up and rice, pork, and an exquisitely delicious form of Raman noodles. After lunch we went to the Piazza Santa Maria Novella and visited the exterior and interior of the church. It was very nice inside, but also very cold in contrast to the beautiful weather we’d been having outside. After getting a tour of the church we were then let out for free time.

Some of my friends and I decided it would be a perfect opportunity to go shopping! So we went to the street vendors and Zara (kind of like a Marshall Field’s) and some other shops. I got a really cute new black coat, love it! Then we went to the covered bridge and indulged ourselves with some heavenly waffles topped with gelato. They definitely know what they are doing with their gelato here in Firenze. I made quite a mess though, it sounds great in theory but once you try to eat it a mess inevitably follows!

We went back to our hotel and after a quick cat nap walked down the street for our dinner at La Borsa. We sat in three different tables and were given plates that had three different sections on it. It kind of looked like those dishes you’d have your microwaved dinners served in. Anywho, we had three different pasta’s served to us that night and each was given to us in a different section. The first was one good, but the others I didn’t really care for much. They had experimented with am asparagus sauce pasta that was creepily creamy and a mushroom sauced ravioli that was just alright. Then we were given huuuuuge amounts of meat. I was very excited because there was chicken! But upon biting into it I heard a loud CRACK and saw that there were bones in places of the chicken that normally aren’t supposed to be there. There were also lamb chops though that were hmm hmm good. It was one of the girls birthday’s too, Casey, so we all got these amazing balls covered in chocolate and she got a cake with candles!

After dinner we went our in search of some bars to buy Casey here birthday drinks. The streets were packed and especially in this one club we went to. You literally had to squeeze your way through people just to get to the dance floor. And even once you made it you still felt like a stinky sardine being smashed together with the rest of them. A rather eventful night!

Friday February 22

Our third and final day started with a delicious breakfast at the hotel and then us stuffing our bags to drop off into the lobby. We marched out together for our last jaunt around Firenze and walked to many of the sights, including; Pallazo Rucellai, Palazzo Strozzi, Piazza della Repubblica and to Piazza della Signoria.

After all that walking we end up at the Gelleria degli Uffizi! The Uffizi is a famous museum that holds some of history’s most famous paintings by artists such as Botichelli, Rembrant, Picasso and others. It is said that it is argued to be just as well known as the Louvre in Paris. It was so incredible to walk through the halls of this immensely amazing museum and see painting that were created soooo long ago! We saw many wonderful paintings, but those most well-known that we saw are The Duke of Umbria, Primavera and The Birth of Venus. We had an extensive tour given to us by Filiberto, but after a while I wandered a bit from the group and got to see rooms of art and just enjoy the view, rather than hear the whole group chit-chat.

By 1pm we were allowed to go by ourselves to lunch of leave Firenze to venture somewhere else. I went to lunch with Megan, Audrey and Casey and we ate a very simply but great lunch on top of a building that overlooked Florence. It was a beautiful day and we couldn’t have been happier to enjoy our meal while basking in the sun.

I said goodbye to the girls and gave Kimmy a call. For those of you who don’t know Kimmy, you are sadly missing out on one of the most genuinely great people of all time. Kimmy is in my sorority and although we didn’t know it before meeting a few years ago we also grew up in the same city! She graduated Grand Valley last year and is now working on her master’s degree in Florence. She has been there since September and I haven’t seen her since then, so it was very nice to catch up with her! She also just got engaged, yeah!!! Congrats Kimmy!! We met at the steps of the Duomo and I got to see her engagement ring and hear her oh-so-sweet tale of the proposal. Too cute. We headed back to here apartment that she shares with two other girls from California and where she has her own bedroom. She had some errands to run so I took a much needed nap… which turned into a 5 hour siesta. Haha, I can’t help it that her bed was so comfy!

I got some pizza from across the way once I woke up; it had mozzarella, tomato and eggplant parmesan on a ciabatta bread crust- outstanding! Then we watched a movie, the Chronicles of Narnia to be exact, not too shabby of a movie, and hit the hay.

Saturday February 23

The next day we went grocery shopping and then ate delicious burritos for lunch and then went shopping for a new pair of pants. Kimmy knows all the great finds and I found a really cute new pair of pants which are purple! Tehehe, not outrageously purple, but just enough where it feels fun to wear them.

That night was one of Kimmy’s friends birthday’s so she had a bunch of her friends over. It was nice to meet everyone that she goes to school with and hang out with people that I don’t see everyday in Macerata. We also played this amazing card game that’s called Terets. Simply amazing, ask me to teach you when I get back ;) Then we called it a night and headed to bed.

Sunday February 24

I had an early train Sunday morning and had to change trains twice to get back to Macerata. I felt like I was on trains all day, however, it was a very nice five days in Florence, and I definitely feel it’s someplace everyone should visit!