Well, as most of you already know, I went to Florence, Italy last weekend!! I had the most amazing time! The food was wonderful, the gelato was to die for, the city was gorgeous, and the company was awesome!
Day 1!
First off, the train ride was the only crappy part. It was 15 hours total, with a 1 hour layover in Vienna to switch trains. That sucked, I barely slept and I was tired the entire time... Ridiculous. But there was a nice Austrian guy in our compartment that was very pleasant and helped us out with this random old lady who seemed to think she had the right to two seats in the car when really, it was entirely full and she only had one. Plus, she smelled. He even made jokes about her smelling and how Obama was on the front page of the Austrian newspaper! It was a gigantic picture. Anyway, we FINALLY got to Florence at 6:20am. And guess what? We can't find the street we need to walk down... of COURSE. In all fairness, we found out later that it was just the street after the one that we walked down so we didn't go very far out of the way, but still. Anyway, we went to the hostel and set our stuff down, changed, brushed our teeth, and headed out the door the 3 blocks or so that it was to the Duomo to meet Allison's friend Melanie. Melanie is studying abroad in Florence for the semester and was nice enough to show us tourists around all weekend! THANK YOU!!
So we grab some coffee, meet up with Melanie, and then we start doing the touristy stuff. Mind you, this is while we're waiting patiently for the sun to come up because it is FREEZING cold outside. We saw the Duomo, City Hall, Ponte Vecchio, some statues, the David replica, Santa Maria Novella, St. Croce (I really hope I'm getting at least most of these names correct...), etc etc etc. Basically, we saw all the stuff you "have" to see when in Florence. Oh! And we got lunch at this great little pizza place which the study abroaders there say is "the best pizza in Florence", and believe you me... it was AMAZING. I mean, damn near the best pizza I've ever had, and that's saying something because I highly dislike thin crust pizza. In my world, it's all about thick crusted pizza. That's my favorite part! But this pizza was so delish that it made me a firm believer in thin crust.... but only in Italy. Don't be getting your hopes up, Chris. (He likes thin crust and I like thick crust. It's a constant battle, but since I always am the one who gets picked to call, I get what I want!) Anyway, after lunch we naturally want gelato. However, we haven't EARNED the gelato yet, so naturally we hike up this big ass hill to this church (which was amazing) only to be told that's not the actual view point! So, we're off on a hunt to find Piazza Michelangelo. We literally went down every road in the area and asked about 100 people (who were all looking for it as well). By the end we finally found it, so that was good. The view was amaaazing and I'm really happy we found it. Afterwards, we headed over the Grom for some gelato (I got lemon!), which was epic. I loved it. Then we went back to the hostel to take a nap since we were all so tired from the train ride.
After the nap... We got up and met up with Melanie again so we could go wander for a bit more, then we went off to find some dinner. We went to this awesome little hole in the wall place that Melanie's friend had suggested. The food was GREAT!! I got tortellini in a creamy tomato sauce and we all split a bottle of wine. It was a decent bottle, I liked it. After we walked around Florence for a while and saw what it looks like at night. All in all, it was a good night!! We went back a bit early because we were soooo tired though.
Day 2!
We slept in a bit (until about 9-9:30ish) and then we all got up and showered and we met Melanie at 11am, we grabbed some brunch at this really awesome little place that is so aptly called "The Diner" because it is the only American diner in Florence (or so they state). I got a delicious omelette and everyone else's breakfast looked amazing too! However, Michaela ordered strawberry pancakes... Never in my life have I ever thought to put strawberries IN the pancakes! I mean, come onnnn!! My dad is THE strawberry guy and I make pancakes on the regular and put them on the top, but why did I never have this stroke of genius?!?! They were the best pancakes I've ever had, hands down. And that's saying something because I think my pancakes are pretty epic. WRONG. These were better. I will be doing this from now on.
Anyway, so after breakfast we head over to the big market place thing (which is awesome, and I wish there was one in Prague for me to go to!) and I'm on the hunt for a few specific items for the family for Christmas. I end up finding what I'm looking for and more, obviously. I'm not going to post what I bought (other than the Limoncello for me!!!) because the people who they were purchased for will be reading this (or at least they better be...) and I don't want to ruin the surprise!! I'm SO excited to give these gifts!! So afterward we walk around Florence for a while more and saw this little shop called "Italian Loves"... and what does the sign over the door say? "Italian Loves... Wine and Oil". MY PEOPLE!!! Naturally we went in, and what do you know? They're having a free olive oil and balsamic vinegar tasting. WHOAA. All of them were amazing. I can't even go into detail because it will make me hungry and I just ate so that's not acceptable. Maybe on another post =]
OH! I also got crapped on by a fricking pigeon. Stupid thing... directly on my head too. ALL in my hair, my friend Allison had to clean it out and everything. Eww. Apparently it's good luck though... We wandered into a few more shops and I didn't get much of anything interesting until we went into this random little store that had like maps and journals and wax seal stamps and QUILLS!!! Yup, I did it. I bought myself a quill and emerald green ink in Italy. If you want a letter from me, I will be writing my Christmas thank-you notes with this hopefully, as long as I can figure it out. I don't want to break the wax seal on the ink until I get home, I would not like green clothes in my bag.
Soooo then we went to go see the David in the Accademie (which was amazing, go see it if you're ever in Florence. It's a must!), went to Melanie's apartment to open the bottle of wine we bought for the train (yes, we went there...) and got some plastic cups (again....) and headed back to the hostel to pack up and go to the train station! The ride home was fun, there was a Czech guy in our compartment that was funny so we hung out with him until we all crashed out. It was the first time I've slept more than an hour on a train. It was heavenly.
I'll put pictures in their own post =]
Day 1!
First off, the train ride was the only crappy part. It was 15 hours total, with a 1 hour layover in Vienna to switch trains. That sucked, I barely slept and I was tired the entire time... Ridiculous. But there was a nice Austrian guy in our compartment that was very pleasant and helped us out with this random old lady who seemed to think she had the right to two seats in the car when really, it was entirely full and she only had one. Plus, she smelled. He even made jokes about her smelling and how Obama was on the front page of the Austrian newspaper! It was a gigantic picture. Anyway, we FINALLY got to Florence at 6:20am. And guess what? We can't find the street we need to walk down... of COURSE. In all fairness, we found out later that it was just the street after the one that we walked down so we didn't go very far out of the way, but still. Anyway, we went to the hostel and set our stuff down, changed, brushed our teeth, and headed out the door the 3 blocks or so that it was to the Duomo to meet Allison's friend Melanie. Melanie is studying abroad in Florence for the semester and was nice enough to show us tourists around all weekend! THANK YOU!!
So we grab some coffee, meet up with Melanie, and then we start doing the touristy stuff. Mind you, this is while we're waiting patiently for the sun to come up because it is FREEZING cold outside. We saw the Duomo, City Hall, Ponte Vecchio, some statues, the David replica, Santa Maria Novella, St. Croce (I really hope I'm getting at least most of these names correct...), etc etc etc. Basically, we saw all the stuff you "have" to see when in Florence. Oh! And we got lunch at this great little pizza place which the study abroaders there say is "the best pizza in Florence", and believe you me... it was AMAZING. I mean, damn near the best pizza I've ever had, and that's saying something because I highly dislike thin crust pizza. In my world, it's all about thick crusted pizza. That's my favorite part! But this pizza was so delish that it made me a firm believer in thin crust.... but only in Italy. Don't be getting your hopes up, Chris. (He likes thin crust and I like thick crust. It's a constant battle, but since I always am the one who gets picked to call, I get what I want!) Anyway, after lunch we naturally want gelato. However, we haven't EARNED the gelato yet, so naturally we hike up this big ass hill to this church (which was amazing) only to be told that's not the actual view point! So, we're off on a hunt to find Piazza Michelangelo. We literally went down every road in the area and asked about 100 people (who were all looking for it as well). By the end we finally found it, so that was good. The view was amaaazing and I'm really happy we found it. Afterwards, we headed over the Grom for some gelato (I got lemon!), which was epic. I loved it. Then we went back to the hostel to take a nap since we were all so tired from the train ride.
After the nap... We got up and met up with Melanie again so we could go wander for a bit more, then we went off to find some dinner. We went to this awesome little hole in the wall place that Melanie's friend had suggested. The food was GREAT!! I got tortellini in a creamy tomato sauce and we all split a bottle of wine. It was a decent bottle, I liked it. After we walked around Florence for a while and saw what it looks like at night. All in all, it was a good night!! We went back a bit early because we were soooo tired though.
Day 2!
We slept in a bit (until about 9-9:30ish) and then we all got up and showered and we met Melanie at 11am, we grabbed some brunch at this really awesome little place that is so aptly called "The Diner" because it is the only American diner in Florence (or so they state). I got a delicious omelette and everyone else's breakfast looked amazing too! However, Michaela ordered strawberry pancakes... Never in my life have I ever thought to put strawberries IN the pancakes! I mean, come onnnn!! My dad is THE strawberry guy and I make pancakes on the regular and put them on the top, but why did I never have this stroke of genius?!?! They were the best pancakes I've ever had, hands down. And that's saying something because I think my pancakes are pretty epic. WRONG. These were better. I will be doing this from now on.
Anyway, so after breakfast we head over to the big market place thing (which is awesome, and I wish there was one in Prague for me to go to!) and I'm on the hunt for a few specific items for the family for Christmas. I end up finding what I'm looking for and more, obviously. I'm not going to post what I bought (other than the Limoncello for me!!!) because the people who they were purchased for will be reading this (or at least they better be...) and I don't want to ruin the surprise!! I'm SO excited to give these gifts!! So afterward we walk around Florence for a while more and saw this little shop called "Italian Loves"... and what does the sign over the door say? "Italian Loves... Wine and Oil". MY PEOPLE!!! Naturally we went in, and what do you know? They're having a free olive oil and balsamic vinegar tasting. WHOAA. All of them were amazing. I can't even go into detail because it will make me hungry and I just ate so that's not acceptable. Maybe on another post =]
OH! I also got crapped on by a fricking pigeon. Stupid thing... directly on my head too. ALL in my hair, my friend Allison had to clean it out and everything. Eww. Apparently it's good luck though... We wandered into a few more shops and I didn't get much of anything interesting until we went into this random little store that had like maps and journals and wax seal stamps and QUILLS!!! Yup, I did it. I bought myself a quill and emerald green ink in Italy. If you want a letter from me, I will be writing my Christmas thank-you notes with this hopefully, as long as I can figure it out. I don't want to break the wax seal on the ink until I get home, I would not like green clothes in my bag.
Soooo then we went to go see the David in the Accademie (which was amazing, go see it if you're ever in Florence. It's a must!), went to Melanie's apartment to open the bottle of wine we bought for the train (yes, we went there...) and got some plastic cups (again....) and headed back to the hostel to pack up and go to the train station! The ride home was fun, there was a Czech guy in our compartment that was funny so we hung out with him until we all crashed out. It was the first time I've slept more than an hour on a train. It was heavenly.
I'll put pictures in their own post =]
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