March 25th thru the 28th I went to visit my friend from Boulder, Erica Fabrizio in Florence. Ironically, two of my guy friends here in London had a friend studying in Florence too. What is even more ironic is that their friend was friends with my friend, Erica in Florence... what are the odds.
So together the three of us travelled yander to the beautiful country of Italy. It was so nice being able to go see Erica with other people. I always planned on going to see her, but it made me nervous going to Italy not knowing the language and by myself so this trip made itself made me very happy!!
We arrived in Florence late Thursday night... it was wonderful outside. Like t-shirt, pants weather. It hadn't really gotten warm in London yet so it was nice not having to worry about wearing a jacket. The two girls met us at the train station and all of us walked back to their apartment. Through their program, they lived in apartments with other civilians in Florence. Luckily, Erica lived right across the street from their friend, Alli. They literally open their windows and yell out to each other when they need something. It is pretty cool. The apartments are super super nice to and super super big. Each girl has their own room to themselves then there is a big living room with a TV (in Italian ha) and an enormous kitchen and a cute little balcony in the back. They literally live on their own.
Anywho, after we settled in, we walked to a local pub, Red Garden in hopes of catching some of the March Madness games. Surprisingly, the games were on!! We were able to watch Syracuse lose to Butler in the sweet 16 round. On our way to the pub, we met up with one of my sorority sisters form Boulder who was studying in Florence too! It was so nice seeing her too. ALSOOOOO at the pub, I ran into two of my friends who I went to high school with who were studying through the same program as Erica in Florence and they were all friends!! Connor Thacker and Sarah Sigfussion... literally it has been so weird meeting people and finding such random connections with people... IN EUROPE!!! I feel like I more weird connections with people in Europe then I did the states.
After the games Erica and Alli wanted to take Billy, Tyler and I to the "secret bakery". We had no idea what they were talking about and kind of just went along with it laughing... when we arrived at our destination, which was an alley with no one in sight and with no stores open whatsoever, we were so confused. A little after standing around for awhile, in this alley ft, a man popped out of a window door and whispered to Alli, in Italian what she wanted. hahaha. It was honestly the most bizarre thing. This place was literally a secret bakery. It is the only place "open" late late at night, which it is not supposed to be but anyways it makes a lot of busy at night when kids come home at night and want something to eat. Apparently, if this man got caught, he could get into a lot of trouble... thus why its a ssseeecccrrreeettt.
The next morning, we woke up, went to get some delicious bagels for one euro and made our way to the Duormo. It is a huge hugeee church and you can climb the top and literally see the entire city of Florence. There were 300 steps to the top and we had to climb through the thinest hallways EVER. In addition, it was a spiral staircase kind of deal so we were dizzy in this process AND as we were going up, people were coming down so it was quite the adventure trying to get to the top.
When we did make it to the top though, it was such a site to see. Florence is a lot bigger than I imagined. The weather was yet again perfect and we didn't have to wear jackets.
We walked around Florence a little bit afterwards and decided to go to Galleria dell' Accaemia to see Michelangelo's famous DAVID! It is HUGE by the way, and really the only exciting exhibit in the entire museum. Well, the museum is not that big to begin with, exactly why there were so many people crowded around the Daivd. There are strict rules against taking pictures for the sculpture, but rebel me wanted a picture. I had Alli and Billy guard me while I sneakily tried to take out my camera. When the guard got distracted talking to a tourist, I snapped a quick shot. The minor detail I forgot to check before I took the picture was the flash. The David light up when I took the picture so every tourist gave me the stare down after I had taken the picture. Unfortunately the guard saw the flash too and started running at me, screaming in Italian. I decided to book it out of their after this and waited for the rest of the group to finish going through the museum in fear I would be departed out of the country.
Pretty Florence at the top of the Duromo!
Billy, me, Erica, Alli, and Tyler!
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