Florence

This weekend flew by. I can not believe I’ve been here three and a half weeks. It’s even less believable that I’ll be back on a plane home in 12 days. I figured out how to easily take public transportation back to the airport, so now I’ve decided to not think about leaving until it happens. I’m positive I’m not capable of that, since there’s so much at home I’m looking forward to. I’m going to do my best to just be in Italy, in the moment, for the remainder of my stay, and not worry about what happens after.

That said, this weekend was great! I took a midterm Friday morning, which I was super nervous about. I think it went well, the essay was on my favorite topic, the Colosseum.

After the test, I met up with Claire, Christina and Heather to head to the train station. We made it to Florence in an hour and 40 minutes, which was great. Though our hostel was a short 10-15 minute walk from the train station, we kept getting confused by our map. We didn’t realize Florence was so small. After lugging our backpacks and duffles up four flights of stairs, we met Veronica, an adorable Italian woman who owns the building. She gave us a map and circled everything we should see. She was adamant about us not going to see the David, and instead going to see the copy at Piazza Signora.

We settled into our giant room with 2 “king size” beds (2 twin mattresses pushed together), then immediately ignored Veronica, and set out for the Accademia Gallery (home of David). At first we walked past the unassuming museum, since it’s down an alley lined with graffiti. We only found it because of the line of people at the door. After paying 10 euros to get in, we saw the huge, gorgeous David in all of his rippling-muscled glory. He is HOT. There isn’t much else to the museum, so after wishing David were a real twenty-something attending our various colleges, we left after 20 minutes.

We made a stop at the swankiest McDonald’s I’ve ever seen (it looked more like a club than a fast food restaurant) on the way to the huge leather market at San Lorenzo. We hung out there for awhile, and spent a lot of time getting hassled by pushy Italian salesmen. The other girls bought a bunch of stuff, but I only got myself a few bracelets.

After shopping, we made our way to a restaurant Jamie recommended right near the Arno River, but found it was closed for July! We were disappointed, and commiserated with an American couple who also had a recommendation for the place. Instead, we crossed the Ponte Vecchio in a search for dinner, and I ended up eating delicious gnocchi at La Galleria (7 euros for a coke and pasta). With our stomachs full, we headed to Piazzale Michelangelo, home of David copy #1, a recommendation from a friend who went to Florence last week. It was a ten minute uphill walk to the piazza, but proved completely worthwhile. We arrived at the piazza as the sun was setting over our full view of Florence, including the massive Duomo church that dominates the skyline. Absolutely beautiful. We took a whole bunch of pictures, Heather declared it the most romantic place she had ever seen. We sat on steps drinking Bacardi Breezers, and watched the lights of Florence flicker on. It was the perfect way to end a rough week of tests and projects.



We got an early start on Saturday morning, and were checked out by 9:30am, and headed to the Duomo. The Duomo is probably the coolest building in Florence. It’s immediately visible on the skyline, a beautiful, ornate and colorful church in a sea of short brown, cream and yellow buildings. The Duomo has a huge red dome, and a matching campanile bell tower full of intricate designs in red, white and green. A substantial portion of the pictures I took in Florence are of the Duomo. After seeing such a beautiful building from the outside, I was excited to go in. Unfortunately, inside was incredibly unimpressive. It was just a big open space, a cool fresco on the dome, and not much else. Apparently, art from the inside of the Duomo has moved to museums over the years. Let’s just say I’m glad I did not have to pay an entrance fee.

We had planned to climb to the top of the Duomo, where there’s a great view of the city. It was 10 euros and we had already seen the entire city from even higher up the night before, so 3 out of 4 of us decided we’d rather not spend 10 euros (about $13.50) to climb 432 steps and see what we had already viewed much prettier at sunset. Claire was sort of upset, since it was a “must see” in her tourbook. I told her I’d go if she wanted, but she refused.

We ended up heading to another church Claire wanted to see. On the way, we went to Piazza Signora, Veronica’s recommendation, with copies of many of Florence’s famous statues, including the David (copy #2). It was full of tourists, but it was fun to have copies of such famous statues so accessible to the public.

Heather, Christina and I sat on steps outside of Santa Croce church while Claire paid 5 euros to go inside. We needed that break from walking. I’m convinced that no matter where you go or what you do in Italy, you will be faced with massive hills and steps. I’ve found steps in abundance in every place I’ve visited. I keeping going away for a weekend, happy that I won’t have to deal with the nine treacherous flights of steps to my apartment. I find even more steps and daunting hills instead. It’s just cruel, but it has gotten much easier than when I first arrived.

When Claire was done, we crossed Ponte Vecchio and looked at all of the ugly gold jewlery in the windows of the stores on our way to lunch. Then we headed to Palazzo Pitti, the art-filled former palace of the Medici family, which is attached to the famed Boboli Gardens. We splurged and got a package to see everything in the palace and gardens for 22 euros, which is quite steep for a bunch of college students. It was worth it though, we spent several hours wandering through the rooms of art, including a costume exhibit. My favorite was the throne room, literally just a huge, ornate room with the king’s throne in the center on a pedestal. Bad ass. The gardens were huge and full of steps and hills (surprise, surprise). They were high up on a hill, so we got another great view of Florence before shopping our way back to the other side of the city for dinner and two servings of free lemon sorbet at Buca Niccolini.

We got waffles with gelato both nights, another excellent recommendation from Jamie. I got Kinder (my new favorite candy) gelato on top of fresh waffles both times. This dessert might be a better invention than electricity.

We caught an 8:50 train back to Rome (“because we live there”) after an exhausting, though excellent, 30 hours in Florence.

I had been considering a study abroad program in Florence for this spring. Though I had a great time in the city, I don’t think I’ll be applying to the program. Florence is really small, nothing took more than 20 minutes to walk to, and I saw everything I wanted to in a day and a half. The city is great for visiting, but I can’t imagine being satisfied living in such a small city for four months. Living in New York City spoiled me, so now I need a big city to keep me occupied. I’m considering Dublin and London, thoughts?