Weekend in Firenze

I got back to my apartment from my short weekend in Florence about 3 hours ago. Great trip!! I loved the smallness of the city so that it was very do-able in a day and a half and I didn't feel like I was missing anything when I left because I had seen everything. Florence certainly doesn't have an American equivalent city that I can compare it to.

My friend Tina, who lives down the street from me got a cab to the main train station at about 5:20am on Saturday, in time for our 5:57am train that took 4 hours. It was my first time meeting most of the other girls who I think are great. In total, there were 7 girls and 2 boys. Everyone slept on the train there. When we got to Florence, we took Bus 12 all the way up to our hostel. The hostel was quite an experience because it was comprised of tents that each had 3 beds in them. It sat at the top of one of the hills of Florence, Piazza Michelangelo, and the view down on the city was absolutely beautiful. We walked down about a quarter mile of extremely steep steps into the city center and did the whole walking tour of Florence with the help of trusty maps we picked up at the train station. The size of the Duomo in person is overwhelming, so much so that you can't get the whole cathedral in a picture unless you're standing about a mile away from it. We went to the Accademia Gallery where the original statue of David is housed. I'm not really a fan of museums especially when they cost 10 Euros but I really wanted to see David and didn't expect him to be so big, which is kind of ironic because yes, it's true... the boy is small even in person. While we were waiting in line to get in, everyone illegally signed their names/ their soroity/frat letters on the doors to the museum. The rush of that was exhilirating to say the least.

We also checked out the leather market which for those of you who don't know, Florence is one of the best places in the world to buy leather and for cheap. It was pretty extensive but not quite what I expected. I didn't buy anything because nothing really caught my eye but almost all the other girls did. While they were shopping I bought gelato which was the first gelato I've had that I've actually ever liked. We stopped at a few more churches, none of which I remember the names but one that apparently holds the tombs of Dante and then we headed over to the Ponte Vecchio which is a bridge that has shops on it, most of which are unbelievable jewelry stores and cater to some of the world's wealthiest people. I was so proud that the group could see so many things on our own based off of a 3 euro map and it made me regress back to when I was younger my mom used to make us take organized bus tours when we went on vacation and my sister and I would be the ONLY kids among a group of old people, median age 65. Ugh... bad memories.

After around 6 we decided to head back up to the hostel so we could watch the sunset over Florence from up top. On our way back up we bought 4 bottles of wine, cheese and salami which was a great choice. Hiking back up the steps as you can imagine was killer but totally worth the experience to witness Florence transition from day to night. We sat on the steps with a crowd of about 50 other people for about 2 hours and completely went through all the food and wine while being serenaded by a 3-person American band during the sunset. There was a bass player, a flute player, a guitar player/ singer. Everyone was so drunk and happy-go-lucky that it amazes me how simple sitting on steps and watching the sun disappear into the night could be the best part about a trip. It was beautiful!

When we got back to our hostel which is about a 5 minute walk from the steps, I decided it would be a good idea to chug half a bottle of limoncello before dinner. I was so drunk I don't remember much of what happened in the hours to follow. Somehow we ended back down in the city and we went to this one bar called Zoe which we were promptly kicked out of for not drinking enough. If you think that's funny, you'll find it even funnier that 30 min later we got kicked out of an outdoor wine bar for the same reason. I can understand though. Whatever. I know we also tried to go to this outdoor club or "lounge" called Flo that these two old Italian men told us about and which happened to be next door to our hostel, but by 12:30 the line was insane and you could see from the sidewalk how packed inside it was. I know NYU has a program in Florence so I'm pretty sure there were mostly Americans inside. I ended up not going to the bar that 6 other people went to for unknown reasons but I heard it was a blast and I'm sad I missed out.

We took the 3:15p train back to Rome and arrived at 7. The beds at the hostel were fine and I was also really tired and drunk but I wouldn't want to do the whole outdoor adventure again, though I'm glad I tried it. I'm more of a hotel and personal bathroom kind of gal. Something about coming back to Rome was so refreshing, like I knew it was home. It was the way I feel when I come back to LA from school and just the sound of the city is so reassuring and rejuvenating. Florence was amazing and I'm glad I got to see it because it was good times but I'm also so glad I get to call Rome home for 3 more months and now comparatively I understand why it's labeled "The Greatest City in the World". I would have to agree.