First Weekend in Florence

Our first weekend in Florence was quite eventful.  I last posted when we were getting ready to go out to a pub on Friday night and although we did make it to the pub, it proved to be an interesting situation.  It was a pub in Italy, trying to be British but with Asian bartenders (and the nastiest bathrooms so far).  Our goal of finding “our place” by the end of the night was not successful to say the least, but we haven’t given up yet. 

 

Saturday morning we got up and went to Fiesole for the afternoon.  It is a cute town only about 20 minutes away on the bus system.  Since BC already paid for our bus passes while we’re here, it was a pretty cheap day.  We walked around the town for a little while once we arrived only to find out that the museum and ruins we were looking for were actually right back where we started.  Story of my life, haha.  The ruins were very interesting and they had a gorgeous back-drop of Florence on one side and the Tuscan country side on the other.  We grabbed lunch at a restaurant in the main square and then started to walk down the mountain to see more breathtaking views of the entire city.  The weather was not the best, rainy when we arrived and then overcast for the rest of the day, but we did manage to snag some good photographs.  It was nice to get away for a few hours and start the process of planning weekend trips. 

 

Last night we just hung around the hotel because we were pretty exhausted from the week and I finally got to use skype for the first time, although the internet is still pretty sketchy here.  It goes in and out all the time, but I managed to talk to Alli for at least a couple of minutes.  Hopefully I’ll get to have more of those convos when I get to Parma and the internet is much more stable. 

 

We woke up this morning for breakfast around 9:30, but then went back to bed afterwards because some of us had been awake for part of the night listening to some of the other students in the program come back from the bars at about 3 am (fun, fun).  We slept until about 11:30 and then my roommates and I headed to a nearby park to do our reading for our class and just get out of the hotel.  There was a big storm that came through while we were out there, but it managed to miss the little area we were in, so we were able to stay out there for a few hours and eat lunch as well.  We came back to the hotel and since most of the others were either having a super chill day or at Fiesole we just hung around the hotel until about 5 or so, reading and writing in our journals.  At that time my roommates and I went to a local English International Christian Church service.  It is behind the Uffizi, so it took us a little while to get there (especially since we had to walk because the buses weren’t very reliable) but we made it in time and were able to stay for about an hour until we had to leave to make it back to the hotel for dinner at 7:15.  The service was nice, a lot of songs that I knew and then they had a guest speaker discuss a new program he has started in the area that connects English-speaking college students in the area with local Italians to learn the culture and language in a more intimate way.  Unfortunately we won’t be in town long enough to be able to join the program, but it was encouraging to hear that those opportunities are available.  It was a whirlwind couple of hours trying to catch buses and run across the city, but we also think we may have discovered another area of the city that we would like to hang out in.  It looked much less touristy and had some cute shops around.  Hopefully we’ll make it back over there soon to check it out.

 

Tomorrow we have class from 10-1 in the Duomo and then my friends and I have decided to pay the extra 6 euro to climb up into the bell tower to see the spectacular view of the city.  It is supposed to be good weather, so hopefully we’ll enjoy that time as well.  We spent a good chunk of last night also planning out the rest of our time here in Florence.  We have every day planned except for two between now and when we leave.  I’m stoked to have a schedule and be able to plan to see so much of the city.  The highlight of the next couple of weeks is going to be Octoberfest in Munich I feel.  We are going to take two night trains (one Friday and one Saturday) so that we don’t have to pay for lodging, but will get the experience while we’re there.  We’ll come back pretty exhausted Sunday morning, but will be able to recuperate that day and then be ready to take our final for art history class on Monday.

 

So many plans!  I can’t wait to share all of the experiences with you all.  I have been taking pictures and sharing them with friends here, but I won’t be able to upload a good portion of them until I get to Parma.  I promise I’m healthy and visiting gorgeous places, but until October you will just have to take my word for it. 

 

I think its time for a shower and maybe a card game or something with the roommates.  Don’t forget to update me on your lives!

 

Much love,

E