Saturday
Saturday morning I woke up at 6.30am to head off on a day of adventures. We first hit up Pienza (in this case we = all the Smith girls, Monica and Giovanna along with her husband, Alessio and his sister and our Italian friend Alex – what a crew!) where we wandered around for a good 3 hours. I went to lunch with Ali, Breana and Alayna at this really delicious ristorante where we ate incredible gnocchi. After Pienza, we bussed over to San Gimginano, the city of towers! We wandered for a few hours, ate some really delish gelato and bought supposedly famous wine (which turns out, I thought was disgusting….. too bad…)
Saturday morning I woke up at 6.30am to head off on a day of adventures. We first hit up Pienza (in this case we = all the Smith girls, Monica and Giovanna along with her husband, Alessio and his sister and our Italian friend Alex – what a crew!) where we wandered around for a good 3 hours. I went to lunch with Ali, Breana and Alayna at this really delicious ristorante where we ate incredible gnocchi. After Pienza, we bussed over to San Gimginano, the city of towers! We wandered for a few hours, ate some really delish gelato and bought supposedly famous wine (which turns out, I thought was disgusting….. too bad…)
When we got back from our little trip, I ran home, changed, freshened up and headed back out to meet the usual nightlife posse, this time to gather for aperitivi in honor of Alessio’s birthday. We ate at this cute place called Oibo (http://www.oibo.net/), although it wasn’t the best aperitivo I have eaten here (first place goes to Negroni, across the arno http://www.negronibar.it/). Something you should know about how we roll in Firenze is this: Every time we go out, we have no choice but to make a reservation, even if we are going on a Monday night to aperitivi at a strange time. This is because, on the weekends especially, we never travel in a pack less than 10. Initially this was frustrating because no one would ever make up their mind, but now by te middle of every week there has been at least one mass Facebook message to everyone stating what we are doing, when we are doing it and where we should meet. It has become a bit of a joke. Take Saturday night for example – I had to call and make a reservation for 20 people two days in advance. It’s great.
Anywho. After aperitivi, we headed to this American/English pub called the Lion’s Fountain (http://www.thelionsfountain.com/) where we spent the rest of the night. Until we left. At which point I realized someone had stolen my wallet. Oops…. I am sure that I didn’t loose it for it was in my hand all night until I put it in my purse which was on a bench right next to us with everyone else’s purses. Unfortunately there was a semi-sketch group of non-Italian men who persistently wanted to take our photo for us…. Or something…. We decided it was them. Needless to say, my cards are all cancelled, I borrowed money from Smith, and my parents will be here in a week. Perfetto.
Sunday
Sunday five of us headed to Alessio’s house for his birthday lunch with all of his friends from university as well as his family and Giovanna. It very well may have been one of the cutest things I have done so far in Florence. His mother and Giovanna greeted us all at the door, and his mom was so welcoming and excited that we were there. We were all extremely awkward, as every good Smithie should be, and we stood around waiting for people to start eating. We ate about 17 different courses and then finished up with a HUGE (I’m talking about 2 feet in diameter huge) chocolate torte which Alessio could not for the life of him figure out how to cut. His house is beautiful (and by house I mean apartment because no one in Florence lives in a house) and pretty much a museum. His dad used to be a carabinieri (police officer essentially) and he has a passion for Garibaldi. Therefore, not only has he collected rare Italian comics featuring Garibaldi, but he has two of Garibaldi’s ACTUAL uniforms in glass cases, just chilling in the hallway outside their bedrooms. Italians really are great.
Sunday five of us headed to Alessio’s house for his birthday lunch with all of his friends from university as well as his family and Giovanna. It very well may have been one of the cutest things I have done so far in Florence. His mother and Giovanna greeted us all at the door, and his mom was so welcoming and excited that we were there. We were all extremely awkward, as every good Smithie should be, and we stood around waiting for people to start eating. We ate about 17 different courses and then finished up with a HUGE (I’m talking about 2 feet in diameter huge) chocolate torte which Alessio could not for the life of him figure out how to cut. His house is beautiful (and by house I mean apartment because no one in Florence lives in a house) and pretty much a museum. His dad used to be a carabinieri (police officer essentially) and he has a passion for Garibaldi. Therefore, not only has he collected rare Italian comics featuring Garibaldi, but he has two of Garibaldi’s ACTUAL uniforms in glass cases, just chilling in the hallway outside their bedrooms. Italians really are great.
After this delightful lunch, we headed over to the stadium to meet Monica and the rest of the Smithies, along with our History of Fashion professor to watch a soccer game between la Fiorentina and I Napoli. Fiorentina lost…. Bummer. It was an extremely exciting game though! And Giovanna and Monica bought us all Fiorentina scarves which was good because it was freeeeezing!! Alè alè alè alè!!!! (Did I mention that on my way to Alessio’s my sweater fell out of my bag? What a weekend!)Monday
Monday was quiet. Nothing too exciting happened really. We found out that our super sweet art history professor has swine flu so class was cancelled for the week (aka my one class on Thursday was cancelled and therefore my weekend would begind Wednesday at approximately 5.30pm).
Monday was quiet. Nothing too exciting happened really. We found out that our super sweet art history professor has swine flu so class was cancelled for the week (aka my one class on Thursday was cancelled and therefore my weekend would begind Wednesday at approximately 5.30pm).
As I was walking home from Stilistics Monday night, I realized that due to setting the clocks back, it was already almost completely dark outside. As I approached the Duomo, I was overwhelmed by how gorgeous it looked just past dusk. There were a few tourists scattered around, taking photos with flash that lit up the gold leaf details on the façade and as I looked around, I also realized there was a crescent moon just to the right of the dome. Of course. It’s Italy. Things really are picture perfect rather often. At this point, I noticed I was standing in the middle of the street (although as of this past weekend all the streets around the Duomo are closed to traffic- woohoo!) and I decided I should move. I got out my camera and spent the next 20 minutes playing tourist and snapping gorgeous photos of this palatial piece of marble that I walk by at least twice a day.
Upon completing this touristy task, I began my walk home thinking about how I finally felt settled. I had a family, my little bros were becoming less shy, I did things every weekend with my group of friends, I had classes to go to, work to do, I finally felt okay. Reflecting on the past week I decided that even though I had just recovered from bedbugs, I didn’t sleep much, my wallet was stolen, and I was then getting a lovely sore throat and cough, I had maybe just completed one of the best weeks of my life.
Not too shabby, Florence – thanks!
Tuesday
Tuesday… let’s see. Class in the morning. Art history was cancelled so instead I attended my first course at the University of Florence (we have to audit something this semester to practice the wacky system of Italian education). I am planning on going to one class on Tuesdays (Analysis of the Preferences of the Consumer – in the department of viniculture, a lot about product development, etc.) and then one of Thursdays (Economics of Viniculture). Hey, when in Italy… study wine! The class on Tuesday was really interesting and I would say that I actually understood about 85-90% of what the professor said! I even took a few pages of notes!
Tuesday… let’s see. Class in the morning. Art history was cancelled so instead I attended my first course at the University of Florence (we have to audit something this semester to practice the wacky system of Italian education). I am planning on going to one class on Tuesdays (Analysis of the Preferences of the Consumer – in the department of viniculture, a lot about product development, etc.) and then one of Thursdays (Economics of Viniculture). Hey, when in Italy… study wine! The class on Tuesday was really interesting and I would say that I actually understood about 85-90% of what the professor said! I even took a few pages of notes!
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