First Weekend in Florence!

(View from across the river to the other side of Florence)

This weekend we all decided to explore Florence a little bit more and we really did! This city is gorgeous and I have yet to even see half of it. Yesterday we just ran errands and discovered more of Florence! We shopped a little, and I had the BEST Panini/sandwich ever and then we took a trip to the Billa (grocery store) so that we could start cooking dinner. It was a very interesting experience, of course everything was in Italian!  Between the four of us we did a pretty good job finding things and translating the itallian. Alyssa and Liz cooked Spaghetti Carbonara (pasta, eggs, and bacon) which was very very yummy! We had so much fun making dinner in the apartment and being able to navigate an Italian grocery store by ourselves!

(Our First Night of Cooking in our Apartment)

Today we slept late! Finally! We went to the Florence Gelato Festival, explored the other side of Florence and discovered a very talented artist who we all bought a piece of art work from! The Gelato Festival was awesome and a great way to try all the different flavors without wasting any money! I had coconut, green apple, melon, raspberry  and vanilla flavored gelato. Green apple was my favorite! Liz and I are still on the hunt for Nutella and Pineapple flavored gelato, good thing we have 4 more weeks! J On the way to the festival we found all the gates with locks locked to them from people that signed their names and wrote messages, so cute! We found a couple “Will you marry me?” ones!

(Such a cute lock we found!)

My favorite part of this whole trip so far was when we walked to the bridge that connects the two parts of Florence across the river! It was absolutely beautiful! This is where all the nice homes are with air conditioning! The heat is getting better though or maybe I am just getting a little more used to it.  So far I have learned this: gelato is way better than ice cream, how much I appreciate air conditioning, I wish I knew Italian, you can get tired of Italian food(I know I didn’t think this was possible for me either), everything is so beautiful here, and the word strawberry “Fragoloa”! Well school starts in the morning so it’s off to bed for me! J

(Across the Bridge)

Sincerely,

New Gelato Lover

Fast, Furious and HOT 3 days!

Ciao from Florence!

(View from our Apartment)

So the past 3 days have consisted of 6 cities, 3 plane, 4 trains , 3 buses, 2 taxis and finally we are in our home in Florence for the next 33 days! My journey to Europe started at home in Texas where I then was put on a different flight then Malissa, Alyssa and Liz(the Interior Design Girls I am studying abroad with)! This was a crazy start of the trip but it all turned out ok! On Tuesday I then flew from Texas to Chicago then to Paris then from Paris we rode a series of buses and trains to Beauvais where we took another plane to Pisa. And all of this with NO cell phone as you can imagine my Mom was freaking out a tad after not hearing from me for almost 2 days!

 Pisa was BEAUTIFUL, we stayed Wednesday night and toured Pisa and the Leaning Tower of Pisa on Thursday! The tower was more than I expected, in the pictures you just see the tower but it is in the center of the city which is surrounded by museums and cathedrals.

(Leaning Tower of Pisa)

Wednesday afternoon we left Pisa to head to Florence by train, we then checked into our surprisingly very nice apartment! After all of the online quizzes, brochures, emails, videos, pamphlets, information session and advice, NO one I mean NO one prepared me for the heat! Oh my goodness gracious it is HOT and NO WHERE IS AIR CONDITIONED! YUCK! I guess I can’t really complain too much I am in the most gorgeous place in the world, but a little warning would have been nice. J

(Mine & Liz's Room)

Today we had an orientation and got lost afterwards so we really experienced the true side of Florence. We went to the Market today to buy some fresh fruit and eat lunch, but I have to be honest all the raw meat really grossed me out! :/ eww! As everyone knows I am a huge fan of Italian food which has been awesome to have the real stuff, although I have noticed a lot of liver and brains on the menus, not really my kind of Italian food! Haha We also had free dinner tonight provided by LDM(my school), this was so nice after spending so much money on transportation the past few days!

Tomorrow we will be sightseeing in Florence so more to come soon!

P.S.: No Jersey Shore spotting yet! ;)



Sincerely,

Needs a Fan