Embracing My Last Moments in the Most Wonderful City of Florence

As I spent the past few hours today just enjoying Florence, I am so grateful for this experience to study abroad. I have been able to see so much and do so much, it has been truly life changing (but don’t worry Holly, I’m still me :p ). I know as a group, we all had a week or two where we were sick of each other, and sick of living in such a small place sometimes, but the group of people I have been with has really helped to make this experience wonderful and we have so many memories together. I am so grateful for all the help everyone, family and friends, has given me to make this possible. I have enjoyed every minute of this experience, and will be forever grateful for this opportunity to study abroad.

This past weekend has been great, with all of us just embracing and trying to enjoy all we can of Florence. We started the weekend off with a pub crawl on Friday, which was really fun (Tony, don’t worry, I know you think I’m crazy, but we weren’t too out of control). I found my favorite beer drink - Snake Bite Black. It’s a lighter beer mixed with orange juice and cranberry juice- I guess, more of a ‘girly beer’. Then Saturday, we had a group of all girls head to Fiesole, a little town just up the hill from Settignano. Unfortunately, we were rained out, but we were troopers and walked around a bit in the rain. I was smart and brought my umbrella, so I stayed dry for the most part. I really enjoyed Fiesole. It had an incredible view of Florence, and it was a little bigger than Settignano with a bunch of little shops (which were unfortunately closed because we went during early afternoon which is the long lunch break). While we were up at one of the overlooks of Florence, there were a group of guys, and they took a picture of us girls. They were acting like they were taking a picture of one of the guys, at the last minute, they moved the camera and snapped a picture of us, huddled around talking. Don’t worry, I’m sure they captured quite the look from my face. It was one that was “Are you seriously taking a picture of us right now. Okay, you’re kinda retarted…….”
That night there was a really fancy meal set up by one of the Villa workers. A lot of people went, but I decided to take it easy and four of us went to a cute little restaurant in Settignano that had a great view of Florence and had really good piazza. It was nice to get away from a large group, and go in a small group for once. We had a lot of fun and we even got free champagne. We decided that we got the free champagne because they thought we were cute, haha.

Sunday, we went to mass in Settignano, and the priest had one of us read the Gospel in English after he read it. It was pretty neat that he had us read it in English too and we could fully understand what was being said. After mass, we headed into Florence for lunch and to enjoy the day. We had a girl, Sara, who had been studying abroad in Seville, Spain, come to Florence on Thursday night to visit (we snuck her in our room because she came a day early and didn’t have a reservation at a hostel for that night- we are so dangerous……..). We took her around Florence a bit and enjoyed sharing interesting traveling stories. We went to a big shopping area, San Lorenzo, where you can bargain and get good deals. Three of us bought matching rings because they were cheap, and of course cute! Then, we walked to the Ponte Vecchio, the famous bridge which is full of sparkly jewelry. It’s one of my favorite places in all of Florence not just because of the jewelry, but because it’s pretty.

The whole time we have been living in Florence, we had been wanting to try a waffle, with a scoop of gelato on top (they are pretty popular at all the gelato shops). We found a place that gave us two scoops and the waffle for 4 euro, which was super cheap compared to all the other places we had looked. Since it was the last weekend, and we had all wanted to try one at least once, we splurged and got them. It was well worth it, but we all felt like we had a tub of lard sitting in our stomachs after we ate the whole thing. It was pretty sick, but we walked it off, by walking up to the Piazza Michelangelo, for one last view of the most gorgeous city.

Once we made it to the top, it was a pretty view, like usual. We just sat and enjoyed the view for a while and talked about all of our experiences we have had in this short 3 month time period. After being there for quite some time, we saw some dark clouds coming, and then decided to head back to our rooms in order to avoid the major rain storm that was coming. We were crossing the Ponte Vecchio just as it started to rain, but luckily all of us had our umbrellas this time. As we were walking under our umbrellas, I had a little “Italian Friend” come up and sneak under my umbrella. It was really funny, and I didn’t really know what to do. I tried to speak to him in Italian, but I couldn’t really understand much of what he was saying. I didn’t catch his name, but I guess it was fun conversation……... He thought I was from Paris, but I told him that I was a student studying in Florence. Reese was joking that it might have been my “Flavio”. I guess we’ll never know since I never caught his name. We got on the bus, where we encountered a really creepy older man, but made it back to Settignano fine. The once thing I’m not going to miss that much are some of the bus experiences we have had. Anyway, it was just so nice to enjoy all of Florence.

Sunday night, I spent the night studying for my Italian Final (bleh) and once I couldn’t study anymore, I started to pack for Rome. I wanted to make sure I had room for everything because I came with about 1 bag, and an extra duffle, but I’m now leaving with 2 full bags that I need to make sure are under the weight limit. As of now, my bags are under the limit……Hopefully it stays that way.

Monday was the final, which went fairly well. We all finished in about an hour, and then had a quick oral interview, which was pretty easy. After the final, we finished packing up everything, I printed off my last paper, and then headed into town again with some people to enjoy that last trip. We met up with Sara again, and then two other Benedictine students, Chris and Mike, who were also studying in Seville, Spain and came to visit Florence. We took them to our favorite, cheap, gelato shop and I had the best Coconut gelato ever. We then went to Santa Croce, and to two other churches to show them around a bit. We went to Santo Spirito, where Michelangelo did his first ‘illegal’ dissections of the human body (which he would have been killed for if anyone found out about it) and where there is a wooden crucifix that is said to have been made by him (one of his first works). Unfortunately, we were 20 minutes late to the church, and they had closed the section where the crucifix is at.

After our fill of Florence, we headed back to the Villa, where there was a BBQ waiting for us. It was supposed to start at 6, but when we arrived at 6, nothing was going on. I went to help make the Bruschetta (SO good), and then they started the fire. Our Italian professors were coming to the party, and we were going to show all the Italian workers and teachers how to make s’mores. We had hot dogs and hamburgers, bruschetta and French fries. Most of us cooked the hot dogs over the bon fire while others waited for the hamburgers to be cooked on the BBQ. While we were cooking the hot dogs, the fire was so hot, that our faces were burning up. It was hilarious to watch my Italian professor, Giovanni, because he had never roasted a hot dog over a bon fire, and it didn’t look like he enjoyed it too much.
Jennifer, who is pretty much the Dean in Italy, had also invited the Italian band from our first night to come. They played a bunch of music, and we just had a night of eating, drinking, singing, and dancing. It was great, and the perfect way to end our stay in Florence, Italy.

Now, I’m on our bus ride to Rome. This morning was a little chaotic, because I woke up early to try to mail a package home, which took a lot longer than I expected. I’m a little nervous about it making it to the U.S. because I don’t know if I filled out the papers right, and I don’t know if they lady who helped me knew really what she was doing. She is an older lady, and can’t see very well - she has to stick her nose the computer screen to read it. I guess we’ll see in about a month or so if I makes it back. I mean, it’s nothing too important, just some of my Italian books and papers that I wanted.

I’m excited to see what these next few weeks have in store for me! Rome will be great; we get to see the Pope and seeing the Sistine Chapel is one of my top priorities. After the program is over, April 29th, I’m heading to Croatia, and Medjugorje (which is in Bosnia) with 3 other girls. We have to take an overnight fairy, and it’s a lot of traveling in 5 days, but I’m excited. I’ve been told it’s gorgeous. We are going to spend two nights on a Croatian island, Vis, as well. Then, I’m making my way back to Italy, where I will meet up with an Aunt and Uncle, and we are going to check out Naples, Pompeii and Southern Italy. After all that, I head home May 11 and will probably be exhausted and have absolutely NO clean clothes left. But hey, I’ll fit in with the Italians who don’t really do laundry that much!
Well, I guess all I can say now, is arrividerci Florence!

“May your tears come from laughing, find friends worth having, with every year passing, they mean more than gold. May you win but stay humble, smile more than grumble and know when you stumble, you’re never alone. “

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