Florence = love

---

So as it turns out, I’ve completely overestimated my ability to commit to this blog. So to my loyal followers, as few of you as there may be, I apologize for being boring and taking forever to post anything. But since I’m finally getting around to it, I’m going to tell you about Florence.

This past weekend I had a field trip to Florence on Saturday, so my roommates and I decided to go early and spend the entire weekend and it was so much fun! Definitely the best time I’ve had in Italy thus far. Florence is much bigger than Perugia and it was nice to get out and have more to explore there. We took a train Thursday night and by the time we checked into our hostel, it was after 10 pm and we didn’t know if we’d be able to find anywhere to eat, but the guy in charge of the hostel (Marco) was more than helpful with that. Before I talk about dinner, I just want to say that I had some skeptical expectations about staying in a hostel, but this one was so great. It felt more like a hotel; we had our own bathroom, computer with internet, a TV that had movies in English, and heat! We were actually warm the whole time, a luxury we’re not so lucky to have in our Perugia apartment. I hope all my hostel experiences will be as nice as this one was. After dropping our stuff off, we asked Marco if there were any restaurants he knew that might still be open and what did he do for us? He called his friend who apparently owns a place called La Divina Osteria and they stayed pen for us! The food was SO GOOD. I got these giant tortellini stuffed with eggplant and it was beyond delicious. In fact, Saturday night we went back again for dinner and this time I got gnocchi smothered in cheese and sauce and I could not get enough of it. I think this place is one of my favorite restaurants so far this trip. After dinner we went back to the hostel to rest up for what Friday would bring.

On Friday we woke up and went to breakfast at this little café down the street. It was adorable with all the little pastries there were to choose from. From there we made our way to the first museum (yes, I said museum…). We went to The Accademia Gallery where I got to see Michelangelo’s David statue. It was so cool! I was not expecting the statue to be so big and I was a little blown away by it. The rest of the museum had more Renaissance art, lots of sculptures, and this neat mini music museum with old instruments like the first piano, and all this string instruments that used to be played during that time. (A shout out to my dad who would definitely appreciate this one – I wish the museum allowed photos, I would’ve liked to have shown him those!) Other than that, David was definitely the highlight of that museum. Then it was on to the next one! We had a couple hours between the two so we wandered around, going in some shops, seeing what Florence had to offer. We also saw the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, originally known as The Duomo, which was absolutely gigantic. The outside was different than most churches, or buildings for that matter, I’d seen and it was so tall that it was impossible to fit the whole thing in a picture. It’s kind of hard to describe what the outside looked like, so I’ll post a pic of it. Inside wasn’t as impressive, but I did get to light another candle J From there we made our way to the Galleria degli Uffizi which is said to be the most famous museum for Renaissance art. It was far bigger than the first one, and I have to admit, not as exciting. It was also very cold and painting, after painting, after painting could not hold my attention for however long we were there. I tried to appreciate it, but it just wasn’t my cup of tea.

After the museum, on our way back to where we were staying we perused down the market street, which was pretty much just a leather market. Every stand had leather bags, coats, or every once and a while you might see shoes, or hats and gloves. However, I did find myself a nice bag that does say “genuine leather” and “Made in Italy” on it at a really great price, so I was happy! (Sorry mom...!) For dinner we went to a place called La Spada where I finally got my steak. Florence is the place for steak in Italy, and so I couldn’t leave without trying one. Since a Florentine steak was ridiculously expensive, I opted for a sirloin at a much more reasonable price and it was still incredible. The rarest meat I think I’ve ever eaten, I have to admit, but still so good. What can I say; I guess Italy is broadening my horizons (or at least my taste buds!) After dinner we just went back to the hostel because we were exhausted from all that walking.

On Saturday, we got up early enough (or so we thought) to meet my class before going to the restaurant for lunch. The field trip for my Food Cultures class was a trip to this restaurant where we’d be served this imitation of a Renaissance meal. We were supposed to meet the class at the Piazzale Michelangelo, but no one told us it was going to be such a hike. Apparently it was not only on the opposite side of Florence from where we were staying, but it was freezing and the walk involved about 30 million stairs (that may or may not be a slight exaggeration…). Once we FINALLY (trust me, it took a long time) we made it I’d say it was worth it, which it usually is here. I was above the entire city and I could see absolutely everything. I felt like I was taking pictures for a postcard or something, it was unreal. Thankfully, the bus that came from Umbra was late too, so it got there just after we did. That meant we got out of the cold and didn’t have to walk down all those steps! I then spent the afternoon at this interesting, to say in the least, Renaissance meal that was not as great as I was expecting. I’m glad these days I’ve got much better food than what they used to eat. After lunch we went to the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge in Florence which turned out to be one jewelry store after another, and wasn’t too exciting, just pretty to look at. For the rest of the afternoon, we walked around the city, seeing more of the shops.

Like I mentioned earlier, we went back to La Divina Osteria for dinner and we brought a few friends with us who had come on the bus with the class, and decided to spend Saturday night. After dinner, we decided to check out the nightlife of Florence. We found a couple pubs, a night club that Jersey Shore supposedly went to when they were there, but most of the night was walking around looking for these places Alex (also from Bonas) claimed he’d heard about but of course, couldn’t find. We didn’t stay out too late because the cold (and lack of places to “dance our faces off”) became a real buzz kill.

Sunday morning, the six of us (the 3 we met up with also got a room where we were staying) went to the American Diner that we heard great things about the day before. And what did I get there? Pancakes of course! Chocolate chip to be exact. It was nice to have some American breakfast food, since Italians aren’t big breakfast people. After breakfast we shopped around a little bit, passing time until our train left in the afternoon. I got myself a new jacket too! Since last week was the coldest week here in 30 years, I wasn’t keeping very warm in the jacket I had brought with me so I got a nice, new, very warm one. Other than that, we just passed time around the city, and then headed back to Perugia. It was an awesome weekend.

Destinations for this weekend? Parma for a field trip on Friday and Saturday! I’m going to learn all about the art of making Parmesan cheese. Another effort will made to blog about this weekend on Sunday or Monday, but I’m not making any promises… Ciao!

---