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Published: April 22nd 2008
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The Duomo and Piazza Giovani
great place to busk at night I had 30 euros in my pocket and Chris had 10, we we're flat broke and there was no way faking it. Neither of us had any money in our accounts to save us and we were in Mont-Pellier, France with no idea of what to do next. Suddenly, a thought drifted through our heads; Cydney and Molly Langill are staying in Florence, and they just might let us stay with them.
We sent the facebook message, and tried to emphasize the words "no money" as strongly as possible. It did the trick. In no time, we had received a reply invitation to stay with them for as long as we needed in Cydney's student apartment. It was like reading poetry. Within the next two hours we were on a twelve hour night train bound for Firenza (Florence).
We arrived at 6:45am at the station Campo Di. It was dark and cold and we had absolutely no idea of how to get to Cyd's. All we had was a street name and an apartment number "B3". We looked at one another's tired, lost faces and began to walk out into the empty streets searching for a bright, yellow brick road to
lead us all the way there. Unfortunately after twenty minutes of blind walking, there was no such road.
We bought a map; which we really took a hit for since it cost about 20% of all our savings. We didn't have a choice. We didn't know whether we were five minutes or two hours from the apartment. We began to navigate our way through this new city. Somehow we ended up at a bus stop and figured if we hopped on we could atleast ask someone where it was we were exactly. Unfortunately, no one on the bus spoke a word of english and now we were headed into the unknown on a public bus we hadnt payed for. We whizzed through the empty streets of florence, praying we might see something we could use as a landmark. Suddenly we turned a corner and Chris saw the sign, "Via Francesco Puccinotti", we glanced down at the scrap piece of paper with the street name written on it, it was our street! We couldnt beleive it. We hopped off at the next stop and walked back.
We found number 71 and looked at the list of doorbells to ring. There was
no B3. Beside every doorbell was an italian name, and the closest to B3 was "Bertier". Now we were a bit confused. Doubts began to run through our heads and we began to question what exactly we heard on the phone, "maybe we got the wrong street name?", "or the wrong adress?" Our only hope was to start ringing. Everytime i pressed the ringer i could picture a large italian man getting angrier and angrier as i woke him up at 7:15am on a sunday morning. We were ready to run if need be.
After 45 minutes of sitting out in the cold street and ringing the doorbell every five minutes, a man's voice came through the speaker. We asked if there was either a Molly or Cydney Langill somewhere up there, trying to be as apologetic as possible. The voice replied half asleep, "Yah, come on up".
We stayed with the Langills and their three roomates for 5 days. Due to our financial troubles we slept all day and spent money only at night. All of the people we stayed with were 3rd and 4th year students in OCAD. We got to visit the OCAD studio everyday and check
out the new artwork and see some very cool final critiques by the professors. Chris and I both met the President of OCAD, which apparently is a very big deal.
One day when Chris and I worked up the energy, we walked through all of the streets of Florence for hours. We saw the Duomo, the Ponte Vecchio, Fortezza de Basso, Piazza della Liberta and so many statues its almost ridiculous. By the end of the day we were completely wiped, but it was fine because we had adopted the "siesta" into our daiuly schedules. For all of you who aren't familiar with siesta, it is the midday nap that many europeans take to get them through their hard working lives.
Chris and I absolutely loved our time spent in Florence. Although we were eating way too much Mcdonalds and homecooked pasta, the 30 cent beers and 2 euro litres of wine were perfect for us. We got to experience University life abroad and the chaos that is a student apartment in Florence.
Chris who had been feeling sick for a lot of Europe realized that he had lost close to 15 pounds and was beginning to look much too
Molly and Chris
A little drunk. much like a skeleton. Because of his lack of appetite and loss of energy he couldnt be the crazy party animal he's used to being. We knew once we saw our mother's familiar faces, the world would get much brighter.
On the morning of the 11th we bid farewell to Cydney, Molly, Mike, Rob and Steve and took off for the train station. We were off to meet our mothers in rome and fill our stomachs with wonderful pastas, pizza and wine. Well let you know how it goes. Love.
Evan and Chris
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