First Days in Firenze

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The past few days in Florence have been like a dream!

On Saturday, my roommate and I walked around the city and took a while to look at the statues in the Loggia Dei Lanzi which were absolutely incredible. After that we made our way to a pizza restaurant where we both got a take away “personal sized” (as we would all it back home) margarita pizza to eat in the Piazza della Signoria.

At about two o’clock, the Epiphany Parade had made its way into the Piazza della Signoria. My roommate and I watched as the trumpet players, the drummers, and the people who twirled the flags walked right in front of us. Right at the time the procession of the musicians had ended, some officers started the part the crowd so that some people on horses could stand in front of the Loggia Dei Lanzi. So, at this point the crowd has been smushed together as people are still trying to pass through the piazza. After about fifteen minutes or so, we made our way to the side of the Loggia Dei Lanzi only to have the crowd split in half again so that the remainder of the parade to make their way to the Duomo. My roommate and I spent two hours on the stairs of the Loggia Dei Lanzi smushed in the crowd of people, but we did have a great view of the parade so that was a plus!

Sunday was a day FULL of wrong turns and an interesting trip to Pisa. That morning my roommates and I got up bright and early so that we could make it to mass with professor Harrington at the Santo Spirito Church. Everything was going great until we crossed the Ponte Vecchio where we eventually made a wrong turn. Little did we know that this wrong turn was going to have us hike up the side of what felt like a mountain! Unfortunately we weren‘t able to make it to the mass but we did see some pretty incredible view from wherever we were!

Once we finally found our way to the Plazzo Pitti to meet up with the group, we were there in enough time for me to grab some delicious breakfast! After everyone had met up, we made our way up to the Piazzael Michelangelo which had the most breathtaking view of the city of Florence.

Our trip to Pisa was interesting to say the least. The Florence train station was very crowded but easy to navigate so everyone was able to purchase their tickets without any problems. The only problem we had in the station was that we hadn’t realized we were supposed to stamp our ticket ourselves before getting onto the train. So, we had to run off the train, down the platform to the stamp machine, and run all the way back onto the train before it left. But thankfully we all made it in enough time! When we arrived to Pisa, my friends and I went to take numerous photos of ourselves holding up the leaning tower (because how could you got to Pisa and not hold up the tower for a photo??) and walked around some different shops. The most stressful part to the visit is when we got to the Pisa train station only to find out that we only had 10 minutes to catch the next train, which was impossible for the whole group to make it. Although we had to wait a little over an hour for the next train, the majority of the group who didn’t catch the first train sat on the platform and talked amongst each other and just used the time to bond.

My first day in Florence I had 8,371 steps. The second day I had 10,975. Then the third and most strenuous day I had a total of 20,103 steps.

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