Firenze

Last weekend I decided to meet Ken in Florence for the weekend. It was a nice trip depite having to wake up at 4:30am on a Saturday morning! I was actually running a bit late so at 5:00 am when I saw my  bus pass in the opposite direction I got scared. Usually that means it will be back at  my stop in 15 or 20 minutes...I wasn't sure I had that much time. I needed to get on the bus as soon as possible! Not that day. The bus was back within 5 minutes and it almost didn't stop for me. I'm pretty sure my bus driver was trying to see how quickly he could go through his loop. It was the most exciting bus ride ever! I was the only one on the bus and the combination high speeds and cobble stones made it a bouncy and awakening ride. I definitely didn't need coffee after that! Fortunately, I got to Piazza Venezia three times faster than usual (since, no one else got on my bus and the bus driver was a crazy man) and my next bus was basically waiting for me. I hopped right on. This bus had a few people going to the train station so I felt pretty safe traveling alone in the middle of the night. 

I got to the train station exactly half an hour before my train...just like I had planned. I found my train with ease and sat down next to two girls who looked friendly enough. I still have no idea what language they spoke. It was a combination of Italian, French, English, and Russian sounding words. It was quite interesting for the first few minutes and then I fell asleep. When I woke up I was in Florence! 




My first job was to find Ken. Since we were coming into different stations we agreed on a walking route between the two stations and planned on meeting up somewhere in the middle. Well... I got lost. Almost immediately. Italian directions are so confusing since there are so many piazzas and so many side streets to choose from. My directions told me to go left but I had no idea which street on the left was the one I was supposed to take since they also don't bother to mark all the streets. Finally I happened to see an extremely handsome young man walking down the opposite side of the street... it was Ken! So, we found each other and made our way to the hostel. 

The little old couple who ran this hostel spoke very little English, which wasn't really a problem for us, but the check in experience was interesting. I told them my name and they stopped helping the two german girls in front of us, took us to our room, asked for our passports and 50 euros, came back with our passports and two towels and we never saw them again. We heard them though. They were the loudest little old couple I have ever heard. They didn't bother using telephones if one of them was cleaning a guest room and one was in the lobby. They just yelled. It kind of reminded me of when my parents ask me to call my brother for dinner. I just yell for him rather than actually take the time to get up from the couch and go tell him it's time for dinner like a civilized person... The point of that anecdote was that I felt very at home in that hostel. 

We took a short nap and then headed out to explore the city. We didn't discuss what we wanted to see or where we were going before we left the hostel...which was probably not the best idea but we had our little guide book maps so we figured that would be good enough. Thankfully Ken has a good sense of direction and we didn't get lost! We first went to the Duomo since it was just up the street. We contemplated climbing the Duomo but we figured we would have time to do it the next day. Little did we know the top of the Duomo isn't open for tourists on Sundays. Oh well. We did pass some of my IES Rome friends who were waiting in line to climb up. So Ken got to meet some of my friends. 

We spent the rest of the day wandering around until it got to be about dinner time. We decided it was probably best to go back to the hostel and pick a place to eat out of our guidebooks. We picked one and decided to try and hike up to Piazzale Michelangelo to watch the sun set. Of course, we followed those crazy Italian directions and got lost so we turned around before it got too dark. Thankfully it was cloudy and rainy so there was no sunset. We wandered to the restaurant only to find that it was closed! Immediately after that it started pouring so we picked the next closest restaurant from our guide book. We didn't realize it was such a nice restaurant but we got there early and didn't have to wait!

We sat next to a nice couple from Puerto Rico who told us all the things we should see while in Florence. They were very interesting and even offered to share some of their meal with us. Ken and I ordered pasta with a meat sauce and then rabbit for the second course. The rabbit was delicious! I don't know what I was expecting but it really did taste like chicken. Even the crunchy skin was delicious. We didn't order desert because we were too full so we took a long stroll back to the hostel instead. 


The next day we didn't plan ahead... again. We went to the Duomo but it was all closed. Then we wandered around for a long time looking for a kebab place to eat lunch. For whatever reason that is all Ken wanted to eat even though we were surrounded by all sorts of delicious pizzas, pastas, and panini. After a few hours we found one. I now understand why Ken wanted to eat kebabs so badly. We both ordered falafel and it was delicious and very interesting. They even put french fries on it. I was surprised by that but I love french fries so it was a lovely  surprise. We sat on a cute little corner, watched tourists, and ate our falafel. It was a lovely lunch. 

Afterwards, we climbed to Piazzale Michelangelo (we finally found the right entrance!). It was our favorite part of the trip. The views were great and it wasn't too touristy. We took tons of pictures and spent time just enjoying the view and each other's company.

We decided to go back and try the Duomo again. This time the church was open so we went inside and explored. We were a little disappointed the duomo still wasn't open but I'm sure we'll be back at some point. We joked that our parents would be disappointed that we didn't go into any of the important museums or see the David or any of that. But frankly, we had a good time just catching up and the museums were all too expensive! I don't know how any college student could afford to see all the museums Italy has to offer. Plus, I had seen all of them before so I was not too worried about seeing them all.

We wandered around some more, went to Santa Croce and Orsanmichele. Eventually we just got tired and decided we both had a craving for chocolate cookies and we wanted to watch the office. So, we set off in no particular direction in search of a grocery store and a piazza to sit in. We found chocolate cookies with a chocolate mousse center (best decision EVER), cokes and then we settled down on the same corner where we ate lunch. It's strange. It seems like we ended up going on every street in Florence. No matter where we were or where we were headed we always ended up in the same places!

To end our trip in Florence we found a cute little bar to have a last drink in. It was 5:00! We got a little voucher for a reduced price drink next time we are in Florence. I would really like to go back since I really enjoyed it there. Typically bars aren't my kind of place to hang out but this one was very cool. It was full of Italian students watching the soccer game or doing homework or just hanging out. It was very laid back. I can't imagine my American friends here would have enjoyed it but it was a nice way to say goodbye to Florence and Ken.

Here are my Florence Pictures. I'll post more when I get Ken's pictures.