Three weeks behind yet again. I swear I don’t know where the time is going. I think about all the places in Europe that I still want to see and things that I still want to do and I only have four weeks left. And then I think about how much longer I still have until I’m able to see my family and friends and James which makes four weeks seem pretty long. I’m going to do my best to take advantage of my last two weeks in Florence though! Mom comes in less than two weeks now. Can you believe it?!?
In the past 2.5 weeks I’ve done quite a bit of traveling, and Casey and I have hosted quite a few friends who traveled to visit us. I’ve received a cute letter and bookmark from mom in the mail and three beautiful red roses from James. I’ve written two long papers and had one presentation. I’ve attended a gelato making class and a tasting Tuscany class though my school. And I’ve hung out with some pretty cool people.
Our first visitors were Annalise, Cece, Emily, Megan and her friend Andi from Argentina, and Leah. We went for apertivo twice at Moyo and Kitsch, and they were both extremely delicious. Apertivo is an Italian ritual originating from ancient times pretty much for an excuse to socialize. It became popular again beginning in Milan and has spread through the country. You just buy a drink and a buffet of appetizers and pastas are complimentary. Best deal ever huh? I had a delicious Bailey’s and Kahlua cocktail the first night at Moyo which had a Latin themed buffet and a raspberry beer at Kitsch. Having visitors gives us an excuse to go out and try new places. But we of course took them to our favorites that we frequent as well. This week we have Casey’s friends Elayna, Taylor, and Amanda visiting.
I visited the Pitti Palace three times in the past few weeks. The first time was with my class and we went through the Palatine Gallery. I really enjoyed it because my professor pointed out specific works of art and told us stories about the paintings. Knowing little art history, I usually just peruse through the galleries a little quicker than I should and admire purely the aesthetics of the art so it was nice to have a tour guide. A few days later, Casey and I ventured back there because I wanted to see the Costume Gallery which was really cool. The Pitti Palace is a hugeee building made for the Pitti family who wanted to have a bigger palace than the Medici’s. Unfortunately, they ran out of money and had to sell the palace ironically to Eleonora de Toledo who was married to the Grand Duke Cosimo de’Medici. She bought the palace with her own money because she didn’t want to raise her children in Palazzo Vecchio. The third time was for a paper for my History of Florence class. It’s on a specific path through the Oltrarno that took me down the Ponte Vecchio, past Pitti Palace, through the beautiful Boboli Gardens, into Santo Spirito, and finishing at the Porta Romana (the gate of the city separating Florence from the road to Siena and Rome).
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| project for the facade of Santo Spirito that was never finished |
Santo Spirito became my new favorite place to go in Florence. Not only does it have the best pizza place everrrrrr, Gustapizza, but it has an amazing organic market on Sunday mornings, a beautiful church, a bomb secret souvenir shop, and a really local atmosphere. When Allison and I went to check it out for our papers, we sat down at a caffe, ordered a cappuccino, and talked to the baristas who spoke very little English. They were fun to talk to and very interesting. I don’t think I understood half of the things they said. One tried to tell me the United States was splitting into 5 states? Maybe he meant the south, northeast, west, etc. I’m not really sure… Today, I took some friends to the piazza to find some souvenir shop. It’s not advertised at all. You literally have to ring someone’s doorbell and you’re taken into they’re cute little shop. They hand make things with Florentine designs out of metal, and it was so cool! We gave them a euro and they flattened it and pressed the fleur de lis, Florence’s symbol, into the silver part of the euro and then he attaches a chain to make a bracelet. It may or may not be one of my favorite purchases since I’ve been in Europe.
One of my favorite nights was a Thursday night three weeks ago. Casey and I met up with Hannah who we met at our hostel in Valencia and her friend from home. We made our way to Kikuya, one of my favorite bars, and ordered a dragoon, an extremely dangerous beer of 10%. We caught a table by the front door and were soon joined by two Italians whose English wasn’t great. One was a philosopher and was completely ridiculous. We couldn’t handle his philosophies. While the other one was professing his love for me and telling me he wanted to “stay” with me again. I said whoaaa buddy I think you mean see me again. A few minutes later, Hannah “accidently” spilt her drink conveniently in their laps and they stomped off. Literally two seconds later, these German boys asked if they could sit down. They were so fun to talk to, and we enjoyed saying yaaaaa instead of si for once. One of their names was Ansgar. We showed them the secret bakery and found ourselves heading home at four am not knowing where the time went. To continue my obsession with Germans, I hung out with Courtney’s friends that had studied abroad at her University in the states and came to visit. We made a great night out of playing cards with Manoo and Jakob.
I think that’s enough for now… more stories soon and blogs on Elba and Greece!
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