Firenze!

Ciao everyone!!! I just got back late Tuesday night from an AMAZING 6 days in Italy. It was filled with great sights, unbelievable food, and lots of laughter with great friends!! Let me start from the beginning!

I woke up early Thursday morning to catch a 7:15 am flight to Rome (why am I always on the earliest flights known to man?). It wasn't that bad though because I was travelling with a bunch of my friends from here, who were also going to Italy at the same time as me. I split with them though after taking a train to Rome's main train station, where I met up with my friends Emily and Dori from Wisconsin (2 of the 8 girls I've been living with the past 2 years)! Emily is studying in Rome this semester, and Dori had flown in from Ireland, where she is studying, the day before. From there, Dori and I took a 4 hour train to Florence (the ticket lady told us we were getting on the 1.5 hour train, thanks a lot!), and we arrived around 5 pm. After checking into our hostel which was surprisingly nice, we did a little sightseeing before it started to rain....bummer. But we got to see the Duomo (the amazing cathedral in Florence), walk around the leather market, and have some great pizza and gelato, all before eating free pasta for dinner in our hostel (eating the amazing Italian food was a major theme of the trip). We went out that night and had a great time- it was so nice to catch up with Dori!

Friday was our only real day in Florence as we were taking the train back to Rome later that night. It was a beautiful day and we really got to appreciate how pretty Florence is. A lot of people say that Sevilla is the Spanish equivalent of Florence, so as you can guess, I liked it a lot! In the morning we saw Michelangelo's David in the Academia Galleria, the synagogue of Florence, and the Duomo once again. After pizza, we explored downtown Florence, got some gelato, walked across the famous Ponte Vecchio, and then climbed up to Piazza Michelangelo where we saw a gorgeous view of all of Florence. We caught a train back to Rome around 7 after a very fun day in Florence! Here are some of my favorite pictures from Florence, or Firenze as the Italians call it!

Pizza number one of many on the trip. They have it out all out like this, and you tell them what kind you want. Then they ask you how much you want and cut it, put it in the oven to warm it up, then you pay by the weight. It is delicious.

The Duomo! With some ominous clouds...it literally POURED about 20 mins later. And we only had one tiny broken umbrella to share of course!

The leather market after the rain. We walked through here a bunch of times...SO many beautiful leather jackets I was tempted to buy. Instead I bought a pretty leather wallet!

The next morning we went to the Academia Galleria to see Michelangelo's David. He is way bigger than I expected him to be!! I took an illegal picture!

The gorgeous, huge synagogue in Florence. It is unbelievable inside and out!

The famous Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge) over the surprisingly dirty river.

GELATO! Had to capture its beauty.

Dori and I on the Ponte Vecchio!

Last but not least, the view from Piazza Michelangelo of all of Florence!

My Rome post is coming next!