Florence

We spent the next leg of our Spring Break in Florence; an honest to go beautiful city! We got there at night and stumbled around trying to find our hostel, Emerald Fields. Let me just say, if ever you decide to go to Florence and are on tight budget much like myself, I highly recommend you staying there. At first we were a little perturbed by the look of it...it happens to be a literal hole in the wall...but I learned from my momma never to judge a book by its cover. We opened the creaky wooden door to find a cute little space; narrow hallways, bright colored walls and a hottie patottie front desk man. Jackpot. Brooke, Abi and I got our key from the cutie at the front desk and made out way up to our room to find two other beds inhabited by randos. Gotta love randos. And obviously I was opted into sleeping next to the two randos. Luckily they turned out to be two cool dudes from Japan, one named June and the other I could not remember for the life of me...even at the time. Because of mine and Brooke's obsession with the movie, I happened to call June Juno a few times. Mostly not on purpose...

So after putting our things away and getting settled, we ventured out for our first dinner in Florence. It was a bit of a failure. We went to a restaurant in a touristy area and totally got ripped off by the a-hole of a manager. I only say a-hole because I know my grandma reads this (hi grammie!) After dinner, we went out to a bar called Red Garter for Brooke's big 2-1 celebration. I had a great time but then again, you know me. Give me some sweet tunes, a semblance of a dance floor and good people and I'm set. On our way back home we got our second glimpse of the Duomo, which is a huge and famous church in the center of the city. I don't know what it is about the Duomo but it is ten times more breath taking at night than at any point during the day. Something about the way it glows, the colors, the size...I'm not really sure but it is definitely something to see. So we walked and gawked and finally made our way back to the hostel where I had the best sleep of my life. And no, I'm not kidding; the beds were fantastic.

The next day we woke up bright and early to start our day of touring. Even though it was raining (bum city) we were ready to take on the day. We started by going to a market near our hostel. There were tons of vendors selling scarves, leather jackets, random trinkets and things of the like. Feeling somewhat defeated by the rain we made our way to a cafe for an early lunch. The good thing about the group I was with...we are all always down for an early lunch :-) Then we all decided to go to see the David statue. Our group accidentally split up and by the time we reached the museum, the other half of our group had already gone in. When we went to the ticket office we realized that there was no student discount...BOOM. It sounds really lame but I live for student discounts; we all stopped in our tracks and looked at each other. Was seeing the David really worth it...there are replicas all over the city. We decided to mull it over during a group bathroom break. On my way to the bathroom I passed these huge doors and through the crack of the doors...lo and behold...THE DAVID! FO FREE! I quickly ran downstairs and told the others to a) be stealth and b) if they peaked through the crack they could see the David clear as day. Much to the dismay of the lady security guard, we all got a peak and called it a day.
No student discounts my ass.

That night we went to dinner with some of my friends from school at an excellet place called Il Gato. I got a really yummy pasta dish, some good wine and was able to catch up with old friends, which is always a plus. From there Brooke, Abi and I made our way to Red Garter to meet up with some friends from our program and to celebrate Brooke's birthday some more! The bar was completely empty (because Sunday is God's day) but we all still managed to have a great time. Abi and I serenaded Brooke for her birthday with an oldy but a goodie, "Man in the Mirror" by the great Michael Jackson and then busted out "Africa" by Shakira. I learned very quickly that I don't actually know the words to that song because it is indeed in some African language.

Our last full day in Florence was spend doing some more exploring and luckily it was a beautiful day. We began our day by going to the river and saw one of the most beautiful views ever. The sky was blue, the sun was shining and we could see sprawling hills with tons of old and gorgeous houses situated on them. We also went to Michaelangelo's house, which admittedly I thought was going to be boring. It wasn't. My trip to Italy has given me a newfound appreciation or Michaelangelo and everything he accomplished. His house had been renovated by members of his family but the ambiance was still there along with the original paintings, furniture and overall decor. After that we went on the search for some gelato. I went to an amazing place called Grom, which is apparently the best gelato in Florence. The flavor that everyone says cannot be missed is Creme de Grom so naturally I had to try it; it didn't disappoint. Then half of us headed back for nap time before dinner; we went to a restaurant called Anita's for dinner which was in Santa Croce. It was one of our best meals in Florence by far and I couldn't have enjoyed the company I was with any more; we ate, drank, chatted and laughed. After dinner we were all a little giddy and decided to walk (more like galavant) around Santa Croce and had a little group photo shoot and sing a long session. One of my friends happens to know the entire Nicki Minaj verse to Monster, which is beyond impressive and we made her rap it all the way home. It was a perfect way to end our time in Florence. NEXT DAY: ROMA!