Fire in Firenze

I was in Florence, Italy for two days. Arrived Wednesday around 1 and left Friday around 11. It was a whirlwind of new people, sunsets, wine, amazing food, long walks, haggling, camera failures, and long sunny days. Kathleens roommate from Berkeley, Anna, is studying abroad in Florence for the semester as is Kathleen and Tiffany's friend from high school, Kathrina. So their main priority was to visit their friends and see Florence from their perspective. It was really nice having people around that knew where they were going, what we should see, and where the best places to eat were. Took the stress off of being new comers to a city I'd heard so little about. First things first we got the best pizza yet at Gusta Pizza, and then got some gelato and ate it on a bridge overlooking the Ponte Vechio. 

Oldest bridge in Florence, and quite beautiful as well.

Then we went off to see the other sights of Florence, including the Duomo. 

The most famous: the Duomo. Incredible

We stopped at Kathrina's apartment to see how they live on the other side of the river and look at this view from her balcony. Living the life in Firenze. It's absolutely beautiful. It didn't hurt that it was 16˚C outside and sunny, which made it feel about 65˚F. Amazing after spending the last 3 weeks freezing our butts off... but actually.

Gorgeous view of the Duomo

Then we sprinted up to Michelangelo Hill for an amazing view of the sunset overlooking the city. We enjoyed a bottle of wine and Tiffany and Kathleen got to catch up with their friends. It was very pleasant.

Hello Italy

When the sun had finally set we went to dinner at this restaurant called Dante's where there is a student special. You get bottomless wine with your meal for no extra charge. Yes please. It was the best white wine I have ever had. So tasty and my pasta was amazing too. 

Macaroni with spicy tomato sauce. Yum!

Then we all hung out for awhile and others decided to go to sleep while Tiffany and I decided to go out and meet up with our friend Nancy who is also studying in Maastricht this semester and we just happened to be in Florence at the same time. It was a fun night, until we tried to get home. We had no map and only a partial memory of how we got home twice before that day. We ended up making one wrong turn and walking 20 minutes in what we thought was the right direction, only to turn around and have to walk the same way back. It took about 2 hours to finally get home. What a struggle, good thing I was with Tiffany. She's a pleasure to be lost with. 

Next day we got a late start, but we started with the most amazing panini's. I love the food in Italy. Pretty sure I gained 7 pounds. A well loved 7 pounds. No regrets.

Grilled eggplant and Pescaro cheese.

We ate our sandwiches in the sun and I was wishing I was wearing less layers. It was gorgeous and so warm. Pretty sure I got sunburned since my face hadn't seen the sun in over a month. It was a lovely preview of the warmer spring days to come. 

Then tragedy struck. As I was walking across the Ponte Vechio someone bumped into me and my camera hit the unforgiving cobblestone. Everything seemed fine at first but 20 minutes later I tried to zoom to take a picture of this statue and my camera decided to hate me forever.

Awesome statue

Not so awesome statue

I was sad and confused and tried everything to get it to work again. Nothing helped, but I wasn't going to let that ruin my lovely warm sunny day. We got some more amazing gelato and then walked around their big outdoor market. The merchants were very forward but liked to haggle. I haggled for the first time and it worked! I was surprised. I was also told that I was "bella" "bellisima" and "the love of my life" multiple times. Italian men are interesting ones. Not sure how I would fare living here. It's fine for a week, but I was already getting sick of them. Props to all the Italian women who endure it day by day. 

That night we went out to dinner with Anna's roommates. It was delicious and our waiter was even more delicious. One thing Italians have going for them, they are all beautiful. Well not all, but a large majority are. Anna's roommate were all very nice and friendly, it was a very fun evening.

This risotto makes my mouth water just remembering it

After a fun evening out we all slept so well. That is, except for Kathleen. We think she got food poisoning or ate too much too fast. She was not doing well. Puking all night. I felt so terrible for her. Especially when we had to be on a train for 2 hours the next day going to Rome! But more on that later.