Well we all survived Week One of classes and it is looking like it is going to be an enjoyable semester with plenty of time to explore, travel, and enjoy Florence/Europe. On Thursday, Sarah and I enjoyed strolling around the city after lunch, even though I felt like I couldn't move due to my massive food baby. Nope, I take that back... Food twins. The meals here are a little different- small breakfast (some sort of cereal, fruit, and maybe a piece of toast and hard boiled egg), HUGE 3 course lunch (salad, pasta of some sort, and a meat/veggies course). Our pensione owners sure can cook and it is rare for us to not clear off our plates entirely! After exploring for a bit, we went towards the Ponte Vecchio and found such a good gelato place- their Chocolate Mousse flavor was out of this world amazing. Thursday night, we explored the Florence night life, enjoyed 1 Euro boxed wine (not as bad as it sounds, but it's really not good at all) and went to the Lion's Fountain, which is a very American bar here. There are college t-shirts all over the ceiling (Apparently there was a Gonzaga shirt up there, but someone ripped it in the past. Looks like some Zags were making us look bad..)
Friday: Fiesole!
One Friday morning, we took the city bus up to Fiesole (a small hill town city overlooking Florence). It is cute and quaint. We wandered through the town, saw some Etruscan ruins, and found a nice outdoor restaurant for lunch since it was so nice and sunny! Unfortunately, you couldn't see Florence that well from the view points due to fog/haze over the city. We got our cappacinos overlooking some more Etruscan ruins. Then as we were ready to leave, we were unable to get our bus tickets because the office was closed (silly Italians and their view on time...). After waiting a half hour, we literally walked for about 2 minutes and found one that was open... Oh well it was pretty funny. After that, we all came back to Florence, had a lazy afternoon, and then went to Gusta Pizza, which is SOOO delicious and you can get a good sized Margherita pizza for 5 Euro. It's across the Ponte Vecchio and a little hole in the wall of delciousness. After that, we were on a quest for gelato- too bad all of the reliable/cheap places that the year students relied on are closed until February. Oh well because of that we ended up at Grom Gelato, which is also SOO good. It is a chain here and their gelato is made from all natural ingredients. I got chocolate and tiramissu (their flavor of the month). After gelato, we wandered around the Duomo and saw that a clothing store was having an opening party, so we let ourselves in and sipped on free Champagne and Mojitos on the sidewalk next to the Bapistry. Sweet life. We went back to Gallo d'Oro and enjoyed a relaxing evening.
Saturday: Siena
On the plane to Florence, I met a sophomore from New Jersey who was going to be studying in Siena. We hit it off and chit chatted for the entire flight, exchanged full names, and found each other on Facebook. Lucky for me, we were able to meet up and he was willing to show us around Siena this weekend! It was awesome to have a connection like that and have our own personal tour guide of Siena. We enjoyed the day and the sun- I think we all even got a little sunburnt! Once we got back, we freshened up, got dinner, and went out and enjoyed the Florentine night life. Needless to say, we had quite a fun time.
Sunday: Shopping and Service and Supper!
Sundays are a day to relax and we did just that. After catching up on a lot of sleep, we took on the sales in the city and headed to H&M doing considerable damage to our credit cards. Oh well- fashion is kind of a big deal here we have to try a bit harder.
Alright off to Service and Supper (Church on campus and a cheap dinner with everyone!) I'm excited to see how it is and hopefully make it a regular thing. Then we're off to Astor to watch part of the Seattle Seahawks game!
Most used word in this post? Gelato.
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