Florence

            After a loooooong day of traveling (I’m talking 15 hours) we finally made it to Florence. Train delay city. We had planned to arrive around 5:00 but didn’t end up getting there until around nine. So when we got off the train we frantically searched for WiFi so I could get in touch with my friend Paige, who we planned on staying with. I had three messages from her wondering where we were, but she gave me her address and we made the 20-minute walk to her apartment. She was living with four girls, one of which I had met when I went to visit Paige at South Carolina last fall, and the other two go to SC as well.  It was already late but we went out on the town for a while to some different spots.

            On Saturday, we woke up and went to their school brunch which was an interesting experience. The culinary students at their university in Florence who were training to become 5-star chefs prepared it all. I saw a lot of food that I would never imagine seeing for breakfast or lunch. Maybe even ever. I think I had approximately 1 egg. It was pretty much Bizzaro World in a restaurant. Anyways, Paige took us around the Italian leather market, which was pretty cool. We went to a gelato milkshake place that changed my life forever. And I thought McDonalds milkshakes were good. We walked by the famous Duomo where I saw a Loyola girl studying in Belgium for the year, who I also ran into in Dublin while I was with my family. Really small world. We went back to the room to nap for a little, when I was blindsided with a text from Tombari and Rebecca White (who study with us in Newcastle) saying that they were in Florence. Somehow they decoded a picture I posted and found out that I was in Florence. Still don’t really get how they did it, but you gotta keep your head on a swivel I guess.

            We invited them to Paige’s and then we all went out after. There were a lot of locals at the place but we pretty much just kept to ourselves because we didn’t know how to communicate with anyone else. We tried to find the Secret Bakery that Paige had been raving about the entire time, but apparently it was so secret that it didn’t exist- because she couldn’t find it.

            Sunday, we went to Gusto Pizzeria, which they said os the best pizza place in Florence, and it was. The line was out the door, but it was worth the wait, and it was a beautiful day. We walked along the Ponte Vecchio, and I took a Transformation picture standing in the same spot I had 11 years earlier in Florence. My dad loved it, and showed everyone and their mother.

            Florence brought back a lot of memories from when I was there when I was 9- and I remember climbing to the top of the Duomo- although we were unable to do that this time around. I remembered the statue of David at the Academy, but that needed to bee booked weeks in advance. Florence had a lot more tourists than I remember, but I feel like that is an overarching theme throughout Europe, that tourists are growing by the year.

            Colin and I went to Palm Sunday mass at the Duomo, and although it was in Italian, it was still very nice, and the music was beautiful. Tombari and Rebecca were waiting for us after mass and we walked around and hung out.

            We were sitting on a monument around 11 at night and for some reason looked to my right and saw Julia Bemis- who also studies at Newcastle with us from Loyola. We were just looking at each other for a good 3 seconds which felt like 20 minutes, trying to comprehend if it was reality. I asked “is that Julia?” and she came walking over and everyone was pretty much stunned. She was with her family and they came over and chitchatted for a while with them. It was all just unbelievable. Small world city.

            Today we woke up and are currently on the train to Roma! I can’t wait to go back it’s one of my favorite cities.