"I thought it was pronounced 'FRIENDS'" (Florence/Firenze!)

What a busy busy week it's been! I apologize for the late update from the weekend, but it's midterm week so I've been a good student and focusing on my exams. Luckily I only have 3 (my 2 art histories and fresco painting - painting/photo don't have exams WOO), and I got one of my big ones out of the way this morning. SO I have a little time before painting to update you on my European life!

This weekend was the API trip to Florence. It was a blast! Since I was choosing to study abroad in either Rome or Florence I was anxious to see how I would like it and how different the city would be from Rome. Verdict: Florence is gorgeous and way different than Rome...and I'm SO happy I chose Roma!! It was really amazing to see all the art and architecture in Florence (or as Italians call it - Firenze), but there is just so much more to do in Rome, and so many levels of history here. I can do something new and different every single day in Rome if I wanted to, but I felt that Florence didn't have as much variety and things to do. Soooo yes I did love it! BUT yes I am so glad that Rome is my home:)

Duomo

Ashley and I woke up early Friday morning to meet at Piazza Trilussa for the trip. Debbie was going with us, but she went to Florence a day early since she knows some people studying there and wanted a chance to hangout with them. Tara and Kaylie's families were visiting, so they stayed with them. It was really fun to do an API trip because we knew so many people. Yippeee! The bus was about 4 hours to Florence. My plan was to sleep the whole way since, yet again, I didn't get much sleep, but they put on the show "Friends" for us..I couldn't resist but to stay up and watch! Who doesn't adore that show? We stopped once to grab lunch and ended up getting to Florence around noon.

the copy of David

The city is much much smaller than Rome, with not as many crazy drivers (that was a plus). They actually block off a lot of the streets so that they're mainly pedestrian! Our hotel was right in the city center, literally just feet away from Brunelleschi's famous dome. SO COOL!! We had a few minutes to wander around and unpack, then met up for a guided tour. It was really chilly in Florence (snow was in the forecast for Sunday), so luckily the tour didn't last too long. We visited Santa Maria del Fiore (with the famous duomo of Firenze), Ponte Vecchio, Piazza della Repubblica, Piazza della Signoria, we saw the Uffizi Galleria (the line was too long so i couldn't go in :( maybe next time), etc. etc.! The David statue was originally in the Piazza della Signoria, but they only have a copy of it there now. There are actually 3 David statues - the original (in Galleria dell'Academia in Florence), the marble copy in Piazza della Signoria (which we saw on the tour), and a bronze copy in the Piazza della Michelangelo (that we visited on Sunday). It was cool to see the copy in the original's location, but I had my heart set on the REAL David.

After the tour, we had free time for the rest of the day. Ashley and Debbie wanted to shower, so I headed over to the Galleria dell'Academia to see DAVID. After learning so much about him, how could I not see the original? Let me just say - definitely worth the 6 euro. The museum itself was very small with lots of altar pieces and paintings from the early Italian Renaissance, which were cool to see. Another famous statue, the Rape of the Sabine Women, was there also so I was glad I got to see that as well. But honestly - just paying that much to see only the David was worth it! There were tons of people around, gawking at the intensity and magnificence of the statue. I stood there circling the statue, viewing it from every angle, for about 45 minutes. Well done, Michelangelo.

SO EXPENSIVE. Ponte Vecchio

We got dinner with a big group of Debbie's friends from Stonehill (her college) who were studying in Florence. I didn't realize she knew so many people there! There was 12 or so people at dinner, we went to this awesome place called ZaZa's. Ashley and I got a little (okay, a lot) lost on the way to the restaurant. Everything looks so different in the dark! Apparently we walked right by the piazza that ZaZa's was in, but we didn't realize it. We ended up circling pretty much the whole city of Florence before finally making our way back. Note to self: next time, bring a map. I got the yummiest pasta EVER. I never really know what I order, I just usually get the "specialties" or famous dishes from whatever area I'm visiting. So, I did my typical choice and decided on some sort of pasta (I'd never heard the name before..it was called Gramigna) with a "homemade specialty sausage sauce". YUM. Dinner ended pretty late so we headed back to the hotel.

Saturday we had the whole day to ourselves! We slept in a little bit, then began our adventures. Debbie stayed with her friends in Florence, so Ashley and I explored Florence together. We walked around for awhile, crossing the Ponte Vecchio to adore the jewelry. The whole bridge is COVERED with jewelry shops like I've never seen before. So much gold, silver, and jewels AH! We picked out our favorites in each window, telling eachother that we'd be rich and famous someday and could maaaaybe then afford them haha. On the other side of the bridge we found a funny shop that had a yoga shirt (yay!) and I picked out a beautiful watercolor. One of my goals is to buy a piece of art from every place we visit. I think this one is my favorite so far. The lady was so sweet. She could barely speak any English but tried to explain every painting to me. After I picked out my favorite, she even gave me an extra one as a "gift from me"! How sweet:)

waffle + new leather jacket!

Next stop: the leather market. We rubbed the famous boar statue's nose for good luck, then went on a search. My goal: find a leather jacket. My parents told me they would buy it for me as my big European semester present, yippee! So I was ready to bargain my way to a good price. The only problem was that I had a very very specific color and style in mind. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to find the exact one I wanted, so I was just going to search and see. If not, I'd find another present they could get me! :) We walked along the leather market for awhile and there was SO much to choose from, it was overwhelming!! Everything we saw was black or dark brown. I'm not a "dark color" person, so I wasn't too hopeful for finding something lighter. Luckily, I spotted the PERFECT color at one stand, so I asked if they had any more. The vendor took Ashley and me to a shop down the road. The jacket was perfect! It was the last one, and in my size! Hooray!! I tried on a dark green, too ("it matches your eyes! you must!" the vendor told me), and a more caramel color, but the light one was perfecto.

Ashley chilling in Santa Maria Novella Piazza

Now the hard part: bargaining. I was ready to pull out everything my mom had taught me. "I give you good price," he told me, but I was expecting the initial offer to be around $200 because that's what Ashley and Kaylie had said was typical when they were getting theirs. I warned him I was a student and needed an awesome deal. He told me the jacket was $380, but he added on a few discounts for me and it ended up being...$125! AH! With 2 years guarentee - I can send it back and they'll fix it whenever. Plus, it's waterproof AND fireproof (in case I'm ever in a fire...). No bargaining necessary. This was the cheapest we'd heard of anyone who'd bought a jacket here - usually they were at least $150 (but usually closer to $200), and that was after lots and lots of haggling. I took it right away. When we left the store, Ashley said "Don't even talk to me. I hate you right now." Haha sins! Yay!

We got a couple bracelets at the market also, then sort of ran out of things to do. We wandered around Florence, I tried their famous waffles with nutella (it smelled amazingggg), then found the cutest piazza to sit in. It was in front of the Santa Maria Novella. It was a gorgeous day if you were sitting in the sun, so we sat down in the grass and people watched for an hour or so. I had my big camera with me, so I got some good shots of little kids running through the pigeons to scare them off :) A guy set up some speakers and started singing and playing guitar, it was the perfect afternoon rest.

After our break, we tried to find the famous Santa Maria Novella Farmacia - the oldest pharmacy in Europe! It was started in 1212 inside the Santa Maria Novella by the monks. They would make medicine and herbs for themselves, and evenutally opened the pharmacy to the public. It was so cool - like a museum almost! There was all this natural medicine, herbs, teas, honey...really really awesome. I'm actually thinking about going to med school for natural medicine, so I was very intrigued. Ashley and I took a few brochures home and realized they opened a store in Rome, so we'll have to check it out.

cooking away

Later in the afternoon we climbed up Duomo Santa Maria del Fiore! The dome was a masterpiece in it's time, because it was freestanding. Brunelleschi had to invent all kinds of tools (like the pulley) to make it. Inside the walls of the dome there is little steps and ribs that the workers used when they were building it, so they've opened some of these to the public. You can climb up the dome (it's 463 steps to the top! with no elevator option! and it was SO STEEP!) and it opens to the top of the dome with a beautiful view of Florence. Ashley and I climbed up at sunset. It was absolutely gorgeous. I love Italy.

That night, API had booked us a cooking class! It was amazing. We walked to the cooking school and made eggplant with mashed potatoes and zucchini and cheese for appetizer, crepes stuffed with ricotta and mushrooms for the meal, and tirimasu for dessert. I was in heaven. The best part is that we were given the recipes to take home, so I can make everything for you when I get back to the states!:)

Debbie, Ashley and I at Piazza del Michelangelo

Sunday we were up early and on the road. We stopped by Piazza del Michelangelo to get a nice panoramic picture of Florence and to see the final David statue. It was raining, so we took a bunch of pictures really quick then headed to the Chianti region of Italy for a wine tasting! The wine tasting was at Castello il Palagio. We got a tour of the castle which was neat (but very cold and rainy - by the end of the tour it had started to snow AH), then headed into the warmth of the restaurant for our wine tasting. Yum yum yum. Wine is my favorite. We got a nice array of food to go along with the tasting - bruschetta, hummus, an interesting spicy jelly, salami, ham, etc. We tried 3 types of wine. The first was a Rose which was pretty good, the second a classic Chianti, and the last one was a typical Tuscan wine that was TO. DIE. FOR. It tasted like I was drinking flowers. At the end, we got a little taste of a dessert wine that you dip little cookies in. mmmmmm so happy:)

wine tasting!

I was feeling very nice for the ride home haha. We watched "Friends" again after much begging - they made us wait until we got to the interstate. Luca (our API leader person) was trying to explain something about Florence to us to get our minds off of watching Friend (we were tired, okay?), and he said "Fir-en-ze (how they pronounce Florence), and someone in the back yelled "WAIT..I thought it was pronounced "FRIENDSSSS". Haha quite the jokester - hence the name of the post.

We made it home around dinner time, and I got to studying for the looooong week. I'm so excited for the week to be over because that means 2/3 midterms will be done (my honors one is next week) AND Zach comes Friday morning to visit AND India and my Dad come Saturday morning!!!!!! Hooray for visitors!! I can't wait to show them around my new home:)