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| One of many gelatos on the Ponte Vecchio |
So. I made it back alive. Over the past twelve days, I have spent forty seven hours traveling. My first day was a sixteen hour travel day, and the second travel day found me in an asleepish state on the Barcelona airport floor. Interesting sidenote: you know how when your clothes are "dirty," they're really just stained or something and you could wear them to sleep in without feeling too gross? Well, the clothes that I slept in on the airport floor are not those kind of clothes. They are smelly on a level you would not believe. I now very much need to do some laundry... Also, I felt disgusting that next day. But regardless, I was not mugged, did not die, and I'm pretty sure that everything I left with came back with me.
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| Not the Boboli Gardens, but gorgeous! |
Anyways, I think when I left you last I was in Florence, but had not yet had the time to tell you about it, no? Well, I will tell you all about it now, as I have forty minutes before my next class. I got to Roma Termini train station without a hitch, and then wandered around for sometime wondering where on earth the train was that I was supposed to board, when HOLY AS to the E, there were Martha and Elizabeth and Emily, all standing together looking about as lost as I felt. Though finding them, in some strange way, made me feel less lost, even though it got me no closer to the train. (PS AS to the E is Advanced Studies in England, which is my program. Usually it goes by ASE though, I just ghetto-fied it.) Anyways, we then eventually found the train and were on our way to Florence.
Now, let me tell you something we learned about cab drivers. They are VERY conscious of just how stupid you are when you first get to a new city. We had a twenty minute car ride to finally get to a place in walking distance. How very... sneaky. But anyways (it is now a day later from when I started writing), we finally did get to our hotel, which was very close to the Duomo. It had a courtyard and a GIGANTIC door that we only figured out on the last day was automated. We also had issues getting into the front door of Hotel Bavaria (the door up two flights of stairs in the courtyard), as it was a very temperamental door that would not open unless you gave it the proper amount of respect. But I IMMEDIATELY jumped into the shower once we got there (a shower that, btw, was just standing in the corner of the room--with frosted glass...). It felt SO GOOD to be clean.
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| Martha and I at sunset, with the Duomo in the background |
Then Elizabeth and Emily went off to meet Paige, and Martha and I had a relaxing lunch underneath the Duomo, got some Gelato, then headed over to the Boboli Gardens to lay out in the sun on the grass. I had a lovely nap in the sunshine after which we decided that Sangria was a must. So we found a place and got some strawberry daquris. DELICIOUS. It was such a good decision. I also realize that a daqueri is not the same as sangria--but they cost the same and there's something so empowering about leaving the virgin out of a strawberry daqueri. We eventually met up with the other two for a hike up to the lookout point during sunset. It was so beautiful (but a long hike up, especially for Martha as she had a hurt foot). The we eventually abandoned the beauty and headed to dinner (a delicious dinner of TORTELLINI bolognese).
And then, THEN, I finally got to go to bed. Keep in mind that at this point, I had been awake since 5:30 the day before. YIKES. I had such a great sleep that I didn't even mind waking up at seven so we could be back at the train station at eight so we could board our tour bus to San Gimignano, Siena, and Pisa. SUCH GREAT FUN! Although I have never in my life felt more like a tourist. But I will not lie--it was all worth it, just for the lunch. So our first stop was to Siena, where we saw the oldest working bank in the world (Monte dei Paschi di Siena), founded in 1472. We also saw Siena's Duomo--in which there is a room filled with beautiful paintings. Our tour guide at this point (she was Italian, of course) told us that "if we breathe in there, we destroy the paintings. But if we don't breathe, we destroy ourselves. So we must keep on destroying them." Oh, she was a hoot.
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| Our little group at San Gimignano |
Our next stop was to a vineyard, where we had a tour of the vineyard and the cows they keep there, and then had our epic lunch with a lovely view of the surrounding countryside and San Gimignano. We had some bruschetta (with no tomatoes! bummer), spaghetti bolognese (yessssss), a light salad and cheese and prosciutto, and then almond biscotti for dessert (well, first dessert). Praise to the Tuscan sun, it was all delicious. Then we were off to San Gimignano where we sampled the best Gelato in the world (yes, there is an award), and sat listening to music that sounded like it belonged in the movie
Chocolat and just gazing out and the amazing Tuscan scenery. God it was heaven, just sitting there with Martha with not a care in the world (apart from the fact that I had a MONSTER farmer's tan that day... yikes).
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| Just making sure it doesn't fall over. |
Then we ran back to bus (we were inevitably running late), and jumped on to have a scenic drive to Pisa, during which they played a movie about the Siena horse race, which for some reason unbeknownst to me, brought me to tears. THOSE HORSES JUST HAD SO MUCH EMOTION!! Anyways, after wondering why on earth horse races were making me cry, I watched the gorgeous countryside drive by. Then we got to Pisa and took some crazy tourist photos (you know the ones). Then we headed back, had dinner, and went immediately to bed.
The next day was more relaxing--we saw the David, got some Gelato, and really just walked around for a while. It was very nice. We then had a great dinner at a family place called "Il Latino" where I had a caprese salad and ravioli and then some sparkling yumminess afterwards on the house. It was all delicious. Then we rode a merry go round, and went to bed early in preparation for our early day of travel. I took an earlier train, and met these guys from Texas (who I sat next to because one was reading
Atlas Shrugged, always a good sign). They were a lot of fun, and actually turned out to have gone on the same tour I did, on the day after. Then I made another friend at the airport--which was very nice, as I didn't have to sit next to a grumpy old man or a smelly young one (our flight was filled with annoying Italian teenagers.... bleh). Anyways, that's that! I made it home okay, and all is well. I miss you all incredibly, and wish you could have traveled with me! Hugs,
LPRO
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