Firenze

Y6/16

We just arrived in Rome, but Thursday night, Friday, and Saturday were all spent in Florence. 

Thursday night we checked in, got groceries, and actually chatted with a lot of people in the hostel. This one was definitely an apartment with a lot of beds lofted in it, and one communal kitchen and living room area... Super cramped and definitely not clean all the time, but so social and fun!

We wandered around il duomo and met up with one of my best friends who I met through Camp Fernwood, Abby. She's studying abroad through Syracuse there, so once we figured out we were going to be in florence at the same time, we knew we were going to try to see each other as much as possible! 

We hung out with Abby's friends from studying abroad, and explored some of he nightlife in the city center (conveniently near il duomo, and near our hostel). We ended up running into some of the people we met at the hostel earlier that night, and they ended up tagging along for a bit too!

Friday , Ayla and I decided to go to The Uffizi Gallery first. The line was an journey and a half wait... S when a woman came up and offered a higher price but no wait in line, we took it, no afterwards realizing that's how people get scammed... Luckily it was an actually ticket with reservations.

The gallery is in the Medici house, and it is full of old white marble sculptures, including the one that inspired Michaelangelo for Brutus. Pretty cool! W enjoyed the paintings but breezed by a lot of the old paintings- if I had a penny for every old painting that I've seen on this trip...

Then we picnicked outside in the piazza, and made our way to meet Abby and go in il duomo.

Too bad you needed to cover our shoulders and we were all wearing tank tops. We got in the door , still, but weren't allowed to go very far in. Still amazing!

Guess that guy wanted the same photo as we did.

Friday night, we met up with Abby's friends again, after spending a lot of time getting to know some awesome students from UT Austin in our hostel (who we will hopefully be meeting up with in Rome!).

Anyway, how's this for culture- we decided to go out to the club called Twentyone, which is the one that Jersey Shore went to when they were in Florence.

As you can imagine, it was super classy.

Saturday was one of my favorite days on this trip. 

We started out at an Eames exhibit, and we rode our rented bikes there (mine had annoying squeaky breaks). After that, we rode over the Ponte Vecchio to get to the Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens. Apparently, the Ponte Vecchio is famous because Hitler refused to knock it down because it was so beautiful. Then the people living on the bridge started getting annoyed by the tourists, so the apartments were replaced with jewelry stores- hence the name the Golden Bridge.

We ate dinner at the hostel, and there was this crowd of people waiting in the common area and kitchen... Chillin and waiting to get checked in. They had been waiting since 12. And it was like 8:30. The owner was nowhere to be found! It was a madhouse getting everyone checked in by the time they finally returned. Ayla and I just laughed.

Our hostel was filled that last night, all with British, Irish, and Australians. We picked up Abby, and then Ayla led pretty much the whole hostel to Space Electronic Club.

Just two old friends on a balcony in Florence!