28/32 of us went to Florence this weekend. All the girls stayed at the same hostel, but we split up into three groups to explore. It was nice to just walk around with a few girls and not have to worry about everyone in the group. The lady at the front desk of the Hostel told us to find this area of Gusto Food. There were three restaurants, GustoPizza, GustoPanino, and one other one. It was a far walk, but we got to see all of Florence to find it. We walked through the leather market, passed the Duomo, the Ponte Vecchio which is the bridge with beautiful jewlery stores, and many side roads. It was about a 40-50 minute walk, but it was well worth it! Since I do not like pizza, a few of us went to the Panini place and go to create our own! There were so many options, so I decided to get turkey, eggplant (my new love), zucchini, and an artichoke sauce on whole wheat bread. It was the best panini I have ever had! I raved about it for about 30 minutes and wanted to have another one, but I resisted. The other girls went to the Pizza place and got heart shaped pizzas which were fantastic. The crust for the pizza was so good! Our lunch was so good that we almost made the walk back today before getting on the train to come home. I hope I can find a Panini place like that here! It was unbelievable and so cheap!
After lunch we walked to find the "hill" also known as the Piazza Michelangelo which is a famous square with a magnificent view of Florence! The view shows Florence's skyline such as the Duomo, Palazzo Vecchio, the bridge of Ponte Vecchio, the Bargello, and the octagonal bell tower of the Badia Fiorentina. The square is dedicated to the Renaissance sculptor Michelangelo which has a replica of the Statue of David sculpture in the center of the plaza. The view was spectacular, I wish we went when the sunset. A lot of people order a cheese platter and a glass of wine and watch the sun set while eating. On the walk down from the hill, I noticed a gelato place with Mint Chocolate chip. There is no gelato place in Rome that has mint chocolate chip flavored, so I got very excited! I had a sample and it was so amazing!
After the hill, our next mission was to find this famous gelato placed called Grom. We got a little lost trying to find it, but we ended up running through a chocolate festival, so we had to stop there. There were so many chocolate options to buy, but in the end I decided to get strawberries covered in milk chocolate sauce. It was worth the 4.5 euro! Grom was located around the Duomo, which you would think is easy to find, but it took us a while to figure out where we were located. We decided to take a few pictures outside of the Duomo, but not go inside because we already climbed the hill and saw Florence, plus it was free. I was not in the mood for gelato when we went to Grom, but people said it was really creamy and good! I guess it is a famous gelato chain in Europe, so I am sure I will get some eventually!
Then it was shopping time! Florence is known for its shopping especially leather products, so it was our goal to find some leather jackets. We walked up and down the leather market to scope out our options, and then decided to start trying. When you walk up to a counter or in a store, the salesperson basically nags you and trys to bribe you into buying their product. We were looking for jackets around 100 euro, but we kept finding them at 130-150 euro, sometimes 200 euro but we are college girls and do not have that kind of money. We did our best to bargain for the jackets, and by the end of my purchase, my jacket was marked down from 220 to 140 to 110. My friend Allison panicked under pressured and just bought the jacket for 110, even though we probably could have gotten it cheaper, but it is worth the money! My friend Kim and I got the same jacket as Allison for the same price! I'm in love! Leather is so soft, it feels like butter! The girls who wanted to buy jackets all found one for around 100 euro which was a great deal!
We then thought we should head back to the hostel, meet up with the other girls and go to dinner. My cousin Daniel kept telling me to go to Acqua al Due for dinner and get this "Blueberry" steak. I do not eat steak, but I knew that my friends would try it, so we decided to go. Oh, our hostel room was for five people, and it had two bunk beds! This hostel was very different from the one we stayed in Prague, but decent for the price. No complaints, except that it was really hot! Acqua al Due is a restaurant where you can sample different platters. You can do a salad sampler, pasta sampler, steak sampler, or dessert sample, or order you own courses. My friend Brittany and I tried the salad sampler. We got 3 salads to try: greek, caprese, and one other one. They were great. Some of my friends got a macarroni pasta as their first course, and then steak as their second or just pasta. All I have been wanting in Italy is a great bowl of pasta. I told the waiter that I like pasta with tomato sauce and he knew exactly what I wanted. I got the rigatoni al melanzana which is pasta with tomato sauce and eggplant! It was the best pasta dish I have eaten abroad! I was savoring every bite, it was so good! I wanted more, it was just what I was looking for! My friends tried this "blueberry steak." Its not actually blueberries, but it has somewhat of an after taste. My friend Chloe thinks that the blueberry kick makes the steak better than their balsamic steak, which my other friend got, but who knows. We then decided to split the dessert platter which was cheesecake, chocolate cake, tiramisu, and fruit cobbler. We were so full, but couldnt resist. We all thought our bill was going to be so expensive, but it ended up being somewhat reasonably price for what we ate! It was the best meal we have had since being in Europe! I am so glad that we got to go there, it was such a great experience and amazing food! I am still thinking about my pasta dish right now! HA!
We finished dinner and headed back to our hostel. It was already 11pm, but we wanted to go out. I ended up finding Cori's room and hung out with her and her friends for a while. We met up with the rest of my group in another room at the hostel, but ended up staying in. I am really glad that I got to see and spend time with Cori. It made me miss home and my school friends, but I just keep realizing that I have made great unbeliavable friends in SDT, you girls know who you are! Cheesy yes, but true! Cori and I spent the rest of the night talking and we slept in my little bed together. Her room was really cold, but mine was really hot, so we chose my room to sleep in. Haha.
We got up this morning checked out and then I said goodbye to Cori. She is studying in Milan for the semester through Illinois business school, so I am hoping to visit her in Milan in a few weeks if the price is right. It is a 6 hour train ride for like 75 euro one way, but 55 euros to fly to Milan and back, so we will see what I do. I hope I can visit her. She said the night life is insane! My group went to see the Statue of David this morning before getting on the train home. Wow! I was impressed. The David is a Renaissance sculpture created by Michelangelo in 1501. It is a marble statue of a standing male nude which represents the Biblical hero David in Florence. The statue is HUGE and so detailed. You can see the veins in his arms and the toe nails are so defined. It looks so real, yet it is so old and has gone through so many weather conditions I am surprised it is still standing! The David was cool, but then it was time to get lunch and go on the train back to Rome. We didn't do anything special from lunch and headed to the train station for our 4 hour ride back to Rome.
Overall, Florence was such an amazing city and one of the best days I have experienced being abroad. We did not do that much historical exploring, but the shops, food, markets, views were incredible and worth seeing! Now I need to study for our first Italian test tomorrow, it should not be bad. But we have our History of Food and Culture test on Wednesday, which might be a little difficult!
Ciao!
-Marisa
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