Florence & Pisa

This past weekend I went on our first overnight API (the program I'm studying abroad through) trip to Florence and Pisa. We left early morning on Thursday and of course I was late and the last person to get to the bus. Not my fault that the bus that normally leaves every 15 minutes on the dot every single day decided to not leave for 35 minutes at 6am Friday morning. I was the only person on the bus... I doubt he cared if I was in a hurry or not.

Anyway we got to Florence around 11:30 and we had free time to get lunch and explore a little. Florence is a lot smaller than you would think. It's kind of shocking how much smaller it is than Rome for it to be such a touristy city. We went to the most awful restaurant in the entire world with the worst waiter in the entire world. Imagine that. You go to Florence expecting the food to be amazing and the first thing you eat is ultimately a piece of bread.. they have no food to accommodate your friend who can't eat gluten.. even after they said they did.. and the waiter just flat out sucked.

Ponte Vecchio Bridge

Then we went on a tour of Florence and saw the ponte vecchio bridge, all these famous sculptures, the Medici family residence, the leather markets, the wild boar that you're supposed to rub his nose for good luck, etc.

After the tour I went shopping in the leather market and got sucked into a store by this somewhat creepy man.. you know he's creepy when he calls himself discount. Well I was officially a pain in the rear end because everything he gave me I kept saying no.. I told him I wanted a black jacket so why he was trying to sell me a brown one I'm not quite sure. Finally, I found a style jacket I liked but problem.. they only have it in brown in my size.. he tried to convince me to get the brown one and failed. So, he decided that since I am a nice polite southern pain in the rear end he would talk to his manager and see if they could make it for me. Yep, my roommates weren't super happy to hear that I got a jacket made overnight for me and I was still charged less than them (factory cost-heck yeah). Blonde hair is a blessing.

sleeping in the hallway

That night we went to dinner at Hard Rock, odd I know.. being in a place where the Italian food is supposed to be amazing. But by golly Hard Rock was absotively positutely amazing. Having BBQ for the first time in two months along with the best margarita I've ever had made this night amazing. Then we went out to a few pubs and a club but I was just so tired that I decided I would go back early.
Side Note: In Italy you only have one hotel key per room and it's a physical key not a key card.
So I asked the nice man at the front desk for 204, he said he didn't have it. I asked if he was sure, he insisted he didn't have it. So I went upstairs and knocked on the door, waited.. then knocked some more, then some more knocking, then some banging then ultimately some kicking. No one wanted to answer the door.. so I tried calling-five times. No answer. I sat down outside the door and contemplated whether I wanted to keep kicking the door. No, not worth it. So I texted Julia and told her I was locked out of my room and I was going to sleep in her room and to find me when she got back..she told me she'd come back now to which my response was.. "k come find me i'm asleep outside 204 on the ground" And the picture to the left is how she found me. As awesome as the typical spring break picture that would be.. don't get your hopes up that's not a drunk passed out picture, it's a "I'm tired and can't get in my room so I guess I'm sleeping here picture.

Saturday we went to a cooking class and learned how to make pasta from scratch. It was absolutely amazing and so time consuming! There is a distinct possibility that it was the best pasta I've had since I've been here. Also, I learned how to make tiramisu so watch out roomies for when I get back to America.. I plan to make you fat with pasta and dessert.

After lunch we went to the museum to see Michelangelo's sculpture of David. You aren't supposed to take pictures but I did because hello you can turn off your flash. The sculpture is absolutely breathtaking. Then we went to a church on top of the hill with an amazing view of Florence.

For dinner, Julia and I went to Il Gatto e La Volpe-best service I've had by an Italian and yummy food. When we walked in there wasn't a table immediately available so they took us to a seat by the bar and brought us each a glass of prosecco. Prosecco is an Italian white wine but its sparkling, so it is like a mix of champagne and wine.  Then we got a bottle of wine for eight euro, that's right folks, some really good wine and only eight euro. We got ribolita, which is a Tuscan soup that is cooked twice. If you ever get a chance to try it, you definitely should. Then we went out for a little bit to a bar and a club.

Sunday morning we left Florence and went to Pisa. I kicked over Pisa with my cowboy boot. The picture is a little awkward i'm not sure what I'm doing with my hands. At lunch I tried this awesome pizza that had ham, artichokes, olives and an egg on it. It was a very interesting combination but it was delicious. I feel like I blog about food a lot.. maybe I'm the next Eat, Pray, Love. I mean I'm planning on going to church in the Vatican on Sunday..that'll be interesting. Back to Pisa-on our way back to the bus a group of probably 20 short little woman came up to us with cardboard boxes. These women are also known as gypsies.. and they suck. They tried to steal from my roommate, Kayla, when she was there last weekend and she ended up backhanding one of them. But my friend Dan got in their faces and made them leave, thank goodness.

On the bus ride back to Rome we watched Tangled-my new favorite movie and if any of you haven't seen it you must watch it. Even all the guys on my trip loved the movie.. they're a group of some great guys. AND THEN we watched Beauty and the Beast! What an amazing ending to a trip away from Rome!