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| so many choices! |
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| near the Ponte Vecchio |
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| at the Boboli Gardens |
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| at the top of Piazzale Michelangelo... beautiful view |
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| Gusta Pizza |
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| first attempt of many.. |
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| perfect shot! |
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Pictures from the end of the week
Week 1 pt 3
Friday we had to wake up early to show our passports in order to get the
stamps for our official stay in Italy (Permisso de Sorgiorno I believe
it's called) and that literally took us 2 seconds... so we finally had
time to walk around at leisure which was great because I had finally
found my camera charger and was ready to take pictures of Florence. We walked toward L'Arno, the river in Florence and took some pictures there, although we didn't go all the way down to the Ponte Vecchio. We
also walked to see the Santa Croce up close which we hadn't even had
time to do even though it is literally behind our apartment.
Saturday we met up with Margo and Meghan and got gelato and took pictures of the Ponte Vecchio. We walked over the bridge and went into this museum and got our free student tickets which let us see the displays of Italian clothing and how it has changed over the centuries, and then walked to the Boboli Gardens which was beautiful! I didn't upload any of these pictures yet, so I don't have any to display.. and afterwards we went to the Piazzale Michelangelo, which we had to walk up a ton of stairs to get to.. but the view was so worth it. Pictures to come. But we had the whole view of the city and it was wonderful. Afterwards, since we had walked so much and it was only 5ish, we decided to head back before going to Gusta Pizza, a famous pizza place. I had some downtime and I Skyped a little bit and had a late snack before we went. Samara was visiting so she was with us too. The food was soo good! And afterwards, I was sooo tired from the whole day of walking and sightseeing but we still ended up going out to Salamanca for a drink and some nachos.
So finally we get to today, which is Sunday the 29th. I can't believe that this time last week I was on a plane heading over to Florence! I feel like I've been here forever! We had to wake up early today to get on a bus with the program.. they took us to IKEA where we bought wine glasses, a shower mat, softer pillows, etc, and then they took us to Pisa where we saw the leaning tower of Pisa and took touristy pictures after getting lunch (spaghetti alla carbonara- delicious!) and we also walked through their Duomo. I slept both ways on the bus since I was so tired. And then all we did after that was cook ourselves more frozen pizza and then walked over to Via di Neri for some gelatto (last time I had Blood Orange, this time I mixed Nutella and Cookies and Cream- both soooo good!)
I am definitely used to the food, except I don't know how much longer I can go with getting my own personal pie for 5 euro, it's too much food for me! Anyway, I will post some pictures of the Garden and Piazzale Michelangelo, and Pisa in a bit. Tomorrow is the first day of classes, but since I don't have any class on Monday I'll have more free time to walk around and relax.
Week 1 pt 2
So... after our crazy first night out, we woke up at 12 with only a half hour to get ready for more orientation!!! I must have shut off my phone alarm, because Katie heard the bells chiming from her room (by the way, she has a single, and me and Ashley share a double). We had gotten back home around 5 am, and I ended up going on Skype and had finally gone to sleep after 6 am! So we quickly rushed to get to our school but then ended up walking in the wrong direction.... and ended up being almost a half hour late to orientation.. it was only our Academic Orientation and all the information we need we were given in these folders when we got there so we didn't miss much.
Afterwards, we were stopped at a cafe... might have been Cafe Michelangelo but I'm not sure, and got some lunch. We were going to try to meet one of the Italian students in our program for a walking tour but were just sooooo tired that we ended up going back to our apartment and napping for a few hours. We later heard about this Bus2Alps dinner at Il Gatto e Il Volpe (the cat and the wolf) which is on our street so we went there for dinner and it was amazing!!! They served us a platter with salami, prosciutto, mozzarella, tomatoes first, and then brought out 2 types of pasta and then risotto... we were all so full! And it was only 15 euro!
Later, we went to Salamanca (I think..) before heading over to this club called 21... it took us a while to find it because we weren't familiar with the streets.... oh, and I had been the one using my map to find stuff so far which is a first because I'm bad at directions. But I'm glad because now I know my way around a bit better than I would have if I just followed the others around. Anyway, 21 was a lot more my style... aka more like regular Maingate... and there were 2 euro tequilla shots which was fun. After being there for a bit, we left, and Ashley and I got a little bit lost on the way home and got back a lot later than we should have... but we were fine... I just couldn't deal with the map that late at night... lesson learned.
Since we were too tired on Wednesday to get cellphones early in the morning, we all woke up early on Thursday to go find the Picell store... which was near the train station about a half hour away. We stopped at a great little cafe and I got a chocolate biscotti and blood orange juice, while Ashley and Katie both got croissants. A big difference between New York and Florence is that the streets in Florence are much more winding and I had to look at the map every other minute to make sure we were getting to the right street.. it was a lot more difficult because we hadn't had a chance to explore much yet. We finally get to the store and had to be redirected to a different street because they were out of stock... so after we finally got our phones, we had to make our way to our meeting spot on Via degli Alfani 19 in order to meet Lorenzo who was taking our group food shopping. We stopped at a cafe where I got my first caffelatte, which was fine, but the woman didn't speak any English at all so it was slightly difficult. She wanted to do everything herself, for instance, she wouldn't let Katie grab a waterbottle herself.
Lorenzo showed us how to buy a bus ticket and we got on the bus... you can go in from either door... and then we are supposed to stick our ticket into a machine at the back of the bus to mark that we paid. After a 10 minute bus ride we get to the store. It cost 2 euro to get a shopping cart, and then we were on our way through the store. Afterwards, the whole group struggled to carry everything back on the bus and back to our streets... and the three of us were so exhausted and hungry and decided to make one of our frozen pizzas shown below.
I believe we ended our night once again at Salamanca... and I tried an amaretto sour and it was delicious!!!
Afterwards, we were stopped at a cafe... might have been Cafe Michelangelo but I'm not sure, and got some lunch. We were going to try to meet one of the Italian students in our program for a walking tour but were just sooooo tired that we ended up going back to our apartment and napping for a few hours. We later heard about this Bus2Alps dinner at Il Gatto e Il Volpe (the cat and the wolf) which is on our street so we went there for dinner and it was amazing!!! They served us a platter with salami, prosciutto, mozzarella, tomatoes first, and then brought out 2 types of pasta and then risotto... we were all so full! And it was only 15 euro!
Later, we went to Salamanca (I think..) before heading over to this club called 21... it took us a while to find it because we weren't familiar with the streets.... oh, and I had been the one using my map to find stuff so far which is a first because I'm bad at directions. But I'm glad because now I know my way around a bit better than I would have if I just followed the others around. Anyway, 21 was a lot more my style... aka more like regular Maingate... and there were 2 euro tequilla shots which was fun. After being there for a bit, we left, and Ashley and I got a little bit lost on the way home and got back a lot later than we should have... but we were fine... I just couldn't deal with the map that late at night... lesson learned.
Since we were too tired on Wednesday to get cellphones early in the morning, we all woke up early on Thursday to go find the Picell store... which was near the train station about a half hour away. We stopped at a great little cafe and I got a chocolate biscotti and blood orange juice, while Ashley and Katie both got croissants. A big difference between New York and Florence is that the streets in Florence are much more winding and I had to look at the map every other minute to make sure we were getting to the right street.. it was a lot more difficult because we hadn't had a chance to explore much yet. We finally get to the store and had to be redirected to a different street because they were out of stock... so after we finally got our phones, we had to make our way to our meeting spot on Via degli Alfani 19 in order to meet Lorenzo who was taking our group food shopping. We stopped at a cafe where I got my first caffelatte, which was fine, but the woman didn't speak any English at all so it was slightly difficult. She wanted to do everything herself, for instance, she wouldn't let Katie grab a waterbottle herself.
Lorenzo showed us how to buy a bus ticket and we got on the bus... you can go in from either door... and then we are supposed to stick our ticket into a machine at the back of the bus to mark that we paid. After a 10 minute bus ride we get to the store. It cost 2 euro to get a shopping cart, and then we were on our way through the store. Afterwards, the whole group struggled to carry everything back on the bus and back to our streets... and the three of us were so exhausted and hungry and decided to make one of our frozen pizzas shown below.
Week 1
Tuesday, our first full day in Florence, consisted mainly of orientation before they moved us in to our apartments. At 4:00 the three of us checked out of the hotel (I had finally received my carry on bag just in time!) and were taken to our apartment on Via Ghibellina, 81. They had given us a packet with our key and so we open the main wooden door, and its actually a smaller door within it that we walk into (I don't have any pictures of the door right now) and then we open a gate into this beautiful courtyard area. We start to walk up the first flight of stairs we see, and then realize we didn't really know where our apartment was. We finally look in our packet and see that there are instructions that tell us which is the right door to the flight of stairs we need to get to. It was a bit difficult for us to carry our bags up there so we decided walk up to open our door first. However, when we tried to put the key in, the door would not budge! We had no clue how to open our door! So we had to call the Fairfield people to send someone to our apartment to show us..... and I'm sure they thought we were at the wrong door (which we weren't)
front entrance
waiting for help with our door by the staircase
our courtyard (those windows above just happen to be our living room windows!!!)
Sooo finally we got inside and dragged our bags upstairs... our apartment is beautiful! I'll just show you a picture of our living room...
So the rest of the day just consisted of unpacking and getting connected to wifi (I restrained myself from going on the internet till I was done unpacking). We then walked over to Pizzaiuolo for dinner which was so good! And the waitress was so friendly!
Later, we walk right across the street to this great bar called Salamanca with Melissa, Jen, Molly, Meghan, and Margo (who all live together further down on our street) and ended up getting free tequilla shots! Fun way to start off our evening-- and great way to get us to come back, we've gone there almost every night since! We then went to this club called Red Garter, where I met up with this guy Mike who does Bus2Alps promotions and he took us to this bar behind it called Nyeema (sp) and showed us Secret Bakery--- but we didn't actually go there and I forgot where it is. Afterwards his friends took us to another club called Twice.... and that was an interesting experience... it kind of reminds me of Maingate but with all townies because the Italian guys were so aggressive and would try to take you towards the bathroom or something... it was just weird and a little sketchy for me but my two roomates had a lot of fun! It wasn't as awful as I'm probably describing it, and I'll probably end up going there again since it's 2 minutes away from us.
Well, that was our first day outside the hotel... I'll be writing about the rest of the week in my next post! Ciao!
Sooo finally we got inside and dragged our bags upstairs... our apartment is beautiful! I'll just show you a picture of our living room...
Later, we walk right across the street to this great bar called Salamanca with Melissa, Jen, Molly, Meghan, and Margo (who all live together further down on our street) and ended up getting free tequilla shots! Fun way to start off our evening-- and great way to get us to come back, we've gone there almost every night since! We then went to this club called Red Garter, where I met up with this guy Mike who does Bus2Alps promotions and he took us to this bar behind it called Nyeema (sp) and showed us Secret Bakery--- but we didn't actually go there and I forgot where it is. Afterwards his friends took us to another club called Twice.... and that was an interesting experience... it kind of reminds me of Maingate but with all townies because the Italian guys were so aggressive and would try to take you towards the bathroom or something... it was just weird and a little sketchy for me but my two roomates had a lot of fun! It wasn't as awful as I'm probably describing it, and I'll probably end up going there again since it's 2 minutes away from us.
Well, that was our first day outside the hotel... I'll be writing about the rest of the week in my next post! Ciao!
Ciao Firenze!
Hey all! Thank you for taking the time to read my blog... it's taken me a whole week to get around to doing this and I already have so much to talk about! Before I get started, I want you all to know that I will be writing this not only for you but for me, and will probably include extraneous details that you do not care about. But that's because I'm going to be writing in the way that I would be telling this to you in person... .so just go with it. Already I'm going on a tangent....
The days leading up to my departure were not so bad... I was pretty calm about the trip, and just a little anxious about flying.. but mainly I just wanted to get to Florence already so I didn't have to wait around at home. I visited Muhlenberg the Thursday before I left and it was so great seeing everybody and going out one last time...... except it made it so much harder for me to say goodbye to certain people. It was a sight to see.
So finally it was my turn to go to the airport and again, I was pretty calm when I said goodbye to my parents right before I rushed through security. My flight departed on Sun Jan 22nd at JFK and we left around 4:30 to Paris. Right away I could tell that there were so many girls from my program on my flight, and I talked to some of them, but I really just kept to myself. When I was boarding the plane, I was told my carry on would not fit on the Paris plane and that I had to let it go straight to Florence. This made me nervous and I panicked for a minute until the guy reassured me that it would be "priority" and one of the first bags to arrive. Once in Paris, with just my backpack, I made my way to the gate to Florence. I was nervous because it was a confusing airport and I had to find a shuttle to take me to the right area... but I found it on my own pretty quickly (the rest of the girls finally got there as the plane was about to board). The flight from Paris to Florence was pretty uneventful and I started dozing off until I woke to see these beautiful mountains (Swiss Alps?) below me. This flight was only an hour and a half and we arrived at 9:30.
Of course, my big luggage bag arrived, but my carry on didn't so I had to file a report... but then we made our way to the exit and found the Fairfield group that took us to the hotel we were staying at, Hotel Mediteranno? I forgot. I had to wait forever for my room to be ready so while waiting in the lobby I met some more people in the program. Finally Katie arrived and then around 1:00 we were able to go to our rooms. Ashley arrived a little bit after that and we all took a nap. They didn't serve us lunch so by the time we had dinner we all were starving! Afterwards, they gave us free time and the three of us explored a little bit before meeting a few other girls and going to the restaurant next to the hotel called Outdoors for our first Italian pizza and some wine. Nice way to end our first day in Florence.
The days leading up to my departure were not so bad... I was pretty calm about the trip, and just a little anxious about flying.. but mainly I just wanted to get to Florence already so I didn't have to wait around at home. I visited Muhlenberg the Thursday before I left and it was so great seeing everybody and going out one last time...... except it made it so much harder for me to say goodbye to certain people. It was a sight to see.
So finally it was my turn to go to the airport and again, I was pretty calm when I said goodbye to my parents right before I rushed through security. My flight departed on Sun Jan 22nd at JFK and we left around 4:30 to Paris. Right away I could tell that there were so many girls from my program on my flight, and I talked to some of them, but I really just kept to myself. When I was boarding the plane, I was told my carry on would not fit on the Paris plane and that I had to let it go straight to Florence. This made me nervous and I panicked for a minute until the guy reassured me that it would be "priority" and one of the first bags to arrive. Once in Paris, with just my backpack, I made my way to the gate to Florence. I was nervous because it was a confusing airport and I had to find a shuttle to take me to the right area... but I found it on my own pretty quickly (the rest of the girls finally got there as the plane was about to board). The flight from Paris to Florence was pretty uneventful and I started dozing off until I woke to see these beautiful mountains (Swiss Alps?) below me. This flight was only an hour and a half and we arrived at 9:30.
Of course, my big luggage bag arrived, but my carry on didn't so I had to file a report... but then we made our way to the exit and found the Fairfield group that took us to the hotel we were staying at, Hotel Mediteranno? I forgot. I had to wait forever for my room to be ready so while waiting in the lobby I met some more people in the program. Finally Katie arrived and then around 1:00 we were able to go to our rooms. Ashley arrived a little bit after that and we all took a nap. They didn't serve us lunch so by the time we had dinner we all were starving! Afterwards, they gave us free time and the three of us explored a little bit before meeting a few other girls and going to the restaurant next to the hotel called Outdoors for our first Italian pizza and some wine. Nice way to end our first day in Florence.
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