La Spiaggia

So we took an adventure and went to the beach at Viareggio on Wednesday!  Jess and I were hungry for some sun to hopefully get some color before it starts to get cold and the paleness sets in.  We couldn't have asked for a more gorgeous day to go to the coast and the coast itself was surrounded by mountains.  It was in the mid 70's and not a cloud in the sky.  Beautiful.

mountains surrounding the beach

So when we got to the beach we knew they were all private and we would have to pay, but there were no signs as to where to do this so we just sat down and waited to get in trouble.  It happened in about 15 minutes, but we were pointed to the office and then were legal and good to go!  Our chairs happened to be right near this, or what I assumed was a, 15/16 year old German boys soccer team.  They were pretty loud, as adolescents will be, but I forgave them once they started to play a game of beach soccer and they were actually pretty good!  It was fun to watch and made me miss playing :(  But then I rolled over and got over it!

We left the beach burnt and hungry, but didn't have time to grab anything since our train was coming.  Since we were so tired we of course passed out on the train, but before we did we were treated to a lively conversation with an older Italian woman who, after talking to us for maybe 5 minutes in Italian, finally asked us something and realized we had no idea what she was saying.  She was super sweet though and we struggled through a conversation during the first part of the ride.  Later that night I met Kate, Jess, and Giada at our usual pub where we had a pretty chill night, thank goodness.

On Thursday we met Kate for lunch in between her classes and Jess, Court, and I headed to check out some Florentine stores!  We were looking for boots, but settled for new shoes for Jess and new dresses for Court and me.  That night we made a big dinner for Kate and Jess since they made one on Sunday.  Court made baked pasta and I made bruschetta with spinach and cheese.  Everything was delicious and then we sat down to watch GLEE!!  It was great and we are super excited for the Britney episode next week.

Oh and sidebar - Courtney and I went to a nice dinner on Tuesday where I had one of the best meals of my life.  We were first given a squash soup which just tasted like fall in a bowl and was delicious, then an antipasti of prosciuto, cheese, and fried bread.  After I had spaghetti alla vongole and it was absolutely amazing.  On top of that they had oil infused with red pepper flakes, so good!  Our nice waiter Marcos from Brazil saw me almost putting cheese on my pasta and promptly told me that real italians don't put cheese on seafood dishes...lesson learned!  He also taught us some other Italian nuances and he offered to take us out on the town whenever we want.  Super nice.

Friday was another day with the girls, shopping and meeting for lunch with Giada and Melanie to go to their friend's restaurant outside of the city center.  Then we went out for another night on the town, probably the most fun night out I've had yet!  Tonight we are heading to have dinner near Santa Croce and then to a beer festival called Che Birra in the piazza.  You can get tokens to try all sorts of Italian beers, very exciting!

It should be a low key night since tomorrow Courtney and I are heading to Sorrento and then on to Rome to pick up Caroline!!!  I won't be able to check back in until Friday so I hope you all have a wonderful week!!

ciao xo

Fun times with new friends

On Friday we went to the Uffizi with Jessica, whose cousin is in an art restoration program so her weekdays are pretty full.  We were happy to have another pal to roam the city with!  We got there relatively early at 9am, but still didn't even get into the museum until 10:30.  It was ridiculous.  I hear from the locals though that they have no idea what they are doing and I guess now I know!  I was nervous to go back to the Uffizi since I remember from the first time I went that I was overwhelmed by the amount of rooms and paintings: sensory overload for sure.  I ended up rushing from room to room and finding a chair or bench in each room and just listening to my audio guide, barely even looking at the paintings.  I was willing to brave it again also because I'm reading a book based on Botticelli's La Primavera painting and the symbols within it, so I wanted to see it up close again.  I was actually shocked at how much smaller the museum was since it felt ginormous last time I was there.  It was totally doable and I was able to get through it without that many yawns (my allergy to museums referenced in prior posts).  It was a bit crowded, but I'm definitely glad I went back.

After the museum we headed to have lunch and I of course had my pick-me-up cappuccino.  There seriously is nothing like a cappuccino in Italy, it's heaven on earth.  Oh and so is pizza diavola....and carbonara...and pretty much everything here.  After lunch Court and I wanted to go to the infamous Mercato Centrale to pick up some fresh veggies and fruits - we are making a point to eat more of these as we are starting to feel like we resemble the fusilli pasta that is our staple.  Well, the market closes at 2 and we got there at 2:01, doh.  We decided we'll go tomorrow.  


Afterwards we just walked home and got ready for a night out on the town with our new friends Giada, Jessica, and Kate.  We first went to dinner and then headed out to a couple bars on Giada's recommendations.  Probably my favorite, but not for the typical reasons you would think, was this bar called Red Garter.  Let me first preface this bar before telling you about our experience.  Basically in all the tourist books of Italy they say Red Garter is a divey bar that students mostly frequent for karyoke and beer pong.  The descriptions also mention that the bar can get pretty rowdy...which we were soon to find out was a gross understatement.  So we walked in and immediately you hear blasting music and there is a huge crowd of people in the back room.  Giada walks us back there and it's a huge mosh pit of college kids, probably under 20, belting out songs that are being sung by other kids on stage.  We decided to sit at a picnic table away from the pit so we could watch the insanity unfold.  Also, everyone seemed to be carrying around these drinks that I can only compare to the Call a Cabs you could get from Carson City, basically giant fruity drinks that have god knows what in them to make you act a fool.  Think of when you've been to a bar and you see that one girl or guy completely embarrassing themselves and you start to think, man maybe I'm too old for this place.  Well everyone at this bar was that person.  I can't even count how many times we heard glasses breaking and people falling all over the place.  It was actually highly entertaining and I'll tell you why in 4 reasons: 


1. You can't help but feel better about yourself when going to a bar like this.  Cause even if you aren't feeling 100% in your outfit, makeup, body, what have you, 9 times out of 10 you are going to look better then the people you see here (yikes that sounded mean, so I guess I'll just end it with my usual "but not in a bad way?") 
2. There is nothing like hearing Zombie by the Cranberries come on and hearing 50 kids start screaming at the top of their lungs like they are actually at the Cranberries concert (though that is an awesome song, can't lie).  
3. There is also nothing like hearing "Boom boom boom boom, I want you in my room" (for those of you who don't know this song it's a jumpy dance song) and looking over to see a girl dancing with bedroom eyes to a boy - who, by the way, we just saw rip off his shirt then lay on a table and proceed to fall off said table - as if she were dancing to a super sultry song, not poppy electronica.  
4. When you see girls holding on to the grates of the stage and dancing to the guitar player (who I will give props to because he was great) emulating the greatest groupies ever, you realize that it might be time to go.  But again, highly, highly entertaining and both Courtney and I know where to go when we need a laugh :) 


We went to a couple more places and at one of the bars I saw a guy wearing a Redskins hat!  I was so excited that I called him over and here is basically the dialogue:


Me: Hey you like the Redskins??
Him: The what?
Me: The Redskins...on your hat
Him: Oh yes, american football...
Me: Yes, do you know who they are?
Him: What?  I don't speak Spanish


Umm what??  He was neither from the US nor did he know anything about football, why was he wearing a Redskins hat??  Kate proceeded to die laughing after she heard this and we just started to quote Anchorman incessantly for the next 5 minutes.  "What?  Baxter you know I don't speak Spanish...You pooped in the refrigerator?  And you ate a whole wheel of cheese?  How'd you do that?  I'm not even mad, that's amazing!"  Ahh, a classic.  

Kate and Jess posing so I could secretly take a pic of the hat

The rest of the night was just fun girl time and I loved hanging out with all of our new friends.

Saturday was pretty relaxing.  We promised Giada we would visit her at work so we made good on our promise with the intention of going to the Market.  But alas, when we told them of our plan they informed us that the market closed at 2 again.  We thought it just closed for siesta, but no...wrong again.  Ah well.  We then went out for another fun night on the town the girls and Jacopo and I learned that I'm very bad at foosball (I'm also really bad at spelling it because I kept spelling it fuzzball and didn't realize it was wrong until right now).  

foosball championship...that we lost terribly

I'm starting to really settle in and ponder what it would be like to stay a little longer than the 4 months I had originally planned...we'll see what happens.  Our big trips start up next week right before CAROLINE COMES!!  Then the bigger trips will commence, yay!


un abbraccio xo

Best day EVER

Sorry I've taken so long to update friends!  I promise to try harder from now on :)

So the best day I've had so far here was on Thursday when we headed to Tenuta Torciano winery in San Gimignano.  I first went to this winery in 2007 when I was studying abroad and remembered having such a great time that I wanted to bring Courtney back.  It was going to be a little different this time as when I went before we were in a guided tour of Tuscany in a car, but we were confident we could figure out the train situation and conquer the almost hour long walk to the winery, since walking in the Tuscan countryside sounded wonderful.  

So we set off on our journey, and of course we were running a little late in getting to the station. After grabbing our ticket and figuring out our platform we scooted to the train and settled in.  2 minutes before the train was set to leave I realized we hadn't validated our ticket, which can result in a 50 euro fine, so of course I sprinted out of the train without even thinking.  They also have the validating stations at the front of the platform (yea, real useful) so I literally sprinted and cut off an old woman in the process (sorry!!).  In the meantime I left Court with my purse and no ticket, so naturally she was freaking out.  All was ok though and I made it back to the train in time for us to hear there was a 10 minute delay.  We didn't think anything of the delay until we got to Empoli where we needed to change trains and we found out the platform our next train was on with just enough time to watch it chugging away from us...so sad.  Welp, we had an hour to wait for the next train, which would also get us to our destination train station only 20 minutes before we had to be at the winery.  This was definitely not enough time to walk, but we figured we could pick up a cab.  When we got to the tiny station in the middle of no where we realized that this was never going to happen.  Only one other person got off the train with us and he stared at us like "what are you two doing here??" and jumped in one of those tiny trucks with 3 wheels that look more like they should be part of a lego set then on a real road.  Guess we were going to walk!  It would have been nice; however the lack of sidewalks and us rushing made it a little less relaxing.  Ah well, we'll be out in the countryside again sometime soon I'm sure!

We finally made it to the winery after a 45 minute speedwalk and instantly all of work to get there was worth it and beyond.    They set us up in a 2 person table facing out as if we were the princesses of the winery, which is how they referred to us.  There were big tour groups there of Americans so it felt nice being just a 2 person group.  I learned again how to smell, taste, swirl the wine and how to keep our hands on the table at all times to avoid looking like a drunk.  All good things to know!  Pierluigi, the owner, has expanded his empire more since we were there before and there were a ton more people since it's still tourist season so we were treated to our learning from one of the 2 brothers working there.  The first brother who ushered us in and declared "I love Washington DC...well I love the girls from Washington DC" after he found out where we were from, was mainly working behind the scenes and the older, more flirty, and married brother walked us through the tasting.  We feasted on cheese, bread, salami, salad (with balsamic vinaigrette made at the winery that Courtney was obsessed with) and later had mama's homemade lasagna with truffle oil on top....seriously HEAVEN.  So delicious.  It seemed as though the tour groups were all leaving at once so the main room was inundated with people buying bottles of wine so Courtney and I just sat there and enjoyed people watching.  A woman actually came up to us and said how pretty and happy we looked and she said she wanted to take a picture of us, which I thought was kind of weird and thought I misunderstood her and she actually wanted us to take a picture of her.  Nope, in fact she didn't even take a picture of us she recorded us on her little camera.  So weird.  Oh well, we'll take the compliment I guess?  After the crowds left we were basically in the main room by ourselves and got to watch what only Courtney and I could describe as an Italian sitcom.  The owner would come in from his group outside and spit out all of this Italian to his staff, telling them they did something wrong or need to get more cheese(!!) and then he would open the door back outside and start in on his uber friendly english speech.  Also, the only woman working was Mira and she basically only spoke Italian so she was riding the older brother who was married and saying how he is such a flirt.  She was our favorite, especially when all the guys would be yelling for her and you would just hear "MIRA" over and over again, then she'd come strolling in.  

When everyone found out we had walked to the winery from the train station their looks were priceless.  Pierluigi shouted "Are you crazY??"  The brothers had offered to drive us to another train station in Poggibonsi (if there is a funnier named train station, I have no idea) so we wouldn't have to change trains.  The owner would have none of that, stating it was "dangerous" to go with the brothers.  He had to take his son down to the scooter repair shop anyways down in the city so he offered to take us.  It was very nice of him and he even walked us into the station to make sure we were ok.  During our time talking to him we set up what may be a job opportunity in social media marketing for his winery.  I talked up Caroline of course and then was trying to sell him my skills, which I guess are only that I'm young and use the internet for anything and everything...counts for something right?  Oh and I forgot to mention that he gave us 3 free wines (totaling about 100 euro) and our tastings were free.  It was crazy!  We were so appreciative and we are definitely going to back there!

The train back was ok, but we had a couple bouts of anxiety if we were headed in the right direction.  We ended up in Florence and back at our apt around 9:30 and immediately passed out.  It was a long, but wonderful day in Tuscany!

Lazy days

So the past couple days have been pretty lazy, so I'm guessing this will be a short post!  On Tuesday we decided to wake up early and hopefully climb the Duomo and go to the Uffizi.  We rolled over at 10 and realized that our chances of beating out the crowds were slim, but we ventured out anyway.  It was ridiculous how many people there were!  Court and I agreed that it was the worst it's been since we've been here!  I think Tuesday is the big cruise day since there were tons of groups with either Disney or Royal Caribbean being shepherded around...not ok!

The bell tower at the Duomo had no line because people were trying to go up the Duomo side, so we snuck in there.  414 steps later and we were at the top, red faced and breathing heavily - I realized at the top that this is the bell tower my sister in law almost passed out at after climbing when she was pregnant with Keegan!  I wasn't pregnant, but I did need to sit down for a few minutes.  The weather was perfect and the views were spectacular so we hung out up there until we were ready to brave the stairs back down.  It was hard to go down because of all the people coming up and us having to meld ourselves against the wall so they could pass.  We then decided to get some gelato near the Duomo, but were shocked when a small cup of gelato went for 5 euros!  Never again, only gelaterias on the side streets from now on.  Afterwards we headed back to the apartment to get some drawing tools and my italian book (for me) and writing tools (for Court) and off we went to the only piazza we know of with grass.  As soon as we got there I tried drawing a little and tried to look at my book, but I am a sucker for naps and nice weather so I basically laid next to Courtney as she wrote.  It was fabulous.

Later that night we were invited by our friend Jacopo to go to dinner and then out for drinks.  After walking the entire city of Florence to meet him, he directed us to a restaurant literally right up the street from our house.  It took us like, hum, 40 minutes to track him down (yes I did get a little lost...but that's beside the point), then another 20 minutes back to where we just came from.  Oh well, he made it worth it!  He first took us to this adorable bar owned by two older brothers who make your cocktail from scratch and with, what I can only describe as, love.  I cannot wait to take anyone who visits me there, it was darling!  I ordered a gimlet (gin, lemonade, sugar), Court order a mojito and Jacopo ordered a gin martini - fancy!  J got his drink first since it was the easiest, then 5 minutes later I got my gimlet with freshly squeezed lemonade in it and meticulously shredded lemon rinds (I thought they were chips for some odd reason and ate one, and Jacopo just looked at me with a strange face as I realized my mistake).  Court's drink came 5 minutes later with the freshest mint I've ever smelt (I'm really trying to sell this place if you can't tell).  Everything was fantastic and it was so cute, LOVED it.  After the drink we went to our nice sushi dinner at the restaurant up our street.  It was all locals and you had to ring a buzzer to even get in.  The sushi was fantastic, I even ate the sashimi and just straight up raw fish!  Oh, and did I mention that I liked it!  Opening a whole new world for me...I feel like my brother when he discovered the wonders of raw sushi.  I also can't help but think that the wine helped a bit...but for now I'm just going to believe that I truly loved it!  We then headed out for more drinks and Jacopo took us to some bars where he knows people...it was nice to not feel like tourists.  The night got a little fuzzy after that, but slowly and surely Court and I are learning that we cannot drink like the Italians.  We are gonna need to slow it down from now on I think...

But that leads us to today!  We stayed in.  All day.  We were supposed to get up early and head to a winery in San Gimignano, but the thought of doing that after the night before was less than appetizing.  We decided to push it off one day and just spent the day cleaning up the apartment and resting...such is the life :)  We did have some great meals though on our lazy day...pasta with pancetta and green onions in the morning and chicken, potatoes and salad for dinner - our ode to America.  Oh did I mentioned we watched some episodes of Glee??  Court finally figured out how to trick her comp into letting us watch shows outside of the states and since we don't know how to work our tv it was awesome!  Although, it did make us sad that we will be missing the season premiere.  Man, when did I become a Gleek?

Ok ciao for now bebes!  Next up - winery!!!

Weekend's over, back to blogging!

Miss me?  Of course you all did, but don't worry - I'm back to recount our very fun weekend!  :o)  So Friday night escalated very quickly.  We were persuaded to come out by our new friends from the Lion's pub.  The pub itself is actually pretty far away from our apartment.  It's about 4 bridges down and across the river, so in case you don't know how far that is it's about 20-25 minutes.  That's also walking at my pace, which, if you know and have walked with me, is much faster than the normal person's pace.  But right when we got there the bartenders all greeted us happily and the drinks and merriment started to flow and it was all worth it.  Giada (another bartender) was off that night so she came in with her friend Melanie and we all got to hang out together.  We both really enjoy Giada and Melanie and invited them both to come to our pads in America once we leave...though since I'm not sure where I'll be living when I get back to the States they may have to bunk up with the rents?  But we had tons of fun, too much fun actually, and definitely paid for it the next day.  But on the subject of making friends and actually keeping them?  Huge success!  

We were hurting pretty bad the next day, but decided that there was no way we were going to waste the beautiful weather.  So we decided to wander over to the Pitti Palace and go to the gardens since it's very close and should have been pretty relaxing, wouldn't you think?  Well we had to stand in a very long line, where I thought I may or may not lose my lunch (ugh I'm too old for this!) and finally were in the gardens.  Well they weren't so much gardens as they were GIANT hills that you had to climb and many, many acres to walk around.  It was pretty strenuous for 2 girls in our, uh, situation, but we did it!  It was very nice though and we had fun wandering and stumbling upon various statues, and there was a great view of the city.  

giant hill we had to climb

After our excursion we headed back to the apartment to chill, skype with family and get ready for a dinner out.  We headed to the trattoria literally 50 meters down our street.  We vacillated for a bit and walked to a few other places first since I really wanted pizza, but since pizza is not exactly "Florentine" we couldn't find it anywhere close.  The waiters were super nice, but spoke very little english.  That didn't stop them from coaxing us into getting more glasses of wine, eating a free dessert made with grappa, and to have glasses of sambucca after our meal...not again!  But they were very nice and Courtney got the pasta della casa con porcini, it was great!  I wanted meat since we've had too much pasta so far so I got some chicken.  It ended up being pretty small and I learned that I have to order a side with it next time, but it definitely hit the spot!  

We had an early night and the next day decided to hike up to Piazza del Michelangelo at the top of mountain on our side of the river.  It was the toughest hike we've had yet and I thought I was going to pass out, but the views were breathtaking!  I have been up there before, but it was winter (and we were driven) so the weather wasn't as sunny and nice.  We did miss out on the cemetery that both my mom and I liked for it's ornate graves because it was closed, but we decided to hike back up there soon!  

We were very sweaty from the hike so we headed home for some rest and then checked out the sunset atop one of the bridges near us.  It was so pretty!!

It's Monday now and since everything was basically closed we were only able to go into a Medici manor (we randomly stumbled upon this) and an old car museum.  We then had a nice long lunch in Piazza della Signoria - where there was the burning of the vanities, the copy of the statue of David stands, and is still the political center for Florence - and I was finally able to find my pizza Diavola!  It's only my favorite pizza in Italy and I haven't had much luck finding it.  It was great, though not as great as from the south, plus they added long strings of red and yellow bell peppers.  I don't usually like those, but they were cooked to perfection and added a lot of flavor so I was very satisfied!  We ended it with cappuccini and headed back to the apartment for naps.  It's a very cloudy day so we are just going to head out to our favorite pub later tonight and relax for now!

ciaoooo

First adventure out of Florence: SIENA

We just got back from a long, but great day in Siena.  It was a bit touch and go in the beginning because I'm still not adjusted to this time zone so I went to bed at 3 and we were up at 7:30 - not a great start for sure!  The train ride was hot and long and on top of that, the train station is 2 miles away from the city center in Siena, but we were confident we could figure out the buses.  Well we were wrong, very very wrong.  After watching many people hop on buses outside of the station we figured that they just had to go to the city center, I mean how could they not?  Well again, we were wrong.  We rode around on a bus for what I'm sure was only 15 minutes, but it felt like forever once we realized we were not going towards the center, and then decided to ride it back to the main train station.  So let's try this again, shall we?  By this point my blood sugar was low (Courtney is going to rue the day that she explained to me what that meant after I heard I had low blood sugar from my doctor.  Now whenever I'm crampy I'm just going to blame it on the sugar...I CAN'T HELP IT!  Though I don't think she'll let me get away with that for long...we'll see)  So I was a couple minutes away from a mental breakdown and this is where Court jumped in, forced me to eat something and got us into a cab and on our way to the center!

It was a beautiful day and of course we went to Piazza del Campo first since it's the most famous part of Siena.  Twice a year this is where they cover the Piazza with dirt and run a no-holds-barred bareback horse race around it.   This is called the Palio and it is between the 17 contrade (neighborhood wards) of the city; the first race started in the 14th century, while the other race started in the 17th century.  We missed the races as they are in the summer, but it's amazing to imagine all of that happening in the Piazza that seems way too small for a race of that magnitude!

We then headed to the Duomo and were trying every which way to get good pictures.  The thing about Siena is that everything is so tall and narrow so it's very hard to get pictures that encompass everything we see.  I guess we'll just have good mental pictures?  We sat outside for a bit deciding whether to go in or not and I was trying to remember from when I came before if this was the Duomo that didn't have much inside, in which case it wasn't worth it.  Thank god we decided to go in because I was wrong AGAIN!  There is not one inch of space in that Duomo that is not painted, covered in marble facades, or has just random splashes of gold everywhere.  It was incredible and even though I've seen it before, it was worth it seeing it again!

 

We then headed to Fortezza Mediccea where Italy's national wine museum is.  It was a long hike, but totally worth it for the views of Tuscany we got.  I mean, also it was a museum of WINE, c'mon...that in and of itself is worth it to see...  Before we went in though we seriously did get some great pics of the Tuscan countryside and I'll try to just limit myself to a few on here and the rest I'll post on facebook.

Ok so back to this museum of wine...it was actually pretty cool, but a bit of a tease if you ask me.  We went down into a big cellar with hundreds of bottles of wine that you can't drink.  But they did give Courtney a scanner machine you just scan the bar code of any wine and an annoying british lady will tell you all about it...she had way too much fun with that thing.  Then we went back upstairs and decided that we should enjoy some wine before moving on and had Prosecco.  It was seriously the best Prosecco I have ever had and it was only 3 euros!  We also got to enjoy it on a cute little terrace:

All in all it was a great day.  We figured out how to take a bus back to Florence instead of having to find our way back to the train station, so at least we learned!  We came back and stopped at a market literally up our street with, I think, the CUTEST old Italian man EVER!  It was a tiny market and he literally just followed us around and helped us with our random choices.  I also spoke to him only in Italian with more than just the regular, si/no, and Courtney said it was the best I've spoken so far!  YAY!  I'm learning :)

Right now we are fixing an antipasto of wine, buffalo mozzarella, and prosciutto and then are heading out on the town to meet up with our new friends!  baci xoxo

IT'S OFFICIAL

...we're Italian.  Ok well maybe not, but we have Italian cell phones now!  When I was in Rome before I was one of the only ones who didn't get a cell phone, so now it's my first time and it's awesome!  Well, except that the phone is an old Nokia block phone so I'm probably not the coolest girl, but I was already used to that with the old phone I've been using back in the States anyways...just carrying the tradition on to Italy.  I have only one number in it thus far, but hopefully that will grow and soon I'll be answering "Pronto?" with the best of them!  That may be a bit further off, but a girl can dream can't she?

We then headed over to Santa Croce to see the tombs and monuments of Michelangelo, Galileo, Dante, and Machiavelli.  It's a beautiful church and the piazza is really cute so we hung out there for a bit.  After checking out the church we stumbled over into the Museo dell'Opera, which was connected.  It was pretty nice, but there were asian tourists galore...seriously everywhere!!  It was tough to get pictures without them in throngs in the background, but we were able to snap a few.

Since we tend to not eat very much here because we are usually outside and don't want to keep buying meals, we tend to go until the point of starvation before we give in and buy a pizza/panino on the street.  Mom you will appreciate this - we went to the little cafe on the corner of Santa Croce and got panini, the same one we went to last time we were here.  They were delicious, but how could hot bread and salami not be delicious?  Then we walked over the Ponte Vecchio and took some gorgeous scenic pics. 

After we went to the Palazzo Pitti and hung out on the piazza.  Court took a little nap and I just people watched before we headed home to make a great pasta dinner.  Courtney made a fantastic pasta with homemade tomato sauce.  Considering all we had were tomatoes, garlic, and zucchini and she made it taste THAT good I was super impressed.  I told her she's going to have to make that once a week at least, k thanks.  We are settling in so well and it's just been a fantastic time thus far.  Next up: SIENA!

Settling in!

So we've been here a few days and it feels like we've been here weeks.  We have found our neighborhood grocery store ( The Penny Market where we bought wine, a huge jug of olive oil, parmesan cheese, and a bunch of other things for only 18 euro!), we have a coffee/aperitivo place to become regulars at and we've actually made some friends!

Our AMAZING aperitivo at Cuculia!!  7 euros for all this: a white bean soup, mini hot dogs and peas, a pea/cheese mousse, pasta with red sauce (SIMONA!), and a big hunk of cheese.  I realize I don't actually know the Italian names for any of these things...we kinda just guessed!  This is our new favorite place for sure!

We are still getting used to the time over here and find ourselves sleeping in until 11 or noon and declaring "Seriously, tomorrow we are getting up at 8!"  You'd think it would be easy since at 7:15 every morning the bells at the church in our backyard ring uncontrollably for 5 minutes.  At first Courtney and I thought a kid was loose in the church since there is no rhyme or reason to the ringing, seriously.  Somehow we've been able to go back to sleep after it though, and here I am once again getting up at 11:30.  Though that is also because last night we had our first taste of Florentine nightlife and didn't get home til 3:30 am!

I guess I'll just recap the day from the beginning...we woke up late again and then it stormed so we were basically just hiding out in our apt until it stopped.  We did get our Sorrento/Rome trip all planned out though so we weren't entirely unproductive!  Around 4 we finally ventured out to get our cell phones (forgot our IDs to get them. FAIL) then just explored.  We went past the Accademia where David stands in all his glory, but the lines made us just keep on walkin.  We stumbled upon a beautiful Piazza so we stopped to take pictures and I realized that this is the same Piazza I stayed off of when I came up to Florence in 2007.  I was excited since my mom and I were trying to figure it out and could not remember for the life of us.  We went into the Archeological museum in the square and I swear I'm allergic to museums...I literally have a yawning fit every time I go into one and immediately search for chairs because I feel like I'm going to pass out.  It's not good!  But we got through it and continued on to explore and find some food because after my allergic reaction I was starving!  On my friend Lisa's recommendation we went to this super cute square a few blocks off of the Duomo to find the Lion's Fountain Irish pub.  The outside seating was full so we went across the way for some wine and antipasti (prociutto, cheese and fried bread - YUM) and then headed over to the bar once the nightlife was picking up.

It was still pretty empty so the bartenders were just chatting us up and they were seriously the most friendly people ever!  And there was a girl named Giada and that's only my FAVorite person on Food Network...so I instantly loved her, duh.  The most friendly of them all was Jacopo (sounding Yacopo, not Jacopo as I was soon to find out).  He said that we were all going to be best friends and when he found out I knew Lisa he said "Ok now we're REALLY going to be best friends!" (thanks Lisa!)  They all treated us like we were regulars and then the college crowd came in being rowdy and he would roll his eyes at us, we were happy no one was doing that to us!  I had given him my credit card for drinks so when Court and I wanted to head home he refused to give it back saying we had to come out with him and the other bartenders after the bar closed.  This was at 11 so we were not ready to stay until 1:30, but he insisted so we just kept on hanging out.  We met 2 other great girls, one who is studying art restoration (so cool!) and the other is just along for the ride with her.  Finally 1:30 rolled around and we had to wait for them to clean up the bar and change and then we headed over to this bar that seemed pretty exclusive.  You couldn't tell it was a bar and a guy was just standing outside not looking like a bouncer, but as soon as we came up he put his finger to his lips so we'd be quiet and then quietly opened the door.  It was a pretty cool place, but basically right when we got there Court and I realized we were pretty tired and wanted to head out.  It was great night overall and we are just happy to have met some friends!!

Today we are going to get our cellphones (forreals this time) and head over to the train station to buy some of our tickets for upcoming trips.  The hordes of crowds here make us want to stay away from the big sights, but I think we are going to head over to Santa Croce and do a little more exploring.  So far I am loving it here, the food, the people, the sights...it's just a great city!  I also have found that people are super supportive of you trying to speak Italian, unlike what I experienced in Rome.  Even though mostly everyone here speaks English, they all will speak to you in Italian and if you don't understand they don't get annoyed, but try to work with you.  It's great!!  I have found that my Italian with ordering food is pretty great, but everything else...eh.  But I'm working on it and hopefully I can get there!

Pretty sunset on our walk to dinner

We made it!

After almost 24 hours of traveling we are finally in Florence AND connected to internet!!  I can't believe we are already here and settling into our apartment, when just yesterday (actually now it's 2 days ago) I was saying a tearful goodbye to my family.  The flights were actually pretty good, especially since we were upgraded to economy plus and were able to sit next to each other on the way over (that wasn't the case when we booked the flight)!  Flying into Geneva was gorgeous because we were surrounded by the alps and the sun was just rising.  We landed in Geneva around 1 am US time so we pretty beat and had a 4 hour layover so Courtney and my moods ranged from happy, delirious, exhausted, grumpy, then back to delirious again.  By the time we got on our Alitalia flight to Rome I didn't even have the energy to be terrified of flying and just slept the entire time.  I think that is the way I should go for flying from now on, just not sleep 24 hours before instead of taking xanax!  Alitalia totally redeemed itself from the nightmare I had on my first trip to Rome with them since they had a new plane, lots of room, and good snacks!  There was one casualty from our flights over though...one of the wheels from my 50lb suitcase was mysteriously missing when our luggage came out.  Missing wheel = heavy suitcase to basically drag around = crampy Jennie (combo of grumpy and cranky, coined by Matt).  Court was trying to keep me positive that at least I got my suitcase, and since I know how that feels from the first time I came to Rome she was right...i should be thankful it was just the wheel that was missing!  It did get harder to be thankful of that though as we were only really halfway through our journey...

The train into Rome was pretty uneventful, but the 2 hour layover in Termini was pretty hard.  We were so tired and hungry so we just parked ourselves and our bags in front of the train board and got a couple sandwiches to go and waited for our platform to be announced.  Our train to Florence was good I think...we slept the whole time so I'm not sure (I also accidentally drooled which was super attractive I'm sure, I don't think anyone saw though thank god).  Our cabbie in Florence was so cute and when he lifted my bag he exclaimed something to the effect of "AHH what is this filled with, Chianti??"  I would try to write that in Italian, but I don't want to embarrass myself this early in the game on my first blog :)

Our landlord was nice, a bit spacey, but we are pretty much all set up except when we turn on the tv there are no channels and it immediately starts a countdown from 5 minutes before it turns off...so weird. Our apt is super cute!  A bit smaller than the pics, but we unpacked all last night and settled in nicely.  We have a super cute balcony too where we plan on having tons of cappuccinos.  I can't wait to explore more, Court and I are just taking a siesta - part of our plan of living la dolce vita!  Soon we will head out for an aperitivo e vino and then we're going to test our kitchen with some pasta and veggies and of course more wine!

Here are some pics of the apt:

From top: dining/living room, view from the bed of the kitchen and then the view from our balcony! Kinda ominous outside today....


 Ciao ciao!