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