Walking in Florence

Florence is a beautiful city. With each turn there is another beautiful postcard perfect picture. I have done a lot of walking around so far and have noticed a few interesting things. The sidewalks are just as narrow as the streets so walking single file is necessary a lot of the time. Sometimes the streets are fairly empty and you can walk right down the middle.

One of my favorite things is the number of people with dogs. I see them all the time! Big dogs and little dogs! Florence is a dog party. No golden retrievers yet, but I did see a Saint Bernard today. I amazes me the number of people with dogs in a city! We went to the market yesterday and I saw a dog just chillin’ in the middle of all these street vendors. There were people everywhere and he was just hanging out. It was so cute!

Yesterday and today I have put major walking time on my feet. I went shopping with some people yesterday afternoon at a huge indoor marketplace. It had everything from cheese, pasta, fresh meat and fish, fruit, veggies and wine J It was really neat and I plan on doing a lot of grocery shopping there since it is only a few blocks from my school. First, however, I must learn what everything is so I have some idea what it is I am ordering exactly. Hahaha After that we talked to some people trying to get us to go to a certain bar later that night. While we were having this conversation Ryan got pooped on by a pigeon. I thought this was absolutely hilarious. Sadly while I was laughing at him I was also targeted and was nailed by a direct hit to the shoulder. DISGUSTING! The people we were with said it was a sign of good luck. Yuck! They did give me a flyer that they were handing out to wipe it off with. Hahaha.

After that we headed back to some friends apartment to make lunch. Fresh bread, some spaghetti and a bottle of wine makes for a wonderful afternoon with some pretty cool people. It was neat to get to see an apartment to compare with my hostel living arrangement. The apartment was really cute and it would be nice to have a living room and kitchen, but I am pretty happy with where I’m at. After a late lunch (every meal is later in Italy) I wandered back to my place to see my roommates after their orientation. I decided to go with Isabell and some of her friends to sign up for one of the school offered trips. They are kind of expensive, but I really want to grab any opportunities I can when it comes to traveling. I signed up for a weekend excursion to Switzerland and Lake Como the end of September. I was really lucky because I was able to talk the guy into taking one more person since the trip was already full J

After that we wandered around a little bit more just taking everything in. We decided to stop at a pizzeria to grab some dinner and I split a pizza with Isabell and Jessica. It was fun to sit there and chat. That is one thing I like about Italian restaurants, they have no problem with you just sitting there after your meal. They are in no rush for you to pay your bill and leave. However, this does make it challenging sometimes to get their attention to bring it to the table.

I was pretty pooped…literally so I went home to shower. Then we went back to the guys apartment for a little party before checking out some Italian nightlife. The first place we went was all American students. It was so weird and packed! I was not a big fan and we didn’t stay long. We ended up just wandering around looking for some other place to go. We did find an amazing gelato place. I am coming to realize that pretty much every gelato place is the best gelato place J I had a flavor that was just called Mucho Gusto. And it was! Yum! We stopped at another club Obri’ maybe? and had a fabulous time just dancing. The club was right near Piazza Santa Croce and we ended up just sitting out there for a while. Then some guy from Spain tried to get us to go to some sketchy sounding party and that was our cue to head home. It took sometime to find exactly where we were, but then we were headed home.

I slept in this morning and then went out exploring again with the roomies. We found some fabulous little market places with great stuff. I bought some delicious orange/malt biscotti. It is so good! I also purchased some marmalade stuff that is yummy, yummy. I am not sure what it is exactly Pere alle Spezie but I like it!

We wandered over to the Piazza della Signoria near the Palazzo Vecchio and the Uffizi gallery. Now this is tourist central! It was packed with people! The same is true with the Duomo during the day. It is just crazy the number of people!

Now I am back in my room. Not sure what to do for the rest of the evening. I think I want to go out again tonight, but I am not sure. I got pretty homesick again today knowing that everyone is at Cow Chip right now. I miss being with people that know the real me and I know them. I am really enjoying the time I spend with my roommates and I hope they are too. I suppose I should get going and find something fun to do tonight. Only a few days left until classes start!