Firenze, Italy

We got to Florence at night. It was rainy and cold and we were all pretty exhausted. As the Alpha male (and the only male at that). I often took the lead of where we were going, what we were doing and how we were getting there. Sometimes (because we were in a different country and not all the streets are perfect grids like back home) I'd get a little lost and the girls would bitch. Florence was one of those occassions. Before heading out to Italy we had all booked hostels on our credit cards (a wise decision for anyone planning on coming over). The one in Florence was on my credit card so I had all the paper work. Finding the hostel was the most confusing thing in the world. It was so frustrating because we were all tired, it was late and we had no idea how to communicate with the people. I couldn't pronounce the name of the road the hostel was on and we'd ask for directions and we could hardly understand their English. However, for the most part Florence was swamped with American students and very tourist friendly. It was BY FAR my FAVORITE city in Italy. It was NOTHING as I had envisioned it. When I thought Florence I thought old, country side, cottage town with small stall markets, old people and rich in history. It was almost the opposite. It was very young, pretty trendy, artsy, kind of like a mini metropolis, but in this incredible old town rich in history.

For those of you wondering what there is to do in Florence the answer is NOTHING. There are probably two things to see in Florence. 1) The Duomo for which MichelAngelo modeled St. Peter's Basilica after 2) David which you have to pay to see inside The Accademia. There is a famous old bridge that is lined with shops that sell gold and silver jewlery. For the most part Florence is great for INCREDIBLE food, good shopping and an amazing night life. It really is a young person's city. We enjoyed it so much that we decided to stay one extra day instead of heading out to Pisa as we had planned. In Florence they had a few markets along the streets, but they didn't sell much of anything special. For the most part they all sold the same stuff. Leather hand bags, shot glasses (which I continued my tradition of collecting one from each city I had visited), t-shirts that read (Ciao Firenze, Ciao Bella, Ciao Ciao), and other little nothings. Sometimes you'd come across knocks offs.

It was actually pretty funny because you have these guys who'd lay out these sheets in the middle of the street and put out their fake hand bags for people to look at. Thing is it's illegal for them to do it, so when cops would drive by they'd grab the sheet up and stand there until the police left. There were like 8 of them on a single side walk with this massive sheet over their shoulders standing there. The police aren't dumb to it, and the guys obviously look suspicious holding this giant bundle, but they don't do anything about it. Even funnier was the guys who sold the sun glasses. They would tape the sunglasses down a cardboard box that folded up nicely if they had to make a quick clean up. They had it all planned out.

I ate really well in Florence. As we were looking for a hostel the night we got there. I walk into this random Irish bar called the Old Stone to see if they knew where the address was. As soon as I walk in, in the back of the bar there's a kid sitting there with this girl. He looks up and I think to myself. Holy shit I think I know him. He gets up and walks over to me and it turns out that he lived on my floor in Rawlings freshman year. We hung out a couple of times and he was studying in Florence for the semester. It was so crazy to run into someone I knew from UF all the way across the world. It was really fucking cool. He told us about this great restaurant that everyone in Florence hits up when they are there. It's called Acqua al 2. We waited almost 2 hours and finally sat down to eat at 11:30 p.m. to eat dinner, but it was entirely worth it. I had the most amazing cannaloni's and strawberry cheesecake of my life. The restaurant was amazing. It was filled with locals and young kids my age from the U.S. and all over. I'd never seen so many cute girls in one room.

Our hostel turned out to be really great. Again, it was not as I had imagined hostels to be. This one was a loft apartment that had one room converted into a room with 6 beds on one floor and 5 beds upstairs. We shared the room with two New Zealand grad students backpacking for Spring Break. This Italian guy lived there and it was run by a family that also owned a restaruant downstairs. When we first walked in one of the guys was cooking and it smelled delicious. The place was clean, well kept and not at all sketchy. If and when I return to Florence I'd stay there again. If you knew me I USE to be the pickiest S.O.B. in the world, but since being abroad I've toned that down a SIGNIFICANT amount and I've learned to suck it up and take things for what they are worth.

I'm convinced that America has Americanized Italian food because nothing I ate while in Italy tasted like the Italian food that is found in America. First off they don't use as much marinera sauce as American makes it seem. The don't call it marinera sauce its Margherita sauce. Their chicken parm isn't fried and breaded like you always see and it's cooked in a fine white wine. The great thing about the food was that you would always leave stuffed, but you never felt greasy or nasty afterwards. Also, all the portions are seperate. They aren't as gluttonous as Americans are. You order your pasta seperate from your main meal. In moderate portions, but just enough to fill you up and keep you satisfied. The downside to dining in Italy was that they charge you for bread, that's not hot, the charge you a cover to eat (usually 2 euro which is about $3), but you aren't expected to tip.

After eating at Acqua al 2 we wanted to continued the binge eating at insanely delicious restaurants. So, we found the No. 1 place to eat in Florence. Mama Gimma's. HOLY SHIT. I can't describe the amazing pasta/cannaloni thing I had there stuffed with ham and cheese or the chicken parm with a side of spinach. Granted the meal cost about $27, but it was well worth every penny. How can you go to Italy and be stingy about spending money on delicious food. It was in Florence that me and the guys became fantatical about finding Cannoli's. Turns out they aren't customary to the Tuscany area which is where Florence is located. However, Florence is home to some of the BEST gelato. No matter where you go in Florence you can't go wrong stopping at any gelato bar and getting a few scoops.

While I was there I got this sweet scarf that says Italia with it's flag and crest on it. I'm gonna hang it in m room in the new apartment that's going to be decked out in crap I pick up from all over Europe. Pretty sweet.

We said Ciao to Firenze on Thursday morning as we headed on a 5 hour train ride to Veniza. We said ciao to 3 of the girls and the guys from South Kensignton. I was left with just 3 girls traveling to Venice.