Ciao Bello

next stop:

frienze, italia 

arriving in florence on the 11th, this was one of our longest stops. we planned to stay here for four days because we stayed with our friends from roger. earlier in the semester the boys came to visit us in london, so of course we had to go visit them in florence where they are all studying for the term. they have an awesome apartment in florence, so the four of us stayed on their pull out couches, talk about a money saver! well we arrived in florence, and jade, erin and i decided to sit outside of the station on the grass while we waited for rachels train to come in as well as for the boys to get out of class. 

well, that was a bad life decision. after about 10 minutes we noticed some lady standing awkwardly close to us. and then two minutes later she sat right next to me. i knew right away something was up .. out of all the grass that is wide open u decide to sit so close to me your practically on my lap. really lady?! well, the three of us just looked at each other and pulled out stuff close to us. then erin looked around and saw another guy looking at that lady, so she said

 'hey girls, wanna go inside now, rachels train is here' 

and sure enough the lady got up and walked away as soon as we picked up our stuff.

well thinking we just got out of a potentially bad situation, we headed back into the station. and then we realize that the guy clearly working with her, followed us into the station. so we moved closer to the tracks and stood next to the information booth, where this guy creepishly walked laps around us. seriously... your really going to try and steal our stuff, when we are well aware of what your doing. i was about to turn around and tell him to give up, because clearly we're watching our stuff. go find some other people that are dumb tourist and not paying attention and leave us alone. so after about 40 minutes of being creeped on, rachel arrive and the boys showed up. thank god. 

the boys had to go back to class shortly after that, so they took our suit cases, handed us a map and sent us on our way. so we ventured around florence for the after noon and enjoyed the beautiful 75 degree weather... starting off with lunch.

potentially, the greatest pizza ive ever had.

after lunch we just strolled around the city. after some walking we headed over to see 'the fake david' which was outside in a piazza. 

the real one is in the museum and your not allowed to take photos, so this is as good as it gets. then we headed across the river near where the boys have studio so we could meet up with them after. well we attempted to look for a park to hang out in and the first spot we found was a garden. it was beautiful but not the type of place with people lounging out on the grass [hence the stay off the grass signs], so we strolled through and then continued to look for another place. 

erin took our the map and looked for another place to go. we headed down the street to what we thought was a park. well funny story, it ended up being an area that looked like a large green park on the map, but was really completely unaccessible and surrounded by walls. well of course we didnt know that so we just kept walking and looked for the entrance. about an hour later, after we had walked up quite possibly the highest high in florence we gave up and headed down. then i took the map from erin, and realized that we were supposed to go to a little tiny park across the street from studio, not the place that she though aka where we ended up. wahhhh, tash was not to happy. 

luckily, jade captured the moment when i had a mild breakdown. for the record: no, i do not wear my backpack on the front. i actually cannot stand the people who do that. you might as well walk around with tourist tattooed on your forehead. seriously, you look dumb. once we got to the top i was sweating, and my back was killing me so i took my back pack off for a minute and it just ended up in the front. not my proudest moment. although, the girls find it to be one of the funniest pictures from our whole trip! 

frazzled. 

well funny story... not so funny, we walked around forever and have decided to agree to disagree when it comes to pointing fingers to the person who is responsible for getting us lost. 

(cough, erin, cough) 

then we met the boys and headed back to the apartment to make dinner and hang out. then next day we woke up with intention of frolicking around florence, but while walking into the city, we decided to go to pisa instead. no big deal. (detail to follow in the next entry) after about a three hour trip we arrived back in florence and then had a late lunch and walked around the leather market. i wanted to buy everything! while walking around we ended up running into our friends from london, go figure right? small world. so we all went out and had some snacks and drink for happy hour and then we met up with our other friends from roger and grabbed some gelato. once again ....delicious!!!

pretty sunset. 

the next morning we woke up early to head to the duomo. well, about 400 and something steps later .... we made it to the top ... and it was well worth it. incredible view of the city. 

what up florence? 

jade. erin. me. rachel

outside of the duomo

after we headed to a little shop for lunch and then went back to the market to pick up some last minute nick nacks. then we headed back to the area near studio (and didnt get lost this time!) to meet up with the boys. then we headed to the piazza de michelangelo where we had another beautiful view of the city. 

the girls. <3 

erin. bird. me 

after, we hustled over to a restaurant for our last family dinner and then went out for a night on the town with everyone. the next morning we packed up and headed to the train station. it was so nice to see the boys again, but weird that we wont see them again until we move back in to school in august ... i dont like that! we spend alot of time in florence and i absolutely loved it. of course we did alot more than what i mentioned, but if i went into every stop i'd be here writing forever, and lets face it ... i cant focus of that long anyway. over all impression of florence, absolutely beautiful. if you havent been you should go but  i am glad that i didnt decide to study there because its small. i think i would have been bored after a while. then again i guess that would happen anywhere you decided to go eventually. 

phrases of the day:

lets go

andiamo! 

[ on-dee-ah-mo ]

all aboard. 

next stop:

roma. 

andiamo!