Sunday, December 1, 2013

463 Stairs to my Heart

This is my second to last post, and probably my last post while I'm here in Italy. This past week and weekend have flown by faster than I thought they would and hoped they would. Not gonna lie, I've been hoping these days would past by fast, but after the last two days I don't want this journey to end. I've been hanging out with the girls in my apartment and I love it. They remind me of my friends back in the 802. This past Friday and Saturday compete with some of my best days abroad and would be considered my tourist days. 

Last weekend I had a super relaxing weekend, didn't get outta bed until 12 or 1 everyday. Pretty much all I did was sleep and relax and walk around Florence taking pictures. On Sunday I woke up and went for a 4 mile run, nothing compared to the people that were taking part in the Florence marathon. However, I ran where I typically don't and saw a different and beautiful part of Florence. I swear each time I go out, I see something new and different. There are times where I can't wait to go back home and other times I wanna stay here. I guess this is pretty common for those who study abroad. 

The view of the Arno River on my run

This past week I got two written finals done with, that leaves 2 more written finals and one photography final which I finished tonight.

Last weekend we celebrated one of my friend's 21st birthdays and it was one for the record books. I ended up meeting up with the girls at Kikuya after our pizza making class ended and we came home and got changed. It was a fun night at Kikuya filled with dragoons, wine, fish bowls and alot more alcohol. Basically majority of our program took over the bar's back room, everywhere you looked you saw Richmond students.

Wednesday night I went out around dusk/sunset to take some pictures for my last photo project. I decided to do Florence at night and it was my best decision. I love seeing Florence lit up at night, especially if I'm near the Arno river because the lights reflecting on the river are beautiful. It's almost like an illusion, it's kinda like being able to flip the picture 180 degrees and never knowing that you flipped the picture. 


The carousel at Piazza Repubblica 


Thursday night we celebrated Thanksgiving here Italian style with some American flair. Our program put on a beautiful spread for us at Palazzo Borghese, I truly can't even describe the place. It was gorgeous, people use this type of building to get married in or have their reception. It was hugeee and had so many rooms. We started off with pumpkin risotto served out of a pumpkin. I'm not big on pumpkin flavored food but this was so good. After that we had spinach and ricotta cheese raviolis. Then it came time for the bird, we had turkey with chestnut stuffing and gravy, mashed potatoes and carrots. We ended the night with pumpkin pie, apple pie, and brownies. Honestly it was all soooo delicious. It wasn't like Thanksgiving at home but it is definitely a Thanksgiving I will always remember. 
The beautiful room we were in

The girls at dinner

SMC takes on turkey day via Firenze 

The bird

This past week the Christmas markets opened up in Santa Croce, they are unbelievable  The whole piazza is filled with different booth selling sweets, to German pretzels, hot dogs, cheese, meats, jewelry, pretty much you can find anyting at the market. We made it to the market on Friday after we climbed the dome of the duomo in the center of Florence. There are about 463 stairs to the top of the dome, and they aren't your typical stairs. They are straight up, spiral etc. The climb is easily worth it because the view is AMAZING. It looks all over Florence and we went up on a clear day so we could see the mountains in the distance. It was such a great way to spend part of the day, seeing the city that holds my heart. After climbing the duomo we made our way to San Lorenzo where all the leather vendors and scarf vendors. This is always such a hard place for me to be because it's so tempting to buy something. All I'll say is I came out with one purchase that I LOVE. After San Lorenzo we finally made our way to the Christmas markets where I was on the hunt for a German pretzel. We found a booth that had at least 10 different kinds of pretzels, I opted for an asiago cheese pretzel, it was sooo good. Germans definitely do make the best pretzels, and the Czechs. After our day spent out wandering the city, we made it back to our apartment for naps, shows and in my case editing my pictures. For dinner me and Nicole did Gusta Pizza, which was amazing. We both got the pesto pizza, and I don't think I've had a better pizza minus the one we make when we make our own. 
Candy on candy on more candy at the Christmas market

The view from the top looking at the bell tower



Roomies



A view through one of the peep holes making our way up to the top

Pesto Gusta Pizza

THIS PANINO


Saturday a few of us girls got our act together for 1:30 and headed to the Uffizi, a must see museum which I saw the last weekend of my trip, but at least I'm getting there…It was cool to see some of the paintings I had talk about in some of my classes and actually knew some stuff about it. But the museum is HUGE, so of course more or less I knew nothing about what I was looking at. After walking around the entire gallery, which took us some time. We headed to this place that my photo teacher showed up for lunch. This place I struggled to find since the first time I had it probably the first or second week I was in Florence. But 2 weeks ago when we had lunch at a restaurant 2 doors down I was in heaven, I could finally find my way back to this tiny little shop that is always filled with super nice older Italians. I got a rosetta bread with what we think is goat cheese soaked in hot olive oil with peppers, and prosciutto. It's so good. We followed up the paninis with mouth watering gelato from Vivoli's which is right across the street, yet another place my photo professor showed me. He went there when we was a kid and still goes there. I got tiramisu, I've never had such amazing gelato before. After feeding ourselves full we headed back to the apartment and chilled before we headed to dinner around 7:30. We went to Tarocchi, which was so good. I got the penne with spicy tomato sauce, so good and eggplant parm. After dinner we came back and some of the girls got ready to go out so we all hung out in the living room drinking some vino, prosecco, and birra. 
Tiramisu gelato

Sunday we didn't do much because it was so cold. We postponed seeing the David until Tuesday, I didn't mind. All I wanted was my bed and to spend the day watching movies. 



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