Firenze!

After a few weeks of saying that I wouldn't spend my money to go to Florence since I'm already going to be living there for four months, I caved. We have a week long break after our intensive italian course ended. Everyone in my program planned these great vacations to Greece, Amalfi, Paris, Oktoberfest, etc, but I really wanted to experience Roma while I'm here.

But I felt out of the loop so I went to Florence for the weekend. As I said in my last post, I missed my first train. Ended up being just fine. Got to Florence and met my friend, Maribeth, and her friends from school. We had a picnic at the steps of Santo Spirito. That was really nice. Cross the river with gelato in hand and went to Maribeth's apartment, very close to the Uffizi. We rested and went out for dinner and drinks for one of her friends birthdays. 

We woke up the next morning and walked to the Duomo to get a cappuccino and a cornetto. I planned on meeting up with some other friends from high school, Emma and Rosie, but we ended up being lost in communication. While Rosie was in the museum, I decided to walk around the city I will be living in. Florence is beautiful. Hands down. 

Difference between Rome and Florence:

1.) ROME IS HUGE. Florence is tiny. you can walk anywhere in Florence within just a few minutes. Not an issue at all. You have to plan for travel time in Rome, It could be close to an hour or two. 

2.) Things are very very close together in Florence. Rome is full of big streets for big traffic to travel down. The streets in florence are made for foot traffic, which I like a lot.

3.) It seemed like I only heard american study abroad students in Florence. Very high concentration of American girls in the areas I was in. Maybe I'm just not looking for it in Rome.

These cities are so different. I feel like once I get to Florence all I'm going to do is comparing it to Rome, trying to figure out which one I like more. I'm just enjoying Rome for now :)

When I arrived home Sunday night, there was a huge thunderstorm that kept me awake from 3am-5am. I skyped with an old co-worker which was so much fun but made my Monday very very lazy. 

Nothing else new here in Rome! Hanging out and being in awe day after day. Hopefully I'll wake up in time to see the Papal Audience tomorrow morning!

here are some photos from Florence:

 The Arno and the Ponte Vecchio

Baked goods at a Farmers market at Santo Spirito

 Fake David

Duomo and Clouds