Italy part 1: Florence

For spring break number two, we went to visit some of our dear friends who were studying abroad and living in an apartment in Florence, Italy. Some of us stayed there but not all of us because it would have been so crowded. I stayed in a hostel with 3 other girls, and the hostel owner Vito was a crack up. He kept texting me on my Spanish go phone all day long anticipating our arrival. We had to keep texting him different arrival times due to our inability to figure out how trenitalia (the train service in Italy) worked.

I absolutely had to be at the hostel by 4pm because that was my time to register for classes at UNC. And since I'm in the school of Journalism, the classes are really hard to get because everyone needs the same ones to graduate. So, I was feeling very stressed. We had actually flown into Bologna at 1:30, which is only a 1 hour train ride to Florence, so technically we should've been able to take the 2:00 train to Florence and be there in plenty of time. However, we ended up missing the 2:00 train. So, we thought "that's ok, we can take the 3:00 one and still make it," except NOT because the 3:00 train SOLD OUT to the people IN FRONT OF US IN LINE!! I almost cried. So we had to buy 4:00 tickets and I proceeded to have a panic attack.

As I was freaking out, I had the brilliant idea that we should just ask if there's room on the 3:00 train. A trenitalia guy told us that we could walk on if we didn't mind standing, so that is what we did, although I think that is illegal. Thank God no one checked our tickets and we got to Florence in plenty of time! I got to the hostel with a few minutes to spare, used Vito's laptop to register, and literally got every single class I needed. God is good!

Florence was awesome and it was so incredibly refreshing to see all my friends there! It was amazing to be able to experience their city and see first hand what they do on a day to day basis in Italy. The very first night, they cooked all kinds of delicious food for us, including little chicken paninis, cous cous, bean salsa, bruchetta, and so much more. I was stuffed by the end of it! After catching up with everyone, we all decided to go check out the Italian night life..which was very interesting to say the least. We went to some dance club place on their street thinking that we could just stay in our group and dance with each other. Little did we know, we got absolutely swarmed by Italians who wanted to talk to and dance with the Americans. It was so crowded and hot and a little scary being targeted like that, so we didn't last long there. It was kind of a shame because the music was good and we would have enjoyed it had we been not been attacked.



Cobb 255 REUNITED. classic.




The next day, we got up early and went to see the David statue, which I didn't expect to be so absolutely HUGE. It is so humongous. I was really impressed by it. The sculpture is so intricate and life-like and just really big; I can't even fathom how he did it. Mad props, Michelangelo!!

Later that day we climbed the tower of the Duomo and got to see some amazing views of Florence from way up high. We also went to the Arno and went to some markets. Then we went for gelato (of course), which in fact is the best in Italy. I had white chocolate and mango and it was delicious. It was one of many gelatos that I ate while in Italy. After relaxing a little bit, we got ready to go to dinner at this awesome place that I can't remember the name of, but it was cool because it was like a buffet of lots of different foods. They had a deal that if you buy a drink, you get to eat off the buffet for free, and that is what we all did. The food was awesome and the restaurant was all-together a cool experience.

Duomo:


Duomo:


at the Arno:


After dinner we went up to this lookout point that I also can't remember the name of, but it was gorgeous. We climbed and climbed to the top to encounter a breath-taking view of all of Florence. Great night!




The next day we took the train to Pisa, to see the leaning tower of course. Pisa is a cute and quaint town with really not much in it but the tower, but it was fun to walk around for the morning. The leaning tower is still leaning, in case anyone was wondering, and it really is surprising that it doesn't fall over. We took all the typical pictures holding it up and such, although it was pretty difficult because we had to stand on these little rounded columns to get the pictures to look right. Not as easy as it looks!



Side note: McDonalds in Italy has really awesome milkshakes for 1 euro.

That night we met back up with the Florence girls and went out to dinner at a nice Italian restaurant and I had some awesome lasagna. I can't explain how awesome it was to meet up with good friends in Europe after being apart for months. God blessed for sure! As for the Spain girls, it was off to Rome in the morning!

Everyone: