This weekend we traveled to Florence as a whole group for our
first weekend together. After spending last weekend in Venice, I it would be
hard to have another weekend that could compare, but I could not have been more
wrong… Florence was just as amazing!
We traveled to Florence on a fast train from Rome Termini.
It was a rather early morning when we left campus on Friday, but luckily
everyone was excited and ready to go, so we were able to leave on time. It was
also great to get to travel by fast train as a group first, that way we could
learn how to do it before we had to do it on our own our free weekend trip to
Cinque Terre that’s coming up! So a fast train… as the name implies, is very
fast! We traveled at an average speed of 300 kilometers per hour (about 180mph)
for about an hour and a half through beautiful Tuscany until we had to switch
from the fast rail to a regular rail due to high wind conditions! Sadly, that
gave us a 45-minute delay in our arrival but we made it to Florence safe and
sound even if it was a little later than we had anticipated.
We checked into our wonderful hotel, Domus Florentiae Hotel,
and then took a quick tour of the city, courtesy of Danilo. He brought us to
the Porcellino Fountain to touch the mouth of the bronze boar and leave a coin
for a wish. For lunch he introduced us to one of the best-kept secrets of
Florence: the Kabob! (From a tiny little shop on Via del Neri) A massive
burrito filled with lettuce, tomato, cabbage, cheese, yogurt sauce, hot sauce,
a delicious mystery sauce, and fresh carved beef or chicken. It was seriously
the best lunch so far.
After our delicious meal we went to the Ponte Vecchio Bridge
and then to the Galleria Dell Accademia where we got to see the David. This was
definitely something that I had been looking forward to the most, and it was
everything I had hoped it would be. When you first see the David, I found it
hard to look away because it is literally perfection in marble form. The detail
and accuracy is absolutely unbelievable. It was like once I was finally able to
look away, I had to look back again. Absolutely amazing.
After a busy day, it was great to relax with the group and
enjoy a delicious dinner together. Afterwards, Professor and Danilo brought us
to their favorite gelato place and then us students went to an Irish pub just a
block away from our hotel. We shared plenty of laughs at the bar and all ended
up getting a great night of sleep after such a long day!
Saturday morning we got breakfast at the hotel and set off
for our trip to the Uffizi museum. It was so incredible to experience this art
museum, the highlight definitely being the Birth of Venus by Botticelli. Later
that afternoon we did a little shopping in some of the local leather stores,
went to the market, and got to go into the Church of Santa Croce. We also got
to try out Arnold’s Coffee, a branch of Starbucks that is in Italy, and I had
some more delicious Italian hot chocolate. For our last night in Florence, we
all shared a traditional (and delicious!) Tuscan dinner at a restaurant
together.
Sunday morning the four girls in our group got mimosa flowers for Festa della Donna, the Day of the Women! After we went to mass at the Cathedral of Santa
Maria del Fiore. The mass was said completely in Latin and included Gregorian chants.
A few of us were asked to help with collecting the offering which was
definitely an exciting experience!! How many people can say they did collection
in Santa Maria del Fiore?! After church we went got to enjoy an American
breakfast (our first breakfast of eggs and bacon and pancakes in a few weeks!!)
at this cute restaurant called The Diner. It was funny to see the Italian view
of Americans… the whole place was painted in bright pink, orange, and yellow,
had posters of a few American rock n’ roll artists, and posters from California
and Florida.
Afterwards we checked out of our hotel and caught our fast
train back to Rome Home. It’s always bittersweet to leave after a wonderful
weekend away, especially when our travel weekends always seem to go so fast,
but it is always nice to come back and sleep in our own dorm beds. We’ve got
another full week ahead of us, so it was nice to get back at a decent time and
have a little time to unwind before Monday morning.
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| Me sitting by the Old Bridge |
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