2nd Stop in Italy... FLORENCE!

Florence was absolutely amazing! By far my favorite place in Italy and possibly my favorite place in the world. We arrived in the afternoon and off we went to our hostel. It was called Plus Florence and was absolutely amazing. We were on the Plus Girls floor which meant we had an all girls room, the halls were pink, our rooms were pink and purple, we had hair dryers and towels included which was great. Our hostel even had a pool, a bar, restaurant, and computer lab. Once we had got into our hotel off we went to go exploring and find food. We walked around for a while did some shopping in San Lorenzo shopping center which was so great! They had tons of leather goods, scarves, souvenirs, and such. I ended up buying a couple scarves and even a cream colored peacoat which I absolutely love! After we did some shopping and had more fabulous Italian pizza we walked around for a bit more and ran into our friends Hana and Whitney from the study abroad program. So we decided to make plans to meet up with them later. We spent a bit more time in our hostel after that and then headed out to a music bar with the girls and their host. It was a bit loud in the music bar so somewhat hard to talk but the music was great and of course the wine was too.


The next morning we got on a bus and headed up to Fiesole, a hillside town on the edge of Florence. It was amazing! All of the trees were turning colors and it was a nice warm day. We walked around the town which was so cute and then went on a hike and saw beautiful views. We had a great time laughing and talking along the way and taking some amazing pictures as well. After our hike we went back to the little town and had great pizza at a little restaurant close to the bus stop and after lunch got on a bus and headed back into Florence. We went to see Accademia which is the museum where the real David sculpture is and there was also this great photography exhibit they had which was modern and I absolutely loved it. That evening we walked around a bit more and then just hung out in our hostel had dinner and drank cheap boxed wine all night.

The next morning we got up bright and early and headed out to climb the Duomo which was completely worth it but super hard. I got dizzy at points because of the spiral staircases and it was a tight walk up and a long walk up considering it was 468 stairs up and then all the way back down. It was rough but we made it and the view was great. We took lots of pictures and then headed back down. Off we went to get gelato and head to the Uffizi, which is one of the biggest museums I've ever been in and I'm not quite sure if the 10 euro we paid was worth it because it was a lot of the same stuff and not much of anything that was exciting. After that we went to the science museum which was pretty cool seeing some of the science artifacts and what not. Then off to the Ponte Vecchio bridge which was really beautiful. We took lots of pictures and walked over it then walked up to the hillside and sat up there to watch the sunset and again drink our lovely boxed wine. We got some amazing photos and had a ton of fun just chatting and people watching. Once we had finished up there we figured we'd head back and find dinner, unfortunately the oil shoppe where we wanted to eat was closed so we found another place where I had the best walnut and cream sauce pasta! On our walk back I had to pee so bad that I ended up running inside a hospital and the lady looked at me like I was crazy but I just ran in and found the bathroom and ran right back out. It was quite humorous but at least I made it! :) After our dinner we headed back to the hostel to hang out for a bit before Elise had to get on a train home and I ended up falling asleep and staying asleep all night. Luckily I got lots of sleep but didn't get a chance to go out that night. The next morning Betsy and I packed up our stuff and headed out to walk around the shops for a bit before we caught our train to Rome!

Florence was by far my favorite city. I had a great time there drinking wine and enjoying the fall weather. The changing colors of the trees and the rolling hills along with fabulous food made this city amazing. I am sure I will go back someday and hopefully many more times!