My Adventure Blog: Firenze!

I apologize for falling so far behind on the blog everyone. These past few weeks have gone by so fast! Two weekends ago (February 21 and 22) my roommates and I went to Florence for a few days. Florence (aka Firenze) is only a two hour train ride from Rome. And while Rome is known for the art and accomplishments of the ancient Romans, Florence is a renown Renaissance city. For instance Michelangelo's famous David sculpture is housed in a museum there. Unfortunately I didn't have the time to go and see the sculpture but I here its breathtaking.

I spent the weekend with Mackenzee, Mackenzie, Shannon, Katie, Amanda, Stephanie, Maddie, and Kirsten exploring all of the churches and markets Florence has to offer. Il Duomo is the renaissance age church that Florence is most known for. Il Duomo was impressively decorated on the outside but it was surprisingly stark on the inside. The markets were my favorite part of Florence. Florence is renown for its leather, and the leather market did not disappoint. I bargained with the vendors (in mostly Italian, yay me!) and bought myself a leather jacket and purse for a great deal! Florence also has a great indoor food market. You can buy nearly any kind of fruit, vegetable, meat, fish, pasta, oil, cheese, spice, bread, and or baked good at this market. It was incredible. And all of the food is so fresh; the heads of a lot of the animals were proudly on display in the meat cases to prove this point.

My friends and I decided we wanted to spend a night in Florence so we all stayed in a hostel together. The hostel was actually really nice and really cheap which is always great. The best meal I had in Florence was pizza from this place called Gusta's. Pizza in Italy is a lot different than pizza in the U.S. Instead of tomato sauce, most pizzerias use slices tomatoes or some kind of cheese or oil sauce as a base. The pizza I had at Gusta's had tomatoes, spinach, and two kinds of cheese. It was delicious. And it was HUGE. I ate the whole thing of course.

Florence is a much smaller city than Rome; even though it was small it was still pretty. I don't know how many of you know this, but I had to choose between studying abroad in Rome or in Florence. I'm so incredibly happy I chose Rome. Florence is just so much smaller than Rome and a lot of American students choose to study in Florence so the city seemed to be set up for american students and tourists. Rome is obviously a major tourist city as well, but in Rome I think it is easier to get away from the tourist areas because the city is so massive. I enjoyed my time in Florence but one weekend there was enough for me!

Enjoy the pictures of Firenze!