Study Abroad Day 25: Day Trip to Florence

Our trip to Florence began with a bit of a rush! None of our alarms went off so we ended up waking up with thirty minutes until our train left. We got ready really quickly and headed out for the station. We made our train and watch the Tuscan countryside roll by as we traveled up to Florence. When we arrived we got of the train and realized we had no idea where to go! We wandered around aimlessly, turned a random corner then BOOM there was the duemo:

We walked around the Duemo for a while and found a Magnum ice cream shop. They are Cal's favorite ice cream so we had to stop in. we walked in and were shocked; you make a custom bar! I ordered dark chocolate with pretzels, cookies and brownies on top (:

Next we decided just to walk in one direction and see what we happened upon. As we walked down a side street it began to rain. I felt like we were in a movie rain drizzling and horse drawn carriages trotting down the little cobblestone streets.

We asked one of the store owners how we could get to the David statue, it was really close by so we headed there. Unfortunately we found out that the actual statue is in a museum and because we only had one day in Florence we decided to skip it an just see the replica. There were tons of people around so I didn't get a good photo of David but I did get this of Cal being a goof:

We headed over to the river and it literally took my breath away, the rain was almost gone and the lighting was just right. I could walk by this river all day and never get tired of seeing it:

We were all getting hungry so we asked a local for a recommendation and had an amazing authentic tuscan meal. I got a zucchini and linguine pasta dish, Cal got a chicken salad and Sam got ravioli with meat sauce. All of the food was amazing but we gobbled it up too fast to snap a picture. We continued to wander around and ended up in the beautiful Santa Maria Novella square. I loved this area because there were beautiful flowers in front of the impressive stone facade of the church.

We once again wandered back onto a side street and found ourselves in a square surrounded by shops, restaurants, street performers, a carousel and a huge arch. Im not sure what this area is called but it was an extremely interesting place to people watch:

By this time we were all beginning to hit a wall. We found a coffee shop sat down outside and drank some cappuccinos and discussed life. I love that Cal, Sam and I are getting so comfortable with each-other. Talking about everything from serious subjects to completely ridiculous inside jokes. I think we've made a life-long friend, and that makes me so happy.

We spent our last few hours wandering around again looking at shops and just people watching. Unfortunately it was time to head to the train station. We overestimated how long it would take to get there so we looked around in the station. I ended up ordering a happy meal from McDonalds to snack on the train. As you all know the adaptations that companies like McDonalds makes abroad is very interesting to me so I could help but give it a try. Sadly the train arrived and we had to leave the beautiful walking city of Florence:

Once again we watched the Tuscan countryside roll by. I decided to take a video from the window and hopefully you can get a taste of what I watched for an hour and a half on the way back to Rome.

We got back to Rome, showered packed and went to bed. We left early the next morning for Greece, so tried to fit in as much sleep as possible!

I'm so glad we got a change to see Florence! It was definitely my favorite Italian city; I'll have to come back and stay longer next time.

Look forward to a couple blogs about Greece tomorrow!

<3 Morg