Firenze

This weekend was my first free weekend in Italy, so Katie, Elena, Kailyn, Megan, Liz, Emily, and I took advantage of that by spending it in Florence. After an early wake up call at 5 AM Saturday morning, a taxi ride and two train fares later, we arrived in Firenze (Florence) at 10:30. We were immediately greeted with warmer weather and a beautiful sunny day.

 First, we headed to our hostel to drop off our backpacks then went to a local Trattoria for an authentic Italian lunch. My spaghetti was absolutely delicious! We then took in the leather market and started our way toward the Duomo (pictured above with Katie and Elena). I didn’t go into any museums, but there were plenty of beautiful churches to visit and marble statues everywhere! My favorite part of Florence was visiting Ponte Vecchio (Florence’s oldest bridge) and looking at all the gold stores. It was built in the 15th century and was Florence’s only bridge spanning the Arno left intact during World War II.

 By the bridge, we found these railings full of locks. Apparently couples come to Florence, write their initials on a lock, attach it to the railing, and throw away the key. The “love padlocks” are supposed to signify locking one’s soul to another.

 For dinner, we went to Pizzeria Yellow based on the recommendation of a nice lady we met. It was absolutely fabulous; best pizza and prosecco I have had so far! After dinner, we went to a bar for drinks then to Club Space. It was an interesting experience to say the least. Late night McDonald’s on the way back to Plus Florence Hostel was a great way to end the night in American Style.


Sunday, we had to check out of the hostel, buy train tickets, and find lunch. We stumbled upon this fantastic little sandwich shop on the eastern side of Florence while looking for the Oil Shop. After an incredible roasted turkey, brie, lettuce, and sun-dried tomato sandwich we did some last minute shopping before taking the 3:30 train to Padova then Bassano.


Once in Bassano, we had an hour to kill until the CIMBA bus was picking us up so we decided to find some dinner. After an intense search, we found Shanghai Chinese. SO GOOD! The sweet and sour chicken was even better than from home!

Also, last week we had our first formal dinner. It was hosted by Hotel Fior in Castelfranco. The food was great and the company was even better. Getting dressed up and practicing the etiquette we learned in Business, Culture and Society made it a very special occasion.

Ciao!