6:30 Friday morning came too early as 9 of us departed from the Rome Center to a bus to the metro to the 4-hour train ride to Florence. 1:00 we arrived in Florence, we unfortunately got off at the wrong stop, but the extra
half hour of walking allowed us to fully explore the city.
We crossed the famous Ponte Vecchio Bridge to get to our hostel. Our hostel was located directly across from the Palazzo Pitti or the Pitti Palace, so it was easy to find.
The 4 girls shared a 2 bed room and the 5 boys had a luxurious 4 bed room - each with our own bath rooms. A great first hostel experience. We grabbed some pizza and then checked out the sweet palace across the street. Over the years, the palace housed originally Luca Pitti, and later the Medicci family, and Napoleon. However, the palace now serves as a museum after Victor Emanuel III donated the palace and and its contents to the Italian people.We explored an exhibit of Italian stolen art - very interesting. The royal apartments were awesome - it was Hogwarts meets Tudors.
After we checked out the church and the tombs we headed toward the Duomo, or the Basilica Santa Maria del Fiore. We went in the church first, which was, as most basilicas are, huge and beautiful! We then paid to climb to the top of the Duomo (Dome). It was my favorite thing we did in Florence. 650+ stairs that turned into basically a ladder at the end was definitely worth it. We left for the hostel and had some of Florence's famous gelato on the way. We went home, dried up and headed back out to the supermercato to get some sandwich supplies for a low-cost dinner.
Later that night brought... karaoke. Sometimes I forget I don't live in Glee. Don't Stop Believin' was not a crowd pleaser... surprising in a crowd of Americans. We ran into my room mate, Emily and a few other Loyolans around the city and when we were out at night. It seemed as if everyone went to Florence this weekend.
We stopped in Pisa on the way home, and did the classic pictures - we had to. Green man made an appearance, and then it was back to Rome!
This week is full. Wednesday I start my service for my service learning course. I was placed working with the Sisters of Charity - Mother Theresa's order. Sounds like hard manual labor on Wednesday mornings. Then we have a scheduled Papal audience Wednesday afternoon and our first Calcio (soccer) tournament Wed. evening. I was placed on team Chocolate. My brown t-shirt is undoubtably the ugliest of the jerseys.
Florence was definitely put in the Win column, the only thing we didn't see was Michelangelo's David, because there is an exact free replica outside. This weekend I'll be in Rome finalizing Spring Break w/ Anne Marie and Nick and Munich with Emily. Spring Break looks like it's going to be Barcelona and Paris - and then a girl's weekend in Germany while the guys do Brofest Budapest. More on my adventures later. I'll say hi to Pope Benedict for you.
LOVE, LEX
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