why is the duomo following us?

This weekend I traveled to Florence to visit Chelsea and Deepan, two of my close friends from high school who are currently studying in London. A friend from the Accademia, Emily, and I hopped a train Friday afternoon to Florence, only an hour away! Chelsea and her two friends, Sarah and Gabby, arrived in Florence just an hour after I did. We stayed in a youth hostel just 5 minutes from the train station, and right in the midst of Florence. That night we met up with 3 other girls from Boston University, and ate at a restaurant called Dante. The food was delicious, and the wine was the best I've had in Italy so far, but they sat us in the lower level with a bunch of loud American students. The table next to us was being so loud and belligerent, that the rest of the tables ended up complaining to the manager, and we didn't have to pay for our wine that night. After dinner we got some gelato (naturally) and headed to an Irish bar. The entire ceiling of the bar was covered in t-shirts and banners of U.S. universities, including STONEHILL! Too cool. We ended up going to the same Irish bar the next night, and it was so crazy to be in Florence with two OA friends, with a t-shirt signed by Stonehill students. So much Easton in one room.


Saturday was amazing. We spent the morning walking around the market, and I purchased a few gifts for my family. We ended up running into Deepan and his two roommates, Theo and Tim, randomly in the marketplace around lunchtime. The seven of us went out to lunch at a really great pasta place, and after checked out the David and the Uffizi museum. Both Chelsea and Sarah are art history students, so they were able to tell us a lot about the statues, buildings, sculptures, paintings, etc. At night, we met up with some family friend's of Gabby's, who live together in Florence. Afterward, we met back up with Deepan Theo and Tim to go to a few bars. We ended up outside this bar called Moyo, undecided whether or not go in because it looked too expensive. A bartender came outside and told us to come in and look at the menu, but the rest of the group seemed uninterested. After a few minutes, he came out a second time and told us we'd get a free shot with every drink we purchase, convincing us all to come inside. It ended up being a really classy bar with a great DJ, and we stayed for at least an hour and got free shots out of it! We headed to the Irish bar afterwards, for lack of better plans, and called it a fairly early night in order to get the most out of our last day in Florence.

Sunday we climbed to the top of the city of Florence, to this location where you could see the entire city. Words cannot possibly describe how beautiful the view was. We found a hole in the wall sandwich shop named I Due Fratellini, where I got a freshly made tomato and mozzarella sandwich with white wine for only 4 euro. One of the great things about Italy is that wine is just as cheap as bottled water, and cheaper than canned soda. After Chelsea, Sarah, and Gabby left for their flight, I read on the steps of the Duomo for a while. I met up with Emily once again and we took an extremely long walk to go check out the NYU Firenze campus. The place was incredible, something like 6 acres. We ended the night with some amazing pizza and white wine, and a train back to Arezzo, getting us back home by 10:00.

This weekend I'll be heading to Rome with four friends and staying the weekend. Then I'll be taking a week long workshop in Butoh, a form of Japanese dance. And before I know it, SPRING BREAK! Emily, Alex, Kadie, and I (all Conn students) are spending six nights in Paris at the Marriott Champs-Elysees. The last friday I'll be hopping over to London to stay with Chelsea for the weekend, and then back to Italy on Sunday. So many great trips to look forward to. There is also Easter weekend, we booked three nights at Le Cinque Terre (http://www.lecinqueterre.org/eng/). Supposed to be a beautiful set of small towns by the ocean with lots of cliffs and hiking. There is also our schools trip to Naples. So much to look forward to!