For breakfast, I got...wait for it...tuna and egg on bread, they actually had that! I know my dad and grandma usually mix the two, but I never know the Italians did as well! That amazing looking brown thing to the right is the Italians take on "Hot Chocolate"...more to come on that later!
We then waited at the bus stop right next to our hostel. That church is where our hostel was because our hostel was a previously renovated commune.
Before our tour at 11 AM, we went to the indoor food market!
There was everything you could imagine!
Fruits and veggies...
Cheeses and breads...
More ginormous sized breads...
Pizzas...
Meatballs, lasagna...
Dips galore...
Dried fruit and nuts...
And of course fresh pasta! I was in heaven. I got a half kilo of biscotti. They were the greatest things in the world. I got a pistachio and chocolate one and a hazelnut and chocolate one! The best thing is that they have an online store, so I can get them shipped to me when I am back in the states too! :P
So we met with our tour guide, and started the tour. One stop was at this spot. That plaque on the wall has a line, and that line shows how high water came up to in a flood that they had once in Florence. It was really high! I think it was about almost as tall as me!
This next stop almost 30 feet away was once a wine canteen. People came here to fill up on wine! Pretty funny!
Since it was pouring, our guide took us to some covered up spots, and I could not help but take a picture of the rain because it was so nice along with the beautiful structure.
This was where we took shelter!
And those rings were so the princes and kings and all could tie up there horses. It was a horse parking lot!
We then continued our tour, passed the ferrari store
Saw some towers
Saw some old medieval, Roman architecture
And then came across the greatest Pinocchio store ever!
And this is what I would look like if I were Pinocchio!
At this point, my friends and I were a little coo-coo, and tired of walking, so we ended up ditching the tour. Out our guide ran back looking for us and we came up with the excuse that we were hungry and had to eat!
But we really just kept walking around and decided to head back to the Duomo to check out the inside of it!
This is the inside of the Duomo!
And a part of it had this amazing ceiling!
The big front door!
After we got out, we stumbled upon lindt chocolate and of course had to go in. Look at the size of these chocolate truffles!
And look at all the pretty colors!
But we knew we had to eat lunch first! So we went to Astors, the jersey shore cast went here to eat often!
We got mozzarella sticks to share, and I got a burger! YUM!
And after, to satisfy our craving, we each got a little truffle
We passed by the chocolate store Venchi again, and found these chocolate sinks. I need one of these installed in my apartment in VT pronto!
We walked down another side of the bridge
And decided to cross this one. We were in search of Piazzale Michaelangelo!
That's me crossing the bridge!
Oh, and these are my silly friends!
We followed some signs, walked up some steps and came to this view and little garden in front of it.
It was lovely...and then started to pour!
Maybe that's why they has this boat here?
I did make a new friend! He helped us find our way to the really tippy top!
This is a big leaf I saw on the floor
After a couple of steep steps, we got to the top, and it was the most amazing site I have ever seen, prepare yourselves for lots of gorgeous, jealous-making pictures...
A view from the top
The whole city of Florence
And more
I cant seem to stop taking photos of it
Zoomed in
The bridge that you see is the Ponte Vecchio that we visited the other day
Another angle
More views
Jill and I!
Me!
And me again, really happy
While we were at the top, there was some type of film shoot going on, but we were too scared to ask what it was for, but this view is the perfect place to shoot a scene in a film
Especially a love story/romantic film
Another statue with no clothes on, it seems to be a theme in Florence
The mountains!
Goodbye beautiful view!
Our descent down the mountain! Glad I got to share that memory with all my lovely friends!
As we were heading down, it literally down poured as if the city has never had rain before. It was pellets of rain, and poor Jill did not have an umbrella and got soaked :(
So we got back to the center and of course, George Clooney came back into my life yet again with another one of his Nespresso stores. I sware he is stalking me! hehe
Since we were all wet and cold we got hot chocolate, and this hot chocolate was literally chocolate heated up. It tasted like warm chocolate pudding, I am not complaining anything, but I promised you all an explanation in the beginning about the Italian ways of hot chocolate! I told my friends that they either tried to copy our American hot chocolate and just didn't understand the concept and ended up melting chocolate and serving it in a mug or we the Americans took it from the Europeans, were too lazy to melt chocolate, and added some preservative and steroids and other things so that it could be kept fresh in a packet you throw into hot water. I am not sure, you guys can decide for yourselves
This is Evelyna and I in our new scarves that we got for 10 euro!
After this, we decided to go back to the hostel, grab some food, and call it a night since we had to be up early.
Last thing, the next morning I got up at 6:45 to go catch the train for 8:20, only to find out after I got dressed and packed up that it was daylight savings time! So it really was not 6:45 but it was 5:45. To say the least, my friends were quite mad at me for waking them, and I was mad at myself for not getting my extra hour of sleep! But oh well, I slept on the ride home, got back to my apartment, rested, did some work for school, made dinner, and passed out for the night.
It was a great weekend with lovely people, lovely food, and lovely sites to see! For sure, I will be back there to see Florence again and I suggest that you all make your way over there when you find the time. It is a must-see along with almost everything else I have seen in Europe so far. This country is just to beautiful for its own good.
I hope all your popcorn is gone, and that the person sitting next to you is not snoring away from boredom! But, I love and miss you all and remember to always tell and show the people you love that stick by you that they are loved and truly mean something to you!
To all the people I love and adore: I LOVE YOU! xoxoxox
"You gotta keep your head up, but you can let your hair down."
From Italy With Love,
<3 Lauren
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