Florence.
We left Siena early that morning to make our final trip, Firenze! It might have been the fact that I tried banana yogurt for the first time that morning, or maybe I was just in high spirits because I felt great about our travels that day. We actually ran into a parade of one of the contrade of Siena, which was awesome!
Two bus rides later and we arrived to Florence. The hotel, yet again, was beautiful and gave us a direct view of Piazza del Repubblica where the hotels were lively, street musicians and break dancers didn’t miss a beat and a picturesque carousel straight out of children’s books glowed. I fell in love with our surroundings.
Jeff, Kathryn, Rebecca and I went exploring. We found a cute pizza shop that I swear doubled as a perpetual dance party. The cooks were so outgoing and they had great music playing inside (ironically this was the same pizza shop where the cast of MTV’s Jersey Shore worked while they were filming their most recent season, but we’ll overlook that). Across from the pizza shop there was an outdoor wine bar. You could literally walk up to the bar, place an order and sit curbside with your wine. I imagined it would be a great place to go at night.
After lunch we passed by Chiasa di Dante and toured the Church of Saint Margaret where Dante supposedly met his beloved Beatrice. It was…different, for lack of better wording. I didn’t expect the watercolor paintings on the wall – I think I spotted Jonah inside the whale on the wall to the right of the altar – but I really liked the basket of love letters. I thought it was adorable. I thought about leaving one, but decided against it when Kylee started recording people reading the letters. Maybe next time, Dante.
We had the rest of the day to ourselves, so I grabbed dinner and went to the bridge to watch the sunset and listen to street musicians with the group. We stumbled upon the perfect spot that had a huge crowd brewing. Dr. Bednarz, Michelle Brenes and I each made wishes on coins and threw them into the river, which I thought was a really sweet gesture. It felt great to have so many of us together. Once the sun set I leaned across the bridge and saw the buildings in the water’s reflection. I caught a few snap shots on my camera, but it honestly didn’t do the scenery justice. It was gorgeous.
When we got back to the hotel I watched Italian cartoons with Jeff, Chris, Michelle Rau and Jacob, but we gave them our own dialogue. Hilarious. I switched off between the cartoons and listening to the band at the bar downstairs. They were playing all of my favorites that night: Earth, Wind & Fire, The Jackson 5 and Norah Jones which was a pleasant surprise. Jacob and I decided to go on our own adventure and check out the bar.
The bar tender was the coolest! He gave us our drinks half price and gave me extra fruit (which I’m a sucker for). We caught the tail end of the band’s performance. I didn’t want to disturb them once they were finished because I knew they had a long gig, but I couldn’t resist.
The band just finished their last gig at the bar and were preparing to set sail and take their act on a cruise that was sailing through the Caribbean to the United States. Their guest singer’s name was Carla. She was from Chicago. I was inspired by her story the most because she decided to quit her job a couple years ago and follow her passion: singing. After her gig in Florence she was headed to Switzerland. That just goes to show you sometimes God has a plan for us that we can’t envision for ourselves. I congratulated her and wished her nothing but the best.
Jacob and I finished our drinks and I headed back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment