Oh Florence, the land of amazing food, amazing art, amazing views, and the amazing Anna :)
(how american do I sound with all of those 'amazings'?)
After landing and walking straight into the terminal (apparently Europe doesn't believe in customs. I walked toward the 'sortie', saw the terminal, turned around, and asked a guard where customs where. He just laughed, and said that I could show him my passport if I felt a need to, otherwise just go enjoy myself...) and catching a bus into the centre ville, I got to see my first glimpse of Florence. It was a little dark and rainy, i'm not going to lie. But I met up with Anna, and we got dinner and GELATO (stop one of GC 2k7), wandered around for a while, then headed up to the northern part of the city toward Silvia's house, where I stayed for the weekend.
While the first night was rather awkward, mostly due to another girl surfing with Silvia who thought she was God's gift to Italy, I had a really good experience with couchsurfing. The other nights I had a good chance to chat with Silvia, and she seemed like a really nice woman. I wish we could have gotten to hang out a little more, but her work schedule got in the way of that. I will say that if you are going to couchsurf, there are a few things that can make the whole experience a lot better. for example - don't spend the entire time complaining about the house, the bed, how cold it is..., don't be disrespectful of your host's wishes, be accommodating when they ask you to be back by a certain time, and try not to completely exclude people from a conversation because of language barriers.
As for the rest of Florence...What a great city. It was nice to be in a different city from Paris, but it reinforced the fact that I feel like I made the right choice to be here. Florence, while adorable and picturesque, is quite small, and it was already overwhelmed by tourists. I love the feeling of the masses of people here in Paris, and the available anonymity that comes with it. But back to Florence, everything is so old!! Like, crazy old. It was fascinating to just wander the streets for hours, to people watch, and to listen to the italian.
I don't know what else to say about Florence, the food was of course amazing, as were the views, so i'm just going to post some pics...
Anna, with her new scarf, in the Bobili gardens; us in the gardens; overlooking Florence and Tuscany from the gardens; me warming up in a tea bar after walking around in the gardens in the rain for a couple hours
Copy of David (the real on is in a museum); Copy of Ghilbertti's doors (ditto about the museum); The Plaza where the David used to be, plus some random European high schooler
3 comments:
Wow! You guys have had a great time sharing cities! We're counting the days when we can walk the streets of Paris & Florence & Bruges & Venice &....with you
Love Mom
Well, Becky... please excuse me a bit of "Daddy talk"...
It´s wonderful to read about your wonderful travels with Anna.
On the one hand, it makes me feel so proud of you (both)... you´re grownups, enjoying the world on your own!!!!
On the other, it makes me feel rather nostalgic for the days past that will never return... memories of you both as OUR little kiddies....
The later are well behind... so... thank you so much for sharing the former!!!!
Huggggggsss...
The lack of passport control is due to the Schengen agreement which allows free travel between the EU states. It was signed sometime in the 80s, except the UK and a few other countries are too cool for school and still do border control. I didn't get checked when going to Belgium or Germany and I have to admit it made me a little sad, b/c the trip felt less special. It didn't feel like going to a different country that could stamp my passport. Rather, I felt as if I went from Ohio to Indiana. Except slightly cooler, of course. :-) Ok, sorry for the history lesson, but yay Schengen!
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