I LOVE DANTE

Exclamation point.

No but just kidding. When I was a senior in AP English, I read Dante's Inferno and had a great testing experience. Now I'm a junior in college and I just took another exam on Dante. A similar testing experience. I've officially come full circle and my life is good.

This is his house.

No but really, I went to Florence this weekend and he used to live there. So that's cool! It was a nice change of pace and it was absolutely beautiful. I'm definitely glad I'm studying in Rome though. But it was a lovely time and it gave me some motivation that I can, indeed, last this semester. So things are good. Sono felice and all that jazz.

First let me show you the most delicious pizza in the world.

Riiiiight?

So. FIRENZE!

Oh hey Duomo.

Lovely friends in front of a lovely view.

They may have the oldest old bridge, but Rome's is better. ;)

In the middle of the Uffizi.

Gardens are lovely.

Andrew chilling with a statue.

This is actually a very natural walking picture. SO MANY STEPS.

So it's really hard not to overwhelm people with trip recaps, I'm finding. There are just too many pictures that I can't put them all on here. But that's okay, because I'm sure you'd get sick of them anyway.

We left for the train station at approximately SIX O'CLOCK IN THE FREAKING MORNING. I survived and had packed a bunch of food so hopefully I would maintain my composure in terms of hangry behavior. Jules braided my hair and the rest of the train ride went pretty fast. I mean. It was four hours long, but it certainly didn't feel that way. We got there and made our way to the hostel. We were camping it.

SWINGGGGGING.

We came to Florence to play on a playset, actually.

Camping with JAZZ HANDS.

That day we were planning on wandering around and doing some stuff. Now, this may be an awful traveler thing to say, but it's the way I live my life, so I'mma just go ahead and say it. If I have no interest in a certain place's sights that you have to pay for, I am not going to pay for it. I wanted to visit Florence because it's beautiful, not necessarily to walk into every single museum, rush through it, and not really enjoy myself. It's a money thing and self-enjoyment thing. 

So on the train, I decided I wanted to go to the Museo di Storia Naturale. The description was kind of strange. It boasted being a taxidermist's dream. And also bragged of having human figures in various stages of disease.

And I was pumped.

I still love animals, and sometimes I get the heebie-jeebies when it comes to the human body. BUT I WAS SO EXCITED. And I went a little crazy. So I'm not going to share a LOT of pictures on here because I know not everybody shares the same feelings as me. So humans you will not see. And I'll only show some of the animals because I know people don't like that either. I'll just show you some fun ones. :)

People like butterflies!

Christa, you've helped us remember pranzare. To eat lunch.

Me with a rhino butt. Classy.

I forced her to take a picture with a walrus.

SO FEROCIOUS.

Well. I guess that's a human. But it's friendly!

SO BIG.

Peaaaaacock.

The guys in the background of that picture definitely laughed when I shouted, "PAUL TAKE A PICTURE OF ME WITH THE PEACOCK." It's life. Jules also has a picture of me growling like a lion. I'm pretty proud. So I loved this museum. There was a section about pregnancy that I turned around and walked out of. BUT. I decided to face my fears and I went back and looked at it. For five seconds, and THEN I was done.

It was a great museum. And it got me to get a yes to the Franklin Institute when I get back. YES!

After that, we lunched. And then I got to see CARLY RUSSO!!! It was so great, and sort of crazy, to see somebody from Parkland in a different country. It was really nice, and she took us to get gelato. So I mean. I'm never going to say no to that. I didn't get any pictures because I'm silly like that. But I can assure you, it was wonderful. :)

Naptime led into night time, where we had a plan.

It says pub. Isn't that great?

So we got there. That's all I have to say about that. We got dinner and drinks at the other hostel in the area. Now, granted, it was not the most spectacular feast in the world and the wine made me pull a face EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. But it was still nice. I didn't take my camera, but it was a lovely time. And it was nice to see the nightlife of Florence. I had a drink with whipped cream on it that looked delicious. It tasted like coffee, so I spit it out all over my white shirt. CLASS. But anyway. We met some people from Australia. It was nice. But I was super tired and very, very glad to crawl into bed at three in the morning.

The next day we split ways and just wandered around. Paul, Allison, and I were going to go bike riding but that didn't work out. It's probably for the best because I would have gotten run over. But that's okay. Another city! But. I get hungry during the day. You would think in Florence I'd get something lovely and Italian, right?

Lunch in the park. Just what I wanted.

IS THAT?

That's a barbeque bacon cheeseburger in there. YUM. MY. It was so delicious, I can't even tell you. And you may see that little red sliver of vegetable/fruit in there. 

THAT'S RIGHT. First tomato on a burger EVER happened in Florence. Heck yes.

So we continued after the nourishment and walked around some more, exploring the shops and taking lots of pictures. So I'll try not to go crazy with these.

I Puffi train set. They're obsessed with The Smurfs.

Ben & Jerry's sighting! (Sorry Kris. I think your shirt's in Italy.)

Duh. It's a shooting star in the day time.

Nice resting spot where a man was singing. And my leg.

Pretty buildings all around Florence.

All of the buildings were wonderful in Florence. But it's really hard for me to justify showing you all of my pictures, even if they're of stuff I like. How in the world could you HONESTLY care that much? It's beautiful, yes, but I don't know. If you're mad at me and the way I show you pictures, then tell me. And maybe I'll adjust it. But probably not. Depends on who you are. :)

After Paul bought himself a very nice wallet, we decided it was time to refuel again. 

We shared it!

So. Gelato analysis. At this gelato place, we tried to get flavors that we weren't familiar with. The pinkish one tasted like strawberry shortcake, the white one had ricotta in it and was yummy, and the pink one is a type of cherry called amarena. This cup was tastier than the place the day before, but the amarena was definitely not better.

So what about in relation to Rome? I thought this cup was holding it's own against Old Bridge, and thus, so was the earlier amarena. But I'm still curious as to where my favorite gelato is. We'll see. This is really hard.

So after a lot of wandering, we decided to eat a panino kebab before we got on the train because it's from Turkey and because we were starving.

So yummy. And delicious. And Turkish.

It hit the spot, let me tell you. I hardly noticed the ketchup in it.

I know, right?

Don't worry, I don't think I can handle that on it's own yet. And I really don't want to because I still think it's gross. But when it's masked by other delicious things, I can do it.

Then the train took us home, and that was that! Oh. And I paid one euro to pee because of tariffs. How stupid is that? I'm sorry. But, as Paul pointed out, that's like those people who play Roller Coaster Tycoon charging for bathrooms so they can puke. THAT'S SOMETHING YOU JUST DON'T DO. 

So I was glad to be back in Rome. What were my impressions of Florence, you ask? It was beautiful, and I'm really glad I got to see a city outside of Rome. However. Much as I insist that I'm homesick, I also still have the feeling that Rome IS my home. One thing I love about Rome: free water fountains. I got SUPER dehydrated during the day in Florence. I'm so spoiled here. Also, I noticed that Florence spoke a lot more English. I'm not sure if this has to do with location in both spots or what, but I don't think I needed to speak a word of Italian if I didn't want to. Which has both good and bad qualities.

So that's Florence! What's up now? MID-TERMS! I KNOW. So exciting, right? But the beautiful, beautiful thing past them is Fall Break. In eight days. Only eight! Granted, I have three exams to get through before then, but we'll see how it goes. So my weekend may not be the most exciting ever, just warning you.

But I will be baking. Forget all this whining. I'm baking. :)