Florence

After handing in my final for Laris, I was giddy getting my things together for Florence. Group trips are for some reason my favorite thing. I think it is because someone else does the planning and logistics and I just get to sit back and follow the crowd. It took us under 4 hours to get to Florence and because I had some iTunes giftcards (preesh Kevin and Nicole) I bought some movies for my iPod. And the trip south zoomed by. Once we got all settled in our hotel, Martin (as he always does) showed us what we needed to know. We walked through the shopping market, by the duomo, and tried out some gelato. That night some of us wanted to try out what we had seriously been missing. Some good mexican food. Katie and I went Picante's style and got a pitcher(s) of margs. And queso! It wasn't necessarily Taco Mac's, but it curbed our craving. We checked out the town a little bit and saw probably about 1000 of the 4000 American students studying in Florence. The next morning we went to Santa Croce church where Michelangelo, or as Martin calls him, Mikey, is buried. There is this elaborate tomb for him, but he is actually buried in the wall next to it. After, we grabbed lunch before heading to the Uffizi. It is one of the most famous art museums in the world. It was nice and housed some beautiful and famous works, but I personally enjoyed the Louvre more. After field tripping all day it was time to catch a snooze before dinner. I forgot to mention how wonderful our hotel was. When I first saw Hotel Embassy I thought Embassy Suites. Nope. HotelEmbassy is a 4 star hotel. And it gets this food addicts stamp of approval because of it's breakfast. Helllooo yummy eggs and chocolate croisants!
That night we went to Dante's...a place that is rumored to serve wine and water water for free to students. We weren't positive about this, but once our bill came, it was true. Had we died and gone to heaven? No, we had found Dante's. Then, the owner (we nick-named him Dante), took a liking to us. Hmmm 14 girls, I wonder why. He moved us to the table in the window. That and the 18 bottles of wine that followed...definitely felt like we had died and gone to Italian heaven.
The next morning it was time to go see the famous David. Seeing the David was incredible and I also liked seeing Mikey's "Slaves." Martin said the rest of the afternoon was ours, but that he was going to walk around to go inside the Duomo and whoever wanted to join him was welcome to.I went with as did a few others. We went inside the Duomo (if you've ever seen pictures of Florence and the big red dome, this is the church it sits atop). Inside, we couldn't walk under the dome which is above the alter. Martin found this very strange as every other time he's been there he has been allowed to go under it. He took a few observations and came to the conclusion that there was going to be a wedding. And I had to agree, all the white flowers look a little wedding-like. Martin also said that whoever it was getting married, she (mainly her parents) had to be pretty important to be getting married there. When he asked some of the guards, they all had the exact same response. Just, "there will be a private mass." Yup, definitely an Italian royalty getting married...
I knew sticking with Martin was the right choice. Gelato on Martin, thank you very much. Martin had to go find a hotel for the summer program (sorry friends, I don't think you'll be staying at Hotel Embassy) we wanted to check out PonteVecchio. It literally means Old Bridge and on it are a bunch of shops, mainly jewerly shops. I didn't even realize we were on a bridge until I looked through a store's window and saw the river!
After, we went to a great sandwhich shop and I finally got a turkey sammi!
Martin's wife had passed on some shopping advice. And that was to not buy anything until the last day you are in Florence. That way, you know what you like and after you buy it, you won't have anything you like more or less expensive. I made a few purchases...for myself and for some others that shall remain annonymous until I make my return.
Katie H. and I needed a beer after that shopping and it was well deserved. We sat right outside the duomo and just took in our last afternoon in Florence. The weather was perfect for it, too!

We couldn't have asked for a better trip to Florence. It was sunny and warm and perfect. I truly enjoyed our time in Florence. I am on the bus to Rome and Martin just got done telling us all that we have planned and I'm ready to get there! If we have the weather we had in Florence, it is bound to be a good trip. Someone said this the other day and it is so true, "To appreciate the sunny days, you have to have had some rainy one." We've put in our rainy days and now we're being rewarded! Here are some of the funny/interesting/just random things that happened in Florence:
-I've come to appreciate a good salesman, thanks to Kevin and my dad. And I only bought from the best. One had some good chatter, "Oops you dropped something...it is my heart."
-Every night in Florence, we were from somewhere different. Yes, the winter games in Vancouver were wodnerful!
-We met girls that go to Florida. And I pulled a Burles. "It was so nice to meet you girls, see you at the game...in your jorts."
-The best strawberry daquri I ever had was in Florence at Art Bar. It had fruit on top that was bigger than the glass
-We made reservations at Dante's under the name Sweetie Honey, and somehow they lost it...