After Rome and Barcelona the weekend before and my parents coming the upcoming weekend, I decided to have a weekend in Florence to myself. My two friends Hanna and Nicole and I decided we would do touristy Florence things which we never really take the time to do. Which was perfect since Mom & Dad were coming and I wanted to be prepared! :) We also spent this weekend listening to Christmas songs and getting ready for Christmas time. Early? I think not! Since there’s no Thanksgiving here, it technically is the holiday season already! Anyways, Friday morning we got up early and headed to a sandwich shop called the “Oil Shop” only open on the weekdays. Its famous with Study Abroad students so we had to see what the hype was about. It was pretty good. We then ate them in Santa Croce, which is an old Church and one of my favorites. The piazza is pretty big so we ate, and talked, and people watched. Florence is the prettiest when you just take the time to sit and watch. There’s always Italians arguing, or just talking at an arguing volume, and tourists wandering aimlessly. It’s nice.
We then decided to go to the Bobili gardens. They are behind the Pitti Palace, a giant old palace which belonged to the Pitti family and now contains museums. We wandered around and ran into our friend Bobby who lives in our pensione.
(art in the garden)
After seeing most of the garden we decided to lay in the grass and just admire the views. It was freezing so we got all snuggly, hence the photo our friend Bobby took. Bobby, who has been singing all his life, serenaded us. We demanded Christmas tunes, naturally. We laughed and listened thinking how this should totally be apart of a movie. His voice is amazing, sorta gospely and soulful. It was the perfect day. It was one of those moments when you sit and think, "I'll always remember this exact moment and how it feels". Those moments are so rare, but they are the ones that will always last. We then headed back to the Penisone to freshen up for dinner. After a delicious meal at one of our local spots “Il Gato e Volpe” (the cat and wolf) we came back and watched a movie. It was a great day.
The next morning we got up and did some homework. We then went to the Pitti palace to look around and hit up some of the museums. Our favorite was the Costume museum which has gowns and outfits dating from the modern time till the 1600s. There was so many pretty outfits in there and it was really cool to see all the different styles of the days. We wandered around for a couple hours, and then went inside the Cathedral, the Duomo. Walking by it everyday is one thing, but the inside is beautiful and HUGE! We then had dinner, and went out for a little.
(above: outside the Duomo, below: the inside of the Duomo)
Sunday we took a trip to Fiesole, which was an Etruscan (civilization, pre-Roman) settlement. It’s in the hills overlooking Florence and really gives some awesome views! It’s a pretty quaint town but it’s beautiful. There’s a monastery and church at the top that we got to peek through. We sat and looked down on Florence and talked about how lucky we all were. It’s weird to think how quickly time is flying by. I’ve been marking the end of my semester when my parents come, since I only have 2 weekends after they leave. And now that they are here, I am so happy to see them, but also sad knowing my time is ticking. Which is why we spent this whole weekend doing as much as we could. I’m just not ready to say goodbye to Florence.
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