Firenze!

Please allow me to explain. The beautiful city of Florence, Italy is actually known as Firenze in Italian. (Yea, I didn't know that either) Landing in Zurich, trying to find my connecting flight to F-L-O-R-E-N-C-E, I was a little lost. However, once I landed and saw the signs everywhere, I concluded that this "Firenze" must be the place. I went to Italy to meet up with two of my closest friends, Allie and Ellen. This trip was so important because we are all rowers and are studying abroad this fall semester, a BIG deal for any student-athlete. Allie is studying in Athens and Ellen is in Brussels. Florence, Italy is in the middle of the three of us and where we held our reunion weekend.

I came in at night, and from the drive to the hostel, I knew that we chose the perfect place. For the night, we share pizza and pasta, and went to bed early. Saturday morning we hit the pavement at 7AM. We had an appointment with The David, yes the one and only at the world renown Galleria dell'Accademia. It was amazing to see this historic work of art up-close. I couldn't believe that we were so lucky.

After we finished visiting with David and all his glory, we went to the main market to shop and meet up with Ellen's good friend, Garrett. We did some serious shopping, nothing like Italian leather goods to put you in the gift giving mood, even if it is a gift for yourself. I cleaned up! We were very lucky to have Garrett as our guide. We walked and saw everything. He took us to the german Christmas market for lunch, then we went to the first of two gelato shops, and afterwards, it was on to our next museum, the Uffizi Gallery National Art Museum.
This museum is best known for holding The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli. Along with this famous work of art, the museum holds about three floors of thousands of pieces of statues and paintings. We took as much of in as we could, but you need about 24 hours in that museum alone. We still had so much more to see and do!


Because of our early rise, we were starting to lose steam after the Uffizi. However, onward we went to visit the oldest bridge in Firenze. It is now a beautiful tourist attraction with lots of shops and street vendors. It was bustling with lost of people and attractions. We decided to have a late lunch and recharge. It was a quick, but worthwhile bite to eat, and we were off again to make it to the Duomo. This is the cathedral church of Florence, also known as The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore. Although we did not make it in time to view the inside, I took plenty of pictures of the outside, which is just as beautiful.

By this time, everyone was in need of a nap. So, we went back to hostel and slept. Two hours later we awoke refreshed and hungry. (Always with us) We dressed for the evening and met Garrett again. He took us to this great Asian-fusion restaurant for Aperitivo, an italian, buffet style of eating. It was delicious with vegetarian options! I was content. Sitting there, I couldn't believe that actually pulled this off. I remember thinking, "Here we are, laughing and talking together in Florence, Italy!"

Needless to say, we enjoyed a wonderful day in Firenze. What else can I say? I felt so fortunate to be able to meet up with these lovely ladies. When we said goodbye the next morning, it wasn't sad at all for we knew that we will see each other very soon on our next reunion trip to Augusta, GA. Until then, ciao bellas!