Our train to Florence departed at 8:30, so we left Hotel Atlantico around 7:30. Thankfully the train station was right down the street from our hotel, so we didn't have to walk too far with our luggage. Navigating through a train station in another country is definitely an experience; It’s busy, everyone is moving quickly to catch their train, and everything is obviously written in Italian. Once we found our train, we had to get our suitcases onto it. This is where I learned the hard way that overpacking is a bad idea… I probably had the biggest suitcase on the trip and I had to somehow get it up a couple steps onto the train. We put our suitcases in between seats and sat down. As the train started to leave, someone that worked for the train said we couldn't leave our suitcases where we were, so we had to move them. I was so exhausted from waking up early, and lugging my suitcase around that when I finally sat, I couldn't imagine getting up and moving again. We all were confused where to put our stuff, then this nice man that barely spoke any english got up and started helping us move our luggage. I don’t even think he said anything, he just got up and did it and was smiling the whole time. It was one of those moments where you're reminded that there are really nice people in this world that do things and don’t expect anything in return. I fell asleep for most of the ride to Florence, and woke up literally right as we got to our stop. Actually, no one knew if it was our stop because it wasn't announced, so we were all getting up just assuming it was. We had to ask around, and the nice man that helped us with our luggage started grabbing our stuff for us and moving it, which answered our question. I wish I had the chance to thank him but we had to get off the train quickly.
Once we were all grouped together, we went outside the station where we met our SAI tour guide, Pietro. Everyone was tired from the train ride and lugging around their suitcases, but when we saw Pietro, everyone woke right up. To be honest, most of us agreed we didn't see any good looking Italian men in Rome, so seeing Pietro was like a breath of fresh air. I mean, Pietro was seriously a better looking version of Paolo from the Lizzie McGuire movie. I had to get a picture for proof…
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| Pietro |
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| Paolo from Lizzie McGuire |
I swear there's similarities...
But anyway, enough of Pietro, back to the important stuff. There were 4 vans waiting for us (all the drivers were good looking. I knew Id like Florence!) and we all piled in and it was about a 20 min drive to our hotel. The hotel we stayed at was Hotel Arizona. We sat in the lobby for a little while, got our room assignments, and found out that one of the hotel’s pipes broke, so there had to be two rooms of four. They also said our rooms wouldn't be ready for another hour, so we took that time to explore the streets next to our hotel. When we got back, our rooms were ready. I was in a four person room which really wasn't as bad as you would think. They squeezed two beds into a two person room, so there wasn't much floor room, but we made it work. We met in the lobby to walk to Piazza Santa Croce, which is where we would be meeting later on for our guided tour. We had an hour to grab lunch, which you would think is a long time, but not when you're in Italy! There was a restaurant only a couple minutes walk from the Piazza that we chose to eat at. By the time we sat down, looked at the menu, and ordered, it was getting pretty close to our tour time. Our food literally came out 10 minutes before we had to be at Piazza Santa Croce. I ordered a whole margarita pizza because the waiter said it was enough for one person, and it was huge. I was so hungry and didn't want to be late to our tour so I ate faster than I ever ate in my life. You know how In Scooby Doo, Scooby and Shaggy inhale their food? Yea, that was me. Or I should say, that was all of us.
We made it in time for our tour and just when it began, the wind picked up, and it began to drizzle. Since Piazza’s are basically large squares with buildings surrounding it, it creates a crazy wind tunnel. So when the wind picked up, it was very cold and very, very windy. Not paying attention to the weather forecast, I wore a tank top and pants with sandals. I was so cold I could barely enjoy the tour, and it was so windy I couldn't hear a lot. But from what I did hear and see was awesome. Our tour guide Florinda really knew a lot and she was so exuberant when she spoke that it made it more interesting. Florinda would be our guide for other tours also. Our tour of Florence was a big help for the rest of our stay, and I wish we had something like that in Rome. (Of course, Florence is a lot smaller than Rome which makes it easier to give a tour.) Florinda showed us everywhere we needed to see, including multiple Piazza’s, the Ponte Vecchio, the Duomo, and gave us some tips for navigating around on our own.
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| Duomo |
After the tour, we had two hours until a group dinner. My hair was a mess from the wind, and I was so cold I needed to get changed at the hotel. We went back, got ready, then headed back to our meeting place in front of the Duomo for dinner. Our dinner was at a restaurant called Coquinarius. The meal was amazing; Pasta stuffed with pear and parmesan and spaghetti with meat ragu. This dinner was in my top three for the whole trip. I never knew pear would taste so good with pasta! It was unlike anything I’ve ever had before!
The night isn't over yet! It’s Friday, and Saturday is our free day, so we wanted to take advantage of that and experience the nightlife. We went to a bar that we passed earlier in the day that had beer on tap. There wasn’t anyone there so we took up all the seats at the bar. Most of the girls ordered beer, which is what I would normally do, but instead I went for a tequila sunrise. Tequila sunrises quickly became our drink of choice for the rest of our trip. The bar was run by two brothers who looked like twins, and they played good music and even put out free appetizers! They were a little cold so I think they were just extra from the day but we didn't care. We left that bar and found our favorite bar of the trip- Oibo. Oibo was darker with cool lighting and a DJ, but most importantly, the bartender was good looking. Sadly, he didn't know much English. They played good pop music and we were those American girls that sang every word, and loved it. After Oibo we called it a night. Even though Saturday was our free day we wanted to wake up early and climb the Duomo before the line got too long. Plus, we didn't have to be up too early on Sunday, which means Saturday we could go out too :)
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