Travel Weekend 2: Florence!

Busy busy busy! It's been quite the task trying to remember the vivid details of my travels as it has been a long time since my trip to Florence. School has picked up, which means tests, projects, presentations, papers and busy work, of course. On Friday January 28th we had a segment of what is called our "CAP Program" (CIMBA Advantage Program). Here we had the first step to a KT Certification (Kepner Tregoe - a consulting and training service for strategic problem solving). It was a longggggggg day prying apart decision making, but most likely will be worth it in the end. After that all day seminar, many CIMBA students took a shuttle to Florence. Once we arrived there and after checking into our hostel (one of the better ones I've seen - Plus Florence), we walked around the calm and quiet city. Of course, it wouldn't be a proper arrival without a late night stop at McDonalds. Italian McDonalds though, are unlike ones we are used to. The McFlurry's, phenominal. Has hardened shell chocolate with pieces of cone swirled in - yummm. We followed the noise in the small quaint streets to find clubs filled with American students. Someone we spoke with said there are about 10,000 American students per semester that study there. Although I loved Florence, I don't know if I would have wanted to be surrounded by THAT many Americans. Makes me appreciate being a "small country town girl" here in Italy.










        The next morning we went straight to a local cafe that, get this, SERVED BREAKFAST AMERICAN STYLE! The cafeteria at CIMBA serves nothing but 2 types of bland cereal, pastries and yogurt - with the occasional granola and hard-boiled eggs. There was nothing we wanted more but some scrambled eggs, bacon/sausage, toast, pancakes and some American coffee. Post-stomach satisfaction, we took a visit to Florence's Duomo, and of course, paid to walk the dreaded hundreds of stairs. It was worth it though as you can see from the views in the picture to the right. We spent the rest of the day walking the streets, bargaining at local markets (I bought a scarf that started falling apart 5 minutes after I got it - luckily only 4 euro!), admiring all of the leather which Florence is prominent in (luckily an honest sales man, with the cutest puppy, said if I don't spend over 300 euro for one I am probably not getting anything of good quality - so I forewent that thought), visiting numerous pizzerias and smaller restaurant, eating gelato OBVIOUSLY (I guess florence has the best gelato in Italy, but my sweet tooth couldn't tell the difference), and visiting the historical sites.

A little later in the day we decided to head over to "the bridge", or at least that is what we called it, where there were many different jewelry shops and the "locks of love". When I hear locks of love I think of donating hair, but THIS locks of love was literally chains and chains filled with locks that people have engraved with hearts and names of their significant others. It was pretty cool to see, and I guess the tradition is to throw the key into the river right alongside the walkway. There are many different spots in Europe where this occurs, but I believe this was a pretty prominent one. The friend we met in the leather store (with the cute dog) told us to find the point on the hill past the river where we could see all of Florence. We went out searching for that hill and instead walked about 45 minutes out of the way to a castle. It was a nice walk, as it wasn't too chilly out and we got to see some side streets and houses in Florence.

We reached a hill where we could actually see the point we were supposed to be at, so we decided to make our way over there, despite the long detour. I am very glad we did, because it was a beautiful site. Even though we were quite a distance away, it made Florence seem so close and small.

 
After a long day of walking, we went back to the hostel to take a quick snooze and get ready for a fun night ahead of us. At this point, we were all craving a big juicy Steak Florentine (Florence is know for this, hence, Florentine). We found a fun little American bar on a street surrounded with other "hot spots". I believe it was called "Sizzle"? I could be making that up though. There, we indulged in some drinks (strawberry daiquiris :] ), onion rings and very large t-bone steak. The cut of meat was 40 euro, so we decided buy a couple and split them, but I am pretty confident I could have finished one on my own. I can still imagine that wonderful meal like it was yesterday.

We met up with some fellow U of Mers who were studying in Florence and they took us to a nearby Irish pub called the Lions Fountain. This again, was filled with lots of Americans and it was cool to see the ceilings covered in American t-shirts (saw some from St. Olaf, Iowa and Wisconsin).

The next morning we woke up early and went looking for David in Academia. It was a really amazing sculpture to see up close and personal. I still have no idea how that thing was made so flawlessly, but job well done Michelangelo.
                                                                                 
  I guess you could say we were somewhat pooped, and decided to jump around from cafe to gelato shops the rest of the early afternoon. During our stay, Florence was experiencing a train strike. Luckily we caught on and decided just to cab it straight to where the bus would pick us up. Unfortunately, many of the other students traveling didn't catch on, and we ended up waiting for them for quite some time. Guess that's Italy for you; transportation is so unpredictable. Once we arrived back in Paderno, lucky us got to study for a finance quiz! Overall it was a very successful trip and I would go back to Florenzia in a heartbeat!!!