Firenze! Part III

Tues 27 Jan 2009

After a few days off so my brain could settle, I'm back to finish up recording the saga that was my weekend in Firenze.

**********Saturday*********
We woke up at 10:30 in the morning to meet Lauren, Felicia and Kristin at the train station, but we just couldn't do it so we went back to sleep until 11. Fortunately, the layover for their train was longer than we all expected and we were able to meet them right when they got to the station in Firenze. Kristin went to meet up with her roommate from CP, who was on one of those programs where you live in every important city for two weeks and was currently in the week of Firenze. Apparently Brad Mighdoll, a fellow jour major at College Park, was there too, but we never saw him.

The morning (or more realistically, afternoon) started out with lunch at a cafe we found to soak up everything in our stomachs. Everyone else got pizza, but I opted for a tonno salad and it was probably the best cheap meal I had in Firenze. Partly because the tonno was fantastic and partly because it contained the sweetest, ripest tomatoes I've ever tasted.

After we filled ourselves, we headed to the Uffizi via the area where the Fonta di Neptune was standing, so the other girls could see it. In the piazza next to it, we took pictures posing as the statues in a quasi-sculpture garden near the fountain.

We spent at least two hours in the Uffizi, spliting up into groups of one or two pretty early so we could follow our own paces and only meeting up at the end. The huge building is just filled with art. Honestly, I didn't think any of it was awful, though some pieces were completely breathtaking. (Nothing, of course, as perfect as the David.) There was so much inside that it became such a blur I can barely remember seeing the famous Venus in a clamshell, and I do which I had spent more time in whichever of the 3,000 rooms that was in. I loved seeing the sculptures though, and more old old art like from the other museums, and some slightly newer and quite impressive art.

We were out of the Uffizi by 16:50 and ready to head over to the Duomo as it began to get dark. Following the MTV-bible, we were looking to climb its 400-some odd steps at night, which is supposed to be the most gorgeous and therefore, we figured, the most rewarding time to go.

Well, we should've studied our bible a bit more closely. The Duomo closed at 17:00 on Saturdays and wasn't open for climbing at all on Sundays, so we had lost our window for the weekend. We were all pretty disappointed; I think Chelsea and I were perhaps the most bummed, but we took solace in knowing it's just another reason we need to come back to Firenze before we leave Europa this semester (some other reasons being exploring the other side of the Ponte Vecchio, giving the others a chance to see the David, and celebrating St. Patty's Day at the Lion's Fountain Irish Pub).

With our pre-dinner plan nixed, we went to find gelato instead. The supposed best gelato in Italy place was impossible to find as a result of it being listed in two different locations, one from the MTV-bible and one on our newer, 2009 edition tourist map from the hostel, and also as a result of it not actually being in either of those locations. Instead, we found a different gelato place that looked good (not difficult in Firenze) and were satisfied there instead. FYI, just because a gelato is called "pistachio e ricotta" is no reason to write it off; that stuff was amazing.

Stomachs full of gelato, we went to pass the rest of the time before dinner having some prosecco at the Lion's Fountain. We had some glasses and some good hanging out time, and it would have been perfect if not for the worst failure ever in the Maryland-Duke men's basketball game.

Kristin and I were anxious to find out how the game was going, but I didn't want to waste a 50 cent text to just to find out the game wasn't over yet or it was over with bad news bears. We worked up courage and asked one of the bartenders to change a TV to ESPN just for a minute. He was a nice guy and said it was no problem.

We wished it would have been a problem.

He turned the channel on just in time for Nick, Kristin and I to watch UMD lose to in the last few minutes of the game against Duke with literally half the points Duke had scored. It was time to drink some red wine and get some good food.

Which leads me to probably the most delicious, and definitely the most expensive meal I've had so far. We shared a lot of food and ordered dishes that were all more or less the exact same price, so we split the bill evenly and it came to 30 euro per person. For me, that included my share of the two bottles of red wine we drank, two bottles of aqua, some fondue cheese veggie thing that was not at all what I expected and about 10 times as delicious, gnocchi con pomodoro e mozzerella, and tastes of all the other dishes people got that were vegetarian. Oh, and the standard bread, plus free leftover fresh pizza crust that they brought out for us, complements of the kitchen.

Full as possible, we headed out for the night. We stumbled (not yet literally) across a little place with cheap drinks that looked like a good place to start. A couple rounds of very weak, very cheap shots and everyone's personal choice of drink later (mine was a Mexican coffee, basically coffee with some Bailey's and similar things in it, and yummy) we found our next bar.

We headed to the Red Garter, a place near our hostel that we had passed earlier and had karaoke on Monday nights. It was more of a bar then a club, but we're fun gals, and we just wanted to dance. We positioned ourselves near the DJ booth and went to town. Pretty soon, a bunch of other people joined us. Pretty soon, we were ready to move on to an actual club.

The club we went to, I can't remember the name of, but I will remember as my first Jagerbomb. Also, an awesome night of dancing with eachother, completely randomly running into Brooks again (the first time was at the Shot Cafe the night before) and dancing with random, and often attractive but sometimes smelly and a bit too stereotypical, italiani. When my knees and feet couldn't take it anymore, I met Nick over at the Duomo where we sat and talked for just a few minutes before heading back to the others and the hostel. Nick and I made it to the Duomo ridiculously late every night we were in Firenze; the others gained the title of staying at that last club until they were kicked out because it was closing.

Six of us crammed into our room in the hostel, which was hilarious as was everything else that was said or done at 5 a.m. An awesome, grand end to our weekend in Firenze, and definitely one of the top weekends in my existence.