Day One: Got Lost and Saw it All

Piazza Santa Croce

I may not have slept at all last night and I may have given myself an anxiety attack due to being sick on my first night and in a new place, but today was EXACTLY what I needed and wanted. Alex and I were up at 6:30 this morning and slowly moving around the room until about 8:30 and headed out to get lost in the city. Right down the street from our hostel is Piazza Santa Croce (as pictured on the right). Since it was early in the morning, the piazza was pretty empty except little kids and their moms walking or biking to school just past the church. It felt nice to be up and about so early because we missed most the 'touristy rush' and felt like we had the city to ourselves. After Santa Croce we continued down the street (basically down past the far left of the photo) in search of coffee/pastries. We walked for a few blocks and figured that we were mostly in residential areas since we were surrounded by moms taking their kids to school. So we turned down Via delle Casine and made our way towards Fiume Arno (the main river that cuts through Florence) because we heard a) its a beautiful walk b) we would probably have better luck finding food.

Walking down Fiume Arno

Here I am walking down Lungarno delle Grazi and there is a bridge in the background (very small in the photo) that is one of the three main bridges in Florence, Ponte alle Grazie. We did not walk all the way down to Ponte Vecchio at this time but instead somehow managed to turn down a small street that lead us back to our Hostel. I still don't understand how their streets work and I got confused quite a bit as to how we would managed to get to places and then end up somewhere we were earlier. Confusing, but at least it was during the day and we were never lost in small alleys.

Once on this little street which happened to be right by our hostel we decided to finally have something for breakfast. We went to Moka Arra and I am not totally sure if the guy spoke english but yay for pointing and head nodding. Also, turns out that in smaller places you can eat first then pay, which threw us off but makes enjoying food and savoring your cappuccino easier. The chocolate croissant was unbelievably delicious and so was the cappuccino and both only cost 2.20 euros. I hate you Starbucks.

Breakfast at Moka Arra

Once we finished our breakfast, we headed down a street that I cannot seem to remember how we even got to but as we were walking, the most amazing thing happened, we stumbled upon the Piazza delle Signoria. That was basically the theme of the day, walk down streets and then stumble upon extremely popular landmarks. I felt as if every few minutes I would say, "OOH whats that?!" or "Lets go down here, wooahh!!". Anyways, the Piazza was breathtaking....unfortunately I am not a history buff so once school begins I will probably have pictures of the Piazza again along side a history lesson of what everything is and why it is there. Most of the statues were undoubtedly recognizable, but I want to learn more. The next hostel we are staying in offers free walking tours so we might take one!

Fountain of Neptune

Now I did not include all of the pictures from the Piazza delle Signoria because I know I will be going back there and taking more photos so I will have a blog just for it as well as most of the other famous landmarks I will be going to. However, this large open square and beautiful and it was fairly empty since it was so early which allowed us to take better pictures (even though the lighting was awful and gray.) I am looking forward to coming back here later and taking a tour so I know exactly what everything is, who made it, and why it is there. So these are just to wet your palette.

Perseus and the head of Medusa 

David

Piazza delle Repubblica

After walking around the Piazza for a while we headed up Via Cazaluoli towards the Duomo, however we got side tracked again because we saw the Piazza delle Repubblica. I think the most magical thing about Italy is, is that you could be walking down some tiny street or large one, and turn a corner and BAM, the Piazza delle Repubblica or Ponte Vecchio, the city's oldest bridge...(it means "old bridge" in Italian) That is where we hit next from the piazza. I highly enjoyed walking down all of the streets and the beauty each alley way had was breathtaking. After we wandered toward the Fiume Arno, we finally saw Ponte Vecchio, one of the most classic views in Florence. 

Piazza delle Repubblica

Ponte Vecchio

the duomo

From there we walked past the bridge, through the Piazza delle Signoria (which was packed by now) and headed off to see the Duomo. The grandure, detailing and beauty of the Duomo is very difficult to describe in words and capture in a photograph. I really want to walk to the top of the Duomo, so hopefully that will happen tomorrow! 

After the Duomo, it was lunch time so we headed back towards our hostel to eat at a pizza I had spotted earlier when we got breakfast. I had a torta rustica, basically just a ham and cheese sandwich...to a certain extent. It was very rich and filling, I felt bad not eating all of it. Overall, 

Letizia E Michele was very yummy and cheap. After lunch, I desparately needed a nap since i didn't sleep at all the night before....we ended up sleeping for four hours...oops. So by the time we woke up it was time for dinner. 





















We headed over by the Duomo and ate at Ristorante Il Scudo. I had pizza margherita... SOO GOOD! Seriously, I do not know why we think we make good pizza in the US (well NY has pretty good pizza but thats because its made by Italians). The pizza was literally the size of my face and Alex and I should have split it. (I am having difficulty adding photos so I am going to stop here, look at facebook for all of my pictures!! Add me if we aren't already friends!)


After dinner, we went to The Lion's Fountain which is basically an Irish Pub where americans studying abroad go to drink. Some really drunk guy from Wisconsin hit on me via asking if my credit card was Chase Sapphire and processed to follow that statement with a 'high five". Alex and I enjoyed people watching till two Italian guys walked over and started talking to us....clearly they think we dont understand the concept of a wingman because the guy who was talking to me's friend was literally standing there, body language screaming "i just came over here so my friend could meet you". Anyway, I was nice obviously but he was not so nice on the eyes, so they left after more American girls came running in, kinda funny to watch. Another fun fact about today, in every place we ate, really random American songs were playing, such as "Young, Wild & Free", "My Heart Will Go On", "We Found Love", an Avril Levine song and "Still Loving You" by the Scorpions.  The pub only played American music and it was humorous as to watch songs they played. 

Day One: perfection. I needed to hit the ground running and start getting swept up in the magic of Europe. Yesterday was just airports and our hostel room which was not fun. As for Day Two, we are moving to another hostel and staying there until we move in to our apartment on the 25th. Our next hostel is on the other side of town, so it will be really fun to see a different part of the city, the part that I will actually be living and going to school in. I love all of those who are taking the time to read this and thank you for being supportive! 

Ciao!