Friday: Today was the most eventful day of my life! We did so much! It was warmer too!...like 60 degrees! YAY! We started off at the Uffizi Gallery and looked at a lot in there, but definitely not all of it. There are paintings sooo big in there. I can’t even imagine how people painted those huge paintings! Like they must have laid on them.. there is no way they could avoid that. Also best fun fact ever: we looked up at the ceiling one time.. the ceiling of the Uffizi.. and what did we see? Ya, that’s right, OUR apartment!! Then we went to the Academia Gallery where the David is, the real one. That was pretty much the most amazing thing I have ever seen and I will probably go back there so many times. The statue is humongous and I can’t believe the detail and reality of it. There is a vein in his right hand that is kinda popping out and it looks sooo real!!! It is just a beautiful piece of art. I cannot fathom how this was created. Snuck a ton of pictures.. which was cool.. and looked in a couple other rooms of the gallery as well. There was a musical instrument room and they had little wooden flutes, tons of violins, and a ton of harpsichords. After this, we climbed the Duomo! It cost us 8 euro, so that is kinda sad we can’t do it every day for free, but it was so cool! We went for sunset and it was beautiful. After so many steps and tight spaces, the view was definitely a good reward. We wrote our names on the pillar facing our apartment along with the date. It was a long journey to get down..and I tripped once, which was pretty funny. This weekend and until February 13th, there is a chocolate festival at Piazza Santa Croce, the square next to our square. We went there and tasted tons of chocolate. They even had a bunch of chocolate alcohol that was totally like syrup, and chocolate marijuana. Each of us bought a different thing of chocolate, whether it was fruit or mallows dipped in milk or white chocolate, chocolate truffles, chocolate cake with apricot jam inside, chocolate fudge, candy bars…man they had everything, even chocolate shoes, tools, cameras, towers...-except gelato. It was great and really fun! Late at night, 1:30 am, my roommate Alicia and I ventured out to what we had heard called the secret bakery. Oooo. It opens at 130 am. So we walked across town and into this little creepy ally way where nothing was opened. When we got to the end of the street we were like what the heck? And there was a creepy guy in all black just standing down the street watching us, so we turned around thinking we weren’t gonna find it. But then we saw this one door open. It was just half an apartment door opened a crack. We went in and poked our head through another door and after a very unfurnished hallway, we saw a roll tray of pastries! The man didn’t speak any English so we just communicated say vorrei bene (I would like good) and he gave us a crème filled and chocolate croissant, each really big, honey glazed, fresh, and 1 euro! We are definitely going there more often. So delicious and worth the long and kinda scary walk.
Uffizi (v) michelangelo's original David. (v)
CHOCOLATE FESTIVAL!!!
Saturday: The bridges on either side of the Ponte Vecchio have support columns that form into diamonds. Locals go there and sit enjoying the scenery and either smoking or eating dinner or whatever. One has really small ones and the other larger. We chose the larger. And we chose to eat gelato. This was probably my favorite thing so far. I could just sit there and relax and I can’t wait to do that more often. The Boboli Gardens across the river was next on our list. There is way too much in there, but it is all really pretty and green, naturey, and calming to walk around in. We made a super delicious dinner together and then proceeded to mass... at the duomo. So cool. It was in English too. Definitely had an awkward moment with the priest. That thing where you can cross your arms and just be blessed during communion instead of taking the bread doesn’t exist here. So it was funny to see his reaction. The priest also chased a girl pretty far because she didn’t put the bread in her mouth right away. I chuckled and thought about Smiley and Melissa Chesnut. :)
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Sunday: Went to mass in the morning by myself to Santa Croce Church. It was in Italiano this time and I liked people watching. I went up for communion doing the blessing thing again to just see what would happen… and it was definitely sufficiently awkward again. When the priest finally opened his eyes he saw me arms crossed and my mouth closed. We stared for a little bit as he slowly moved the bread toward me and then squeezed it through my tightly closed lips. I laughed as I walked away.
Later that day we hiked up to piazzale michelangiolo again and tried to take the view in once again.
Then I went to a Christian Church!! And in English!! YAY! I loveeeddd it so much and felt so happy to be there! My little taste of home. I felt so comfortable and loved all the people I met, which wasn’t very many. There were about 30 people? It was great and we all went upstairs to hang out after. It was so good.. I can’t get over how great it was. I think I needed it after these first 2 weeks of new everything all the time.
Santa Croce Church
I am getting busier so the blogs might be less and less.. But I probably write too much anyway..so adopo! Ciao until the next time I say something to one of you people who reads this.
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