Florence

We arrived in Florence on Thursday morning after a long night in the Athens airport, a flight to Rome, and a quick flight to Florence!! But when we got here we were SO EXCITED! We got a cab straight to our apartment because Maggie had already gotten here! Our apartment is great..it is on a wonderful street and close to everything! We don't have any air conditioning-but we do have fans, and it isn't too bad at all.

When we got here Thursday we checked in with the school and then explored the city. We ate lunch at a pizza place- Trattoria Il Porcospino. We walked down to the Arno River and saw the Ponte Vecchio. We also walked by the Uffizi and the Duomo. It was great to learn our way around a little bit. When we were walking home Carolyn and I just picked up a salad to bring back home because we were exhausted. We all sat around and read our books for a while before going to sleep.

Friday started off with the Lorenzo de Medici orientation from 9-2. We learned about all of the safety tips and school regulations. We also got our course schedules and Carolyn, Maggie and I are all in the exact same classes, yay! We are taking World of Museums from 9-11:30 and Italian Language from 1:30-3:45. I didn't know we'd be in class so long every day, but I am sure it will be okay. Lots to learn!! After orientation we went to lunch at a little Cafe near our apartment where they have lots of inexpensive options-it was great and I plan to go there a lot!! We walked around several spots around our apartment and even discovered a McDonalds! I bet I will go! We all walked back to the school because Sarah and I signed up for a trip to Rome on July 24th and 25th. It filled up completely and we got there just in time. I cannot wait to go to Rome. We then went to Grom for Gelato, and it was just as good as I had heard. I highly recommend the Crema de Mentha (mint). We had to come back to our apartment because our Landlord was coming by between 5 and 7:30. He came by to make sure everything was okay and tell us a few things about working the appliances. He was very nice. Carolyn, Maggie and I then went to the welcome dinner at The Club House. It was a wonderful 3 course meal with salad, pasta, rice, potatoes, tiramisu, and even wine! We had a good time and met many other people in the program. Courtney, Ashton and Laura came back to our apartment and we all drank a couple of glasses of wine. We went out to the bars-and it was quite an experience. We went to Fish Pub, Red Garter, and Twice. The crowds there were a little odd but we all stuck together and were fine. We came home about 2:15 and went to sleep.

Today (Saturday) we woke up about 11 and went to the Market Cental, which is a large Farmers Market. It was so impressive. We bought lots of foods- shrimp, zucchini, peppers, onions, bread, tomatoes, olive oil, vinegar. We are cooking dinner tonight with all of the things we bought. We then came back to the apartment for lunch and I ate the rest of my pizza from Thursday. We went shopping for the afternoon and explored a lot of the big shops in the city. We went to a lot of clothes shops, but I didn't buy anything. We ate gelato at Taylor's favorite gelato place in the Piazza called Migone. I got the tourist rip-off that they warned us about in the guidebook. Whoops! I definitely learned my lesson about how to order and not letting them trick me! We went to the beverage market to get a few things and ended up running into a few guys from UNC that are backpacking through Europe, and I think we may go out with them tonight!! We are about to cook our dinner now! CIAO!