After Cinque Terre, I headed to Florence to stay with my friend Maja for a few days. I didn’t really have the rest of my week planned out yet, so that was the first order of business once I arrived at Maja’s apartment. The only thing planned out was that I had a flight back to Eindhoven (1 hour from Maastricht) from Pisa, Italy super early the following Sunday morning and a hostel booked for Saturday night in Pisa. Other than that, it was all still to be decided (This just about sums up study abroad…. everything is SUPER last minute! And no plans, just going with the flow!). I knew I wanted to visit Rome, so I bought a bus ticket to Rome for early Wednesday morning and then a return back to Florence late Thursday night. And Maja’s birthday was Tuesday, so I knew I’d stay in Florence Monday and Tuesday. I figured that this was a good start to my week and that I’d plan out Friday and Saturday after I got back from Rome.
Monday in Florence was the classic tourist day. I walked around the city by myself when Maja was in class and I visited the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge, the Santa Trinita bridge (which gives the best view of the Ponte Vecchio), the Santa Maria Novella church, the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore (aka the duomo), Piazza Della Signoria (a big square with a carousel and street performers, just really good vibes here), a leather street market, and Piazza Della Signoria (a huge piazza with lots of statues and a fountain of Neptune. Since it was Monday, all of the museums were closed so I pretty much knocked out everything else in Florence on my to do list and decided I would go back to the museums the next day.
Monday night after Maja was done with her class, I met her back at her apartment and we went to Piazzale Michelangelo which gives a beautiful lookout view of the city. We went at sunset and this place might be my favorite in Florence. You have a beautiful view, there’s live music, everyone’s drinking wine… everything about it is just perfect. After the sun went down, Maja took me to an aperitivo place in Florence for dinner. For those who don’t know, aperitivo is an Italian tradition that’s is similar to an American happy hour (but better!). Basically, you pay for a drink (wine, beer, a cocktail…) and can then eat as much food as you want with it. We went to Kitsch and I would definitely recommend it to anyone visiting Florence! Most aperitivos cost between 6 and 10 euros, but we went to a nicer one with a huge food selection that was 12 euros. Still, this is such a deal for a drink and all you can eat dinner! We stayed and chatted for a while, then headed back to Maja’s apartment. Day one in Florence… check!
Tuesday, I woke up and went to visit the Academia museum. This is where Michaelangelo’s famous David sculpture is, so I knew I had to pay a visit to the Academia while in Florence. It was a beautiful April day in the upper 60s and the start of tourist season. I ended up waiting in line for well over an hour to enter the museum! Once I finally got in, I took my time going through it and I tried eavesdropping on a few tour guides to learn about David and the other sculptures there. Just by observing the sculpture, you can see that David’s arms are huge in comparison to the rest of his body. David is approximately a 24 year old man and there has been a lot of controversy over if he was David from the bible or not. I overheard a tour guide tell her tour that yes, it is supposed to be David from the bible! He is entirely made of marble and Michelangelo created him from 1502 to 1504. Pretty impressive!
After I was done with the Academia, it was already mid afternoon and I had considered going to visit the Uffizi Gallery but again, there was a super long line and Maja was done with her classes already so I decided to meet up with her and celebrate her birthday! We spent some time taking in the sun by a large square, got ice cream and ate it by the duomo, and then spent time shopping. We then met up with some of her friends in Florence for dinner at one of their favorite restaurants. I ordered 1/2 salad and 1/2 of their famous gnocchi with truffle oil… it was definitely one of the best meals I’ve had abroad and for sure the best Italian food. Another recommendationd for my Florence people — please please please go to Osteria Santo Spirito and order their “gnocchi gratinati al formaggi morbidi al profumo di tartufo” (yes, I know that’s a mouthful) !!!!!! After dinner, we headed back to Maja’s apartment to get ready for a night out. We went to the Red Garter, a bar that’s entirely for study abroad students (lol), which had a fun karaoke section.
Wednesday and Thursday were spent in Rome, so go back to my All Things Italian tab and click on the Rome page to learn about that trip!
Friday, I was back in Florence. I got a late start to the day and it was nice to sleep in after my last few non-stop travel days. Maja doesn’t have Friday classes, so we grabbed paninis and then went to check out the Boboli Gardens (fun fact: this is where Kim Kardashian and Kanye West had their wedding pictures😲). The Boboli Gardens are massive yet every part is well maintained. After our afternoon at the gardens, we met up with our friend Colin Forbes (studying in Copenhagen this semester) and some of his friends he was traveling with from his school in Denmark… it was quite the coincidence we were all in Florence at the same time! We all went to Kitsch for aperitivo (definitely not mad that I ate there twice during my 4 days in Florence) and then got drinks at another US college bar. We found two Wisconsin shirts left on the ceiling from previous study abroad groups! We ended our night with a brief stop at one of the nightclubs in Florence… don’t worry, this one wasn’t just for study abroad students 🙂
Saturday, we got another late start to our day because of our shenanigans the previous night. Maja and I had scheduled a wine tour through the Tuscany countryside from early afternoon to dusk. To be completely honest, I was exhausted–I had been traveling FOREVER and I was so ready to get back to Maastricht. I was worn out, starting to get sick, and just wanted to be home in my own bed. I wasn’t really sure how this wine tour would go. But to my surprise, I LOVED it. We visited two wineries and an old Italian town in between our stops at the wineries. The first winery was super interesting and we tried five wines and our guides told us when you’re supposed to drink each wine as well as what food you should eat it with. We also got to try real balsamic vinegar and truffle oil on multiple cheeses and breads. Did you know that almost all of the balsamic vinegar in the world is fake? Real balsamic vinegar takes a very long time to make and is only produced in the Tuscany region. It is aged and cannot keep up with the world’s demands. Obviously, this makes real balsamic vinegar super expensive! It tasted much sweeter than the balsamic vinegar that we eat at home and to my surprise I liked the vinegar that was aged 12 years better than the one that was aged 20 years. I really appreciated our tour guide at the first winery — he was hilarious and really knew what he was talking about. At the second tour, we had our fair share of wine samples but were only given bread to cleanse our palate, so we didn’t get to learn about the different oils and vinegars. Our guide was very modest; she simply gave us the “textbook” facts about the wine and she really wasn’t that interesting. I also liked the wines more at the first winery. However, what the first winery lacked in views of the rolling Tuscany hills, the second winery made up for. It was beautiful and we were there right at dusk to catch the evening glow over the countryside. It was super pretty and I’m glad I got to see this part of Italy.
After our bus brought us back to Florence, that was about it! Maja and I grabbed a quick dinner and said our goodbyes before I got on a train to Pisa. Florence was charming, romantic, and I can see why so many people love it. I was surprised how small it was; the city’s population is only around 300,000 but yet it’s a super touristy area that everyone planning a vacation to Italy seems to visit. I actually really appreciated this aspect of Florence; it’s quaintness made it even more charming. There is so much history here about the Renaissance and I would love to return back one day to learn more.
Words From Abroad 