Florence and Cinque Terre

CEA actually planned a day trip on Friday, March 1st for us, so we went and extended it out the whole weekend so I could see Catherine, Maureen, Shelby and Lucie! So many people to see in Florence.. I felt like everyone I knew was there in one weekend.

We went to Gran Sasso, our favorite restaurant across the street, the night before and I got the best meal I've had there so far: seafood risotto ahhhhh. This time the owner gave us free dessert wine and biscotti. Love it.

Another illegal picture

We woke up bright and early to meet the rest of CEA at the train station outside the Nike store, and then hung out on the short train ride to Florence. We were pumped because Mario, our goofy Italian professor, was also joining the trip. Professor Massini (I love her but her tours are tooooo long) was there to show us around. We got to the train station in Florence and immediately set off on a tour. I honestly kind of zoned out on a lot of it and just took in how cute Florence was. We went to see the David and other notable Michelangelo statues. The David was unreal, and I was actually floored at how huge it was. I had never pictured it that big. Michelangelo, being Michelangelo of course, created this statue differently than David had ever been portrayed before. Instead of the usual victorious David, usually with Goliath's head after the battle, Michelangelo created the statue of the David right before the battle took place. He captured a sense of nervousness and tension as David was holding the stone in his hand, along with his slingshot slung over his arm. He was also carved with massive hands and a large head, because of the perspective that the statue was originally meant to be seen at (supposed to be placed quite high up). Like the Sistine Chapel, there were people yelling "NO FOTO!" at everyone, but of course we all got photos. Then we moved on to some other unfinished statues by Michelangelo that actually probably looked cooler than if they had been completed.

Oh hey Luc

We went to the Duomo next, and as Professor Massini was discussing it, I heard someone yelling, "CHRISTINE! CHRISTINE!" I looked up and there was Lucie, dangling out of her apartment window. Her apartment was literally right next to the Duomo! She came down and said hi, and we decided to meet up later for dinner.

When we left, Professor Massini brought us on a tour of the rest of the area and I have to say I really didn't listen. Finally, they brought us all to lunch at a place called Il Gatto e La Volpe. It was family style, and first we got served these delicious doughy bread crust things that almost seemed like they weren't fully cooked... sooo good. Then they brought out the antipasto, full of things like mozzarella, prosciutto, eggplant, zucchini, sun-dried tomatoes, and all kinds of different meats. Then, they brought out the pasta, and by that point I was full to the point of feeling sick. Although everyone was delicious.

Margaritas!

Shelby and Maureen picked me, Anna, and Katherine up at the restaurant so that we could leave our stuff at Shelby's apartment. We hung out for a little and then went and got iced coffees and shopped around at a few stores. Then we went back and made plans for dinner. We decided to go to a Mexican place, Tijuana, for happy hour drinks and dinner, and then Lucie was going to have us all over before we left for the club. We each ordered two margaritas (only 4 euros each!), and I got a blue one and an orange one. The blue one was "on the rocks" and literally tasted like I was sipping a shot of tequila. That one took me a while. Me and Anna split the vegetarian fajitas (Friday on Lent!), which were actually really good.

Just a casual beer at the Duomo

We headed back to Shelby's apartment and sipped our classy wine juice boxes, which were actually gross, and headed over to Lucie's. I promised my friend Claire, who was staying with girls that lived in Lucie's building, that I would shotgun outside the Duomo with her... check that off my bucket list. Let's just say I lost miserably, Claire beasted it, and I wasted half a Heineken. We went back up to Lucie's and there were a ton of people there which was a blast. We headed over to the club 21 around midnight I think. I literally felt like half of Providence College was in attendance, along with some of my closest friends from home. It was really weird but awesome. I actually managed to stay at the club longer than most times I go clubbing (probably because of everyone there) and then decided to leave with Maureen, Shelby and Anna. Maureen brought us to the "secret bakery," where a guy literally sells baked goods outside the back door of the store. Maureen explained to me that it's probably so secretive (and probably illegal) because the guy is commissioned to make this stuff for other bakeries, so all of it gets shipped out in the morning. Basically, he's selling stuff that isn't his. There was a small group gathered outside, but we were constantly being told to be quiet so that no one would find out what he was doing. He came out and took our order, and I asked for a ciocolatto cornetto, basically a chocolate croissant.

The next morning we woke up around 10 am and after all of us showered, we headed down for another iced coffee. Maureen and Shelby took us through the outdoor market that had tons of leather goods and other stuff, and then inside the huge fresh food market. It was full of meats, cheese, spices, fruits and vegetables.. literally anything you could want. I know that we have one down the street in Rome, but I still haven't gone- gotta get on that...

Since Catherine was getting in around 3 pm, we decided to go to lunch. Both Maureen and Katherine's older siblings had said that Antica Noe was literally the best place to go to lunch, so we had to try it out. The place was really small, kind of deli-like, and had some tables outside. I got the #9, a french baguette with turkey, brie, roasted onions and some kind of spicy sauce. It was one of the best sandwiches I've ever had in my life... literally did not want to finish it. I have to go back there if I ever make it back to Florence. Then Maureen and Shelby went to get Catherine, and me, Anna and Katherine ran into Alex and her friend from home getting ready to climb to the top of the Duomo.

The Duomo climb was less stairs than the St. Peter's Dome climb, but for some reason it was much harder. Also, you constantly had to let people get past you to come back down. Finally, neat the top, when I could feel the sun on my head, I saw this woman's feet in front of me. "Excuse me! Excuse me! I need to get down! I'm having a panic attack!" I quickly jumped up and out of the little staircase, making it to the top level, to let her get by. Just as she took one step on the really steep stairs, she lost her balance and fell down the rest of the stairs until this man threw his phone down to stop her. If Katherine hadn't been standing completely to the side, this woman would have taken her down with her. I felt really bad for the woman, but as the girls met me at the top, we all just kind of looked at each other and didn't know what to say, so we just laughed it off. We took a bunch of pictures at the top, and for some reason it was definitely scarier than St. Peter's Dome. The floor had this kind of downward slant to it that kind of felt like I was slipping downwards.

When we made it back down, we met Catherine and the girls at Shelby's apartment- it was almost 4 pm already, and we wanted to make it to the famous Piazza del Michelangelo for the sunset. So we set off to a grocery store on the way, where we picked up personal bottles of prosecco, some French bread, and brie. Trekking up the hill to the piazza was probably the most exercise I've gotten abroad, besides the two dome climbs. Finally, we made it to the top, and the view was incredible. We could see everything in Florence. There was a man playing music to everyone sitting on the steps, and eventually more and more people that we knew kept showing up. After the sunset, we headed back down to get ready for our dinner reservations at Dante's.

I ordered a salmon and zucchini pasta that was really delicious, but I think my favorite thing to eat was what Maureen ordered- some kind of Tuscan soup with lots of veggies and little pieces of bread soaked in the broth. Dante's also serves unlimited wine for students at dinner, so we ordered both the red and white. The white was actually disgusting, and tasted like bad tap water. The red was fine, so I stuck with that. Dante, the owner, ended up coming and sitting down with us. He ordered us two rounds of limoncello shots, and by the end of the night, we were all trying to get the waiters to take the limoncello shots, too. Let's just say everyone really took advantage of the free wine and shots, and by the time we got home from dinner at 12:30 am, no one even made it out to the apparent "pre-game" karaoke bar, or even the club for after that.

Swordfish!

Me, Katherine and Anna met Danielle at the train station at around 7 am, and got on our train to Cinque Terre. After having done some research, I realized it would have been cool to be able to hike across all five towns, however, it was just impossible with the amount of time we had. So I picked one of the most high-rated towns, Vernazza, for us to visit for a few hours. It was so cute. When the train pulled in, all we had to do was walk down the street and we were near all the little restaurants, and then right up to the water. There were boats in the streets, some half covered, waiting for summer, and all of the buildings were bright pastels of pink and yellow and orange. We walked around and took pictures, and then walked back up the dirt/cobbled street to a little restaurant that looked like it had good seafood. I felt like I was on vacation. The girls all ordered forms of seafood pasta, and I got the swordfish. They gave me a giant piece, but I have to say that I ate most of it because it was so good!  After, we walked back down by the water and climbed a giant staircase to get better views. During the summer, a restaurant is open at the top of the cliffs, but even though it wasn't open, we got to still go out on the terrace that was set up. We headed back down to check out the church on the water. It was really pretty on the inside, kind of cold and medieval-looking, with more Gothic architecture. It had giant windows that looked out directly onto the water and definitely would have been a pretty place to go to mass to!

We left the church in search of gelato, found it, and basked in the sun for a few hours on some rocks in and ledges up against the water. The weather was absolutely beautiful, too. After an hour, we had to head back to the main station La Spezia, and hopped on the Vernazza local train. The ride back was four hours, so we were able to snack and catch up on a little sleep before we got home.

I literally couldn't limit the Cinque Terre pictures, so here are just a "few":