FIRENZE (My Actual Birthday!)

Y'all ready for this blog post? I think it is my longest ever!

1) So it was my birthday. Now I'm twenty. Wow.

2) On Saturday (bday morning!) I was up at 6:30 AM(!dad aren't you proud?!) to shower! I was clean and READY for Florence! Frantically packed my backpack (i had my laptop, journal, course readings, passport, tooth brush, etc...unfortunately forgot many clothes...) and we raced out the door to the bus (which I was very proud we caught correctly, and quickly) and arrived at the Roma Termini (that's Rome's train station). It was a surreal experience -- so many people, trains, noises, shops, food, magazines, ticket stalls I was overwhelmed and big eyed. Of course, that may have just been a side effect of no cappuccino yet, but I like to think it was the impressiveness of humanity, etc, etc. Our cheap cheap train was the furthest possible from the entrance, and we awkwardly got on, only half sure it was headed to Florence...?

3) But it was thank goodness! I fell asleep near immediately, so missed much of the slow slow train ride. Apparently the reason the cheap train is so cheap because they make you pay less when the train stops for hours at a time at tiny podunk train stations on the way to Tuscany. Go figure.

2) My slow train partners were Emilio, Erik, Yuting, and Kate! We were all super tired and cranky, especially when I woke up from my cramped 4.5 hour nap to the worst caffeine headache ever (August is gonna be awesome without cheap cappuccino...). This feeling was made better from the hilariously bad restaurant service (because we stupidly and desperately hungrily ate at what translates to the "Paradise of Pizza." Emilio said that it was paradise for pizza because no one wants to eat the pizza there...) Kate/Yuting had the tiniest hotel room!! It was on the 8th floor (or something) and we all barely fit when we visited!

3) All I remember from the next hour or so is: Bigchurchwoot... Foundthepeoplewhotookthefasttrainwoot.. Ohlookacafewoot. OH WOW COFFEE THANK GOD. Everything becomes clearer after that.

4) So, in our inexperienced and naive new-at-traveling fashion, we rented a penthouse apartment for one night instead of a hotel room. :D Whoops! Guess I'll read the Orbitz.com description better next time! I will skip over the Type-A stress and panic when the nice people at the apartment offices told us they indeed booked *apartments* and *not* hotels -- and instead move on to the incredible TERRACE and an incredible marble BATHROOM and KITCHEN and incredible TONS OF ROOM. So incredible. (David was very logical and thought we had gotten what we paid for, but it was still INCREDIBLE!)

5) After running around our PENTHOUSE APARTMENT we much-less-crankily adventured out to the city! It was the most incredible view I've ever seen - a setting sun over the river, as we stood on Ponte Vecchio (a famous bridge that had room to build buildings so they did). There was a musician in the background, and just as the sun disappeared into the purple clouds he sang "Let It Be." I missed you very much Mommy!

6) After the sun set we continued on our walking adventure, and everyone for some reason had very angsty and deep talks with each other. It was actually really refreshing (and somehow appropriate for my 20th birthday?) until we had to walk less angstily back and I was tired... We took a break on this concrete piazza that was still warm from the sun.

7) That is, I was tired until I had GELATO for my birthday dinner!!! Nutella swirl and stracciacella (which is a fancy name for vanilla with chocolate chips)! :)

8) We chilled on our terrace ALLLLLL night (overnight apartmenters = Zinnia, Sydney, Mauna, David, Erik, Emilio . At my birthday midnight Mauna and I watched Florentines (read: American tourists) walk down below while we listened to Coldplay. <3 onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6Ebs3JQJRRSzXQ2bnMhvXrih2ud05L903HcxK-T1Cvap8IjG7k2XSgwfGwy8N48FRIbfKbtHL5PePHHm5Dh0jZu8AxXriPdErrnF1q_G-mkzE27Js-rhn9skonVtWWNOpDs5GvDuuyt_z/s1600/terrace.jpg">

10) Up at 7:00a with David to meet Yuting and Kate for the Ufizi gallery! WE SAW BOTTICELLI and buttloads of sculptures! But what I enjoyed the most was a visiting exhibit of Carvaggio paintings -- his focus on light and psychological emotion/expression is my favs. What I enjoyed the second most was the cafe at the end of the museum where I got cappuccino...thank god...

11) After some breakfast gelato (coffee flavored!) Yuting and I randomly decided to check out a tall, kind of interesting looking tower, and ended up staying two hours running around the best museum I'd seen! It was called Palazzo Vecchio, and was set up how (what appears to be a famous Florentine family) actually lived in. Perhaps half of the goodness was the surprise of the place, but we saw some of the greatest art. :) A ridonkulous Lion, random holes in the walls that were good for cute picture taking, ancient toilets (!!), and the first gorgeous landscape view of Florence!! (David and Kate chilled on the Ufizi steps, and bonded over being sleepy.) :)

12) NOTE: We did not see Michelangelo's David. We instead looked at the lifesized replica outside Palazzo Vecchio... which was pretty much the same to me...(plus 10 euros and three hours wait cheaper). ;)

13) Indian food for lunch with everybody! Kate bought me a birthday Ciao Bella shirt! :D (I LOVE HER SO MUCH!) For all y'all who don't speak Italian-creep-lingo: "Ciao bella" means "hello beautiful" -- all the creepy street vendors say it as girls walk by, and I've (less creepily) taken to saying it too! Now it is my catchphrase! No one thinks it's as creepy though! I swear! Really! I think!

13.5) Paid 3 euro for what we thought would be this giant cool church to see! But instead they just let us awkwardly see this great fresco mural about St. Peter that was set up in the corner... Still pretty great, but my favorite part of that adventure was the hot walk there, and little oasis of trees and grass it had in the middle of the building. :)

14) So there is a famous cathedral in Firenze, It was really ornate and really tall (and we could see it from our TERRACE!). I think it had an actual cathedralic name, but everyone called it the Duomo...? So we did too..? Aaand after 414 steps (and a lot of water breaks) we climbed its bell tower. OH YEEEAH! One of those, you know, breathtaking and once in a lifetime moments. ;) Of course the breathtaking moment was made lots better by all the "your momma" and "that's what she said" jokes Erik and Emilio were loudly cracking....thanks guys...). I saved my camera batteries for that view! Check it!

15) Down the stairs and met up with the rest of the overnighters. Went to Trattoria Zaza before we had to catch the train -- it was the sweetest restaurant with the best character and the BEST food! The plates had animal skin patterns! I had DELICIOUS bread tomato soup, and they had FREE BREAD with oil and vinegar! Sydney and Mauna stole the leftover bread for the train...

16) Four and a half hour train ride back. The sun set. There was another incredible purple sunset view as we rode the train across the Tuscan countryside. I wrote in my journal (thanks sister!). Made both David AND Kate cry with laughter. (BAM! and Dramatic Squirrrel!!) ;) Got off the train and (rather stressedly) caught the last bus back to our neighborhood.

17) Best thing about Florence trip? At the end of it, we got to return to Rome. <3

18) Theeeen I slept for 11 hours. Got up SUPER exhausted but made it to the Rome center to blog, email, and enjoy my beautiful Facebook birthday messages! Thanks everyone! Enjoyed a Fourth of July celebration at Kathie and Resat's (GORGEOUS) Rome Center apartment, then out to gelato with everyone!

19) Today visited the old Jewish Ghetto. Hard to imagine 7,000 people living within such a tiny space for so long -- heard terrible stories of the German Occupation. Enjoyed Resat's class (took Mom and Liz's strategy for the class readings... hehe...) and am now waiting for his evening lecture, some crepes for dinner, and an opera tonight! Ciao bella!

20) Miss you!