Fun in Fiesole

Today, we took the public bus to the countryside outside of Florence, and the picturesque town of Fiesole.

Fiesole is a town built up on a hill that overlooks Florence. The public bus takes you all the way to the top, to the main stop in Fiesole, but we got off early so that we could walk and enjoy the spectacular view of the Italian countryside with the cityscape of Florence in the distance.

We made a few stops along the way up and sat out on the stone wall lining the winding road, took some photos, and attempted to learn some Italian with the help of Good Ol' Rick Steves!

 Just doing a little studying...

And enjoying the view...

And the food...

 

And the desert!

Now we had some fun with Camera+

The clock tower in the center of Fiesole

Annie was working her inner model

I was told I have the feet of a traveler... not sure what that means, but I think it was referring to my obvious Birkenstock tan lines! 

This is the funniest gas station I have ever seen!

Kenley strolling along

The gang doing their best to look 'pensive' 

A Little Jazz & A Little Wine

Last night, we heard through the grapevine (nice wine pun) that on the other side of the Fiume there was an intimate live jazz performance in one of the city piazzas. We thought this sounded like a pretty sweet idea, so we ventured across Ponte Vecchio (the main bridge in Florence) and had a wonderful night in the part of town where the accurately dubbed 'Non Creepy Italians' live.

This was what we discovered when we followed the music through the alleyways of Florence. This lady had the most beautiful voice, and the overall sound of the band was amazing, but everything was made even better as we realized we were standing in Florence, Italy unharassed, with wine and music. 

 The Flatmates!

La Nuova Famiglia!

The Band

Afterwards, when the show ended, we decided to very slowly make our way back to our apartment. We bought some gellato and stopped to eat it on the Ponte Vecchio, looking out onto the Fiume. We then meandered through the historic part of the city and had some fun taking photos of the Duomo (the very famous and beautiful cathedral in the city center)

 The girls are dedicated to their photography... even the two with their small point and shoot cameras.

Viareggio!

Florence at this time of year is blazing hot and unbearably humid. The issue is compounded by the fact that Florence has not had rain in many weeks (or maybe months?). There is no place to swim in the city, or at least not when the lack of rain makes the Fiume (river) very disgusting. So yesterday, to get away from the heat, we ventured to Viareggio and the beautiful beaches this little city just north of Pisa has to offer. 





It was an easy hour and forty minute train ride to Viareggio, and then a simple walk from the train station to the beach, where there were lots of other people enjoying the sun and sand, and lots of surfers struggling with the lack of waves (but I applauded them for their perseverance).

 From left to right: me, Megan, Kirsten, and Kenley getting some lunch on the boardwalk by the beach.

Enjoying the sun!

The Florentine Adventure Begins!

Benvenuti a Firenze!

The late start to this blog is directly related to the amount of fun I have been having so far... I simply could not find the time to write anything down!

So to recap:

I arrived in Florence in the early morning of Wednesday, August 29th, after taking the Night train from Paris to Milan and then the commuter train from Milan to Florence. The night train was an experience in and of itself. I have taken night trains before, but with this one, I was crammed into a tiny compartment measuring approximately 6ft by 8ft with 5 other cabinmates (4 of whom were very smelly males). I arrived in Milan at about 5:30am and then bolted, with my massive traveling backpack and a bigA suitcase, through the train station to get onto the 5:40am train to Firenze Santa Maria Novella. 

To make a somewhat long story short, I arrived at the main train terminal in Florence in the early morning with my inordinate amount of stuff and headed straight to the student check in point of my school. I was welcomed, given my keys, and given the worst map I have ever seen and was told to go find my apartment. I managed this decently successful and only got lost once, but was helped by a very nice man from Boston who has been a professor at the University of Florence for 12 years. He could tell I needed help when he saw me staring at the map that could have easily passed as a pre-schooler's drawing and sweating profusely from dragging my suitcase along the cobblestoned streets of Florence (which, as a side note, have sidewalks that measure about 2ft in width with many, many tourists unaware that the courteous thing to do when spotting a person struggling with their suitcase would be to not stop in the middle of the tiny sidewalk, but rather to step aside nicely and let me pass). Anyhow, the nice professor pointed me in the right direction of my apartment, which I finally found. I then proceeded to struggle just a bit more when I had to carry all my stuff up 2 floors as almost no apartment building in Florence has a lift. But I survived, got into my apartment, showered, and unpacked my stuff, and waited to meet my new flatmates.

One by one, they arrived, and it was a wonderful feeling when at the end of the day the score was awesome flatmates 4, shitty flatmates 0. And the winners were Caitlin, Kenley, Kirsten, and Megan!

The next 2 days were filled with somewhat boring meetings, and orientation activities that paled miserably compared to Queen's in terms of fun, but I did meet more amazing people, and together, we all drank amazing wine (although the word amazing should be replaced with the word cheap...)

This is the start of my Florentine Adventure!