Wandering with Intention

So it's begun. . . It's 9:30pm the night before class starts and I'm at my computer eating m&ms and writing my blog instead of doing my reading for tomorrow. . .oops! I'll have time. . . later. . . 

Today marked my first full day of exploring! We got out of the apartment by 9:30 AM and headed out to find breakfast. We passed the Duomo again. . . and honestly, it never gets old (we passed it a million times today too. . . it's astonishing)

We finally found a place to get coffee and a pastry.  The latte was delicious (probably because they use whole milk) and the pastry had nutella in it =) perfect breakfast. We then headed over to this fortress thing on our map. . . I can't remember the name, but it was massive and we couldn't get in, so we just walked around it (which took a good 20 minutes)


Part of the front

 Cool Statue by it

There was a nice sized park on the side of it, with lots of ducks

Close up on one of the walls of the fortress 

Then we just decided to follow one of the main streets that crossed a bunch of piazzas and I think we were in the more wealthy part of Florence. . .it reminded me a little bit of New York by Central Park, but with much bigger doors.

We stumbled upon a Piazza della Liberta, which was pretty cool. It was perfect weather too and we were in a part of town without many tourists (which is the best). Avoid tourists, avoid paying an arm and a leg for things.

I also found this theatre sign, which I thought was cool =) 

We wandered a little more, but had to turn back and retrace our steps because one of the girls lost her sweater. I didn't mind though, it's nice to walk leisurely, especially since we'll be here a while. Unfortunately we didn't find her sweater, and we decided to head back to eat and rest.  We walked through Piazza della Independenza, which was nice-- looked like a great place to sit and read -- and then ate at a restaurant in our home piazza. We had bruschetta for an appetizer and some of their house wine -- which I could barely make a dent in. I still have no taste for alcohol. 

For a meal, I had the most delicious spaghetti and meat sauce of my life and then learned that you don't ask for a box for your food in Italy. Italians prefer to take long meals and eat everything, or else you are considered to be rude. However, they wrapped up our food anyways, and it made a great dinner too! 


We took a break after lunch to figure out where we want to go on weekend trips and then made made a trip to essentially the 99 cent store to pick up some essentials (paper towels, sponges etc.) Then we headed to the Piazza della Signoria, which I really wanted to see. IT WAS SO COOL! ahhh! I want to go back early in the morning when no one is there. . . but it is such an awesome place. The statues. . . the buildings. . .so amazing. My favorite part is the spiral staircase on the clock tower. 

Neptune

Coolest statue 

Awesome view from where the statues were

I'm probably going to go back and spend more time there.  I feel very comfortable walking around Italy.  We've gotten about two catcalls, but they were perfectly harmless.  I definitely have gotten a feel for it, and i feel like my sense of direction is getting better (it's so confusing here!) 


The other two girls were tired after our day, so we came back -- I reheated my lunch for dinner and basically tried to get the internet to work!!! Now it's almost 10:30 and Dante is calling me to read. Well, first day of class tomorrow!!! I'm also getting up early to go to the giant outside (ish) market around the corner to get food for the week.  I'm excited. Shopping at the market is apparently pretty cheap, which is nice. Anyways, more adventures tomorrow!!! Buena Sera!