Tuesday 4/11
Jordan and I were all excited to go to an outdoor yoga activity through LdM so we got dressed up went met at the meeting point…only to discover that the activity was next week. Sad. We went to sit in our new favorite spot – the steps of Spedale degli Innocenti right next to our apartment. We sat in the sun, avoiding pigeon poop, doing some homework before getting coffee. We got iced coffee at a fancy place called La Menagere and then drank it in the kitchen garden of Medici Riccardi Palace where it smelled amazing and there were bees buzzing around. In my food culture class we did a quick street food tour at the end and walked to restaurants around the city.
Thursday 4/13
Jordan and I sat at the piazza steps doing work in the sun again, and then decided to do some type of workout. After spring break, as soon as everyone came home we individually went to get groceries and each one of us ended up getting a bag of lettuce and so many vegetables – it was hilarious. We all felt so gross from eating unhealthily! Anyways, we swept the floor in our living room and did a rough 21 minute Kayla workout using homemade weights (backpacks with books and water bottles in them). This was my first real workout since January…before coming to Italy. So I was destroyed for a couple days but it made me feel better. Side note: Molly’s boyfriend, Luke, was visiting for a couple days and he had waited in line for 5 HOURS to see the David at the accademia – tourists are crazy here! You can barely walk anywhere without pushing people around. We went to Red Gartner as a group after playing catch phrase at the apartment.
Friday 4/14
We all went a little crazy on the shopping…But I finally convinced everyone to try my favorite gelato place that I discovered with Maya. It is a little further from our apartment, but for 1.80 Euro you get two of the most heavenly scoops of gelato ever – and they always get new flavors! Safe to say it was a hit with everyone and we went back again later in the weekend. Gelatteria de Neri was the name btw. We had reservations at a restaurant called Acqua al 2 so we got dressed up really cute and went out to dinner just me, Molly, Jordan and Casey. It was super fun and the food was delicious!
Saturday 4/15
We all had a super lazy day inside because the weather outside was gloomy and we were scared of the tourist influx for Easter weekend. It was a good excuse to get work done but it was hard because for some reason because we were so distracted hanging out together…. We decided to watch the season of Jersey Shore where they live in Florence… it is hilarious because we can recognize where they are and understand a lot of their troubles.
Sunday 4/16
It is Easter! Easter is a really big deal in Italy and especially Florence. One of my teachers said that Florence locals will flee to the countryside and many people from all over Italy will come to Florence. There is something called explosion of the cart or Scoppio del Carro, in front of the Duomo that supposedly happened at 10… so we got there at 9:30 and there was already a huge crowd. Long story short the explosion didn’t happen until 11:17 and it was a bunch of fireworks! We could barely see because of all the people, but it was worth the wait anyways. After the cart explosion, we booked it to a brunch place called Le Vespe because we didn’t make reservations anywhere. We beat the whole crowd there and got the last table outside. Minutes later there were at least 20 people waiting on the streets outside next to us. The breakfast was amazing! We got the most American dish: The King. It had potatoes, bacon, sausage, eggs and pancakes. Americans who walked by the restaurant were all whispering “Oh my god that looks so good” and the Italians who walked by made a look of disgust. Looking back, it really wasn’t that great but it was the first super American food we had had.
After brunch, Casey and I wanted to go on a walk to Piazzale Michelangelo because a local Florentine guy told me his favorite spot was the rose garden right under it. We ended up getting distracted because there was a beach along the Arno where people were laying out! We laid in the sand awhile and told Jordan and Molly to meet us with a blanket and beers. The beach was really nice and there was a perfect breeze… until a bunch of American guys came over and tried talking to us so we left because it was getting late anyways. We decided to go up to the rose garden anyways and it was so peaceful! Many people just asleep laying in the grass.
Monday 4/17
Easter is such a big deal that we get Monday off too! They kind of treat it like we would treat 4th of July. Italians will do Easter lunch and grill out with friends. While everyone else was catching up on homework, Casey and I wanted to go back to the “beach”. We invited Rachel to go and walked over together. We had a great time laying in the sun and eavesdropping on these horrible girls sitting near us – actually they weren’t that close and we weren’t eavesdropping because they were talking so loud. Every once in a while we couldn’t keep ourselves from laughing at them.
A Semester Abroad 