On Friday I went with my friend, Christa, to the duomo area for coffee, where we met up with two other friends. The four of us then mastered the bus system and went to Fiesole. It is a small town that overlooks all of Florence. It is also where all of the Medici villas are (the famous political and wealthy famiy of Florence). It was absolutely gorgeous. We explored the top of the hill, where you can see the best view of the city and where the church is. Then we wandered around the town, found an old tuscan tomb, and hung out. We ventured back to Florence to meet up with more friends for lunch at one of our favorite places: il Frattelinni. Its a hole-in-the-wall place with THE BEST sandwiches i've ever had for 3 euro and a glass of wine for 1 euro. PERFECT! We went into a few stores before making our way to a pub to watch the end of the Germany game and get good seats for the USA game! We watched the game with a good size group at a great pub called "the old stove".
On Saturday we were supposed to go on a wine tour of tuscany by bike. However, it was pouring rain when we got to the top of the mountain/hill. They gave us a short tour of the castle, let us try wine and olive oil, then brought us back down to Florence. We were able to reschedule for free. Christa and I wandered in the rain a little before we decided it was a great time to have a nice lunch at her favorite resturant. We shared a pear and walnut salad and homemade fresh pasta! We shopped around a little then went back to our apartment. For dinner we went to a famous hole in the wall pizzaria (pizza spera, it was on jay leno). Eight of our friends came over and had a little dinner party with us!
Sunday I went to Siena with three other girls. It was raining a bit so we bought colorful ponchos and umbrellas and found a warm pub for lunch. We tried Irish coffee to warm us up. Then we met up with one of our friend from Vandy that is studying there this summer! She took us on a short walking tour of the city, which is beautiful. We saw St. Catherine of Siena's Sanctuary which houses her relic, and a beautiful chapel and garden. We went to the campo (main piazza) and then the Duomo. It is BY FAR the most beautiful church i've ever seen. I could have stayed there forever. We headed back to Florence to cheer on italy against new zealand.
Today our first class was cancelled so i went for a run aorund our neighborhood and a local park. Then we went to our art history class. It was very interesting - we looked at the original statues that used to be on the outside of the Or San Michael. We also learned about the founding hospital and grabbed coffee with our class. We went to the grocery store, made dinner, and then i attempted to do laundry. I was handwashing some clothes and hanging them to dry (there are no dryers in Italy), and i apparently did not wring my clothes out enough. A man started yelling at me in Italian and then told me in english "miss, need to wring more." full with hand motions. Please note that below the back of our apartment is a concrete parking lot. We all started dying laughing as I re-wrung my clothes. Also note that the last 2 days it has been raining constantly, so the pavement hasnt been dry anyway. Great moment. Now i'm attempting to focus and do some homework! Ciao!!
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