How are Italians so skinny??

This past week was great! I feel like I have my feet on the ground here in Florence and it’s a good feeling. Classes started Monday and thankfully we haven’t learned anything too difficult yet, because I have had an attention span the size of a peanut (summer + being stuck in a classroom for 2 ½ hours in an incredible Italian city does NOT equal focus…but oh well!). I have digital photography in the mornings, a lunch break and then Italian in the afternoon. On Tuesday in photography, our class went out into the city to take pictures and Katie and I somehow ended up in a clothing store called Zara! This is my thinking…technically we were doing what we were supposed to do because we managed to take mental PICTURES of clothes that we wanted to try on later haha.Yay for shopping during class :) I have a great Italian class (of ten people) and I somehow got the easy teacher, which is such a blessing since foreign language doesn’t come easy to me. I will say that my Italian class has definitely made me miss the small classes that I had at Saint Marys!

Tuesday night our apartment went to a pizza place that everyone has been raving about called Gusta Pizza, which is on the other side of the Ponte Vecchio Bridge. On our way to Gusta we got to see the sunset over the Arno River, which was absolutely beautiful. When we made it to Gusta, we immediately made friends with the cute bus boy, Ale. Yep…as embarrassing as it is to say, we were those giddy American girls who were constantly trying to think of another question to ask him haha. When we got our pizza, I had to consciously tell myself to slow down because it was SO GOOD. Truly the best pizza I’ve ever had! You can probably guess what we did after Gusta…gelato time! We went to a gelateria called La Carriarra and it was hands down the best gelato I’ve had. We all loved the cookies flavor :) Lets just say that it was delicious night! The next morning, I asked my digital photography teacher how Italians are so skinny because it just baffles my mind. He said in his Italian accent, “you have to have balance” and I thought to myself “I don’t think I will be having a lot of balance the next few weeks! Sorry bout it!”

On Wednesday night, Katie, Southie and I went to a casual bar called the Art Bar, which was another great recommendation from other friends who have studied abroad in Florence! We all got the fruit cocktail that had a beautiful display of fruit all around it!!! My kind of drink! We decided that we might have to have “art bar Wednesdays”!

On Thursday night our apartment decided that we needed to celebrate finishing our first week of classes with a nice dinner! We went to a restaurant called Acqua al 2 and we got the blueberry steaks (which the restaurant is known for) and it was a) the best steak I’ve ever had and b) a great change from all the pasta and pizza we’ve had! After we went to a bar called Lions Fountain which is obviously targeted towards American college students as it has American college t-shirts on the ceiling. UNC did make it on the ceiling, but it’s a UNC marching band shirt…so we need to somehow get them a Carolina basketball t-shirt to replace it! It was karaoke night and Mary Louise and Katie were the brave ones and got up there and sang, “I wanna dance with somebody”! That song never gets old!

On Friday we slept in and then headed to the Uffizi Museum around lunchtime. The Uffizzi is huge and it is basically filled with sculptures and many paintings of Christ. The most powerful paintings to me were the paintings of the “Adoration of baby Jesus”, the crucifixion of Jesus, and one particular painting of Jesus being put in the tomb. They all gave me chills! That night, Southie, Mary Louise, Katie and I (Meagan and Jenna have been in Rome this weekend) got some Gusta pizza to go (can you tell we are addicted?) and sat on a platform that extends off of a bridge over the Arno River. We had the most gorgeous view of the Ponte Vecchio! It was the life! After, we just decided we HAD to ride the carousel in the Piazza Republica haha! Our thinking is that it doesn't matter what other people think of us because we aren't going to see them ever again. Hey, sometimes you just have to relive your childhood :)

Today (Saturday) we went on a bike tour of Chianti, which is in the countryside of Tuscany!! We first took a tour of the Chianti castle and learned how the wine and olive oil is made there and we of course got to try both! We climbed all the way to the top of the castle and saw the gorgeous view of all of Chianti! We then hopped on our bikes and rode all around Chianti and it was absolutely breathtaking. The rolling hills, red poppy flowers, grape vineyards and little yellow houses were incredible. It was so peaceful as we rode and took in the view. We had a delicious lunch at a family owned restaurant and then got back on our bikes, but this time we decided to tackle a hill that we didn’t have to go up (we could have ridden up in the van) and it was a killer haha! The rest of the way was easy and very relaxing! The bike tour was the perfect way to get a taste of the quaint Tuscan countryside! Tomorrow we are going to see a little more of it and head to San Gimignano for the day! That’s all for now!!

The sunset as we walked parallel to the arno river!

Gusta Pizza!

Fruit cocktail at the Art Bar!

Aqua al 2 where we got the blueberry steak!

Lions Fountain!

We ran into Caroline Allen and Annie Brown at Lions Fountain YAY!

Fun night on the Arno River (the Ponte Vecchio bridge is in the background, all lit up!)

SO FUN.

The view out of the Chianti castle!

Wine tasting :)

Here we go!

Had to make a stop to take in the view!

Incredible view.

After we made it up the massive hill!