Florence, Italy

Ciao from Florence! Jessica, Patti, and I have been exploring the city for the past 36 hours. We hit the ground running, and all have blisters ALREADY! Jessica and Pattis are a little worse considering they have been here a week longer than I but we are all getting used to actual tennis shoes.

Yesterday I was Jessica and Pattis official (and free) tour guide. We were all over the place from the Piazza del Duomo to the Ponte Vecchio to the Pitti Palace. Lets just say they got a good overview of the city for our next day. For dinner we met up with my friend Nick from LMU who is studying abroad here through Gonzaga. It was a pleasant dinner and its always fun catching up across the world with good friends from home.

Today we visited the Uffizi gallery and the Academia, in which we saw the David, and numerous (NUMEROUS) other sculptures and paintings. I finally got my own picture of the David, even though you are not allowed to take pictures of him. I wasnt even that sneaky, and I didnt even get caught! I would have to say it was well worth the second trip to see him. Forlunch we ate at the Oil Shoppe which is one of my favorite sandwich places in Florence. Im pretty sure Jessica and Patti enjoyed it just as much as I did. Then we visited the Piazza San Lorenzo for some shopping in the outside markets. After that we trekked to the Santa Maria Novella perfumaria to get my Mom some more lotion that I got for her when I studied here. Then it was back to our hostel for some relaxation and power naps.

Overall the day was a success, EXCEPT for when Patti realized she left her credit card in Venice therefore having to cancel it (which was an adventure in itself). OR maybe when Jessica spent £3 on a tiny shot of ice blended coffee which she was craving all week. Lets just say she couldnt even enjoy it, especially after Patti compared her to her mother.

We leave for Interlaken, Switzerland tomorrow. There will be more stories to come so keep reading!