Toscana e Firenze!

Our weekend travels 

Tuscany vineyards!

This weekend we had our first weekend trip with CEA to Tuscany and Florence. We started our trip at 8:30am on Friday (UGHHH) when we boarded our bus. Our first stop was in San Gimignano, a small medieval town in Tuscany that is about 3 hours from Rome. It was absolutely gorgeous! There were torture museums everywhere, but the town was completely dead because it thrives on tourism. There were only about two restaurants open in the entire town. The views were spectacular though, and it was such an interesting town. It was all built within the city walls and all the buildings were connected, so it felt like you were walking through a maze. We were only there for about two hours to eat and explore, which an Italian meal takes about an hour and a half anyway. Since this was our first stop in Tuscany, we made sure to get some wine which was made in the vineyards surrounding San Gimignano. So delicious!

Walking into the main entrance to San Gimignano

After lunch at San Gimignano, we got back on the bus and drove another hour or so to Florence. I barely remember Florence from the first time I was there, so it was cool to go back. We stayed in a hotel right by the Duomo. When we got there we all got a much deserved (and delicious) three course meal provided for us by our program. In Italy they always have both pasta and meat for every meal. We had a pasta bolognese then kabobs and they surprised us with FRENCH FRIES then chocolate cake!!! YUMMMMM! Even though I've eaten some of the most amazing food ever over here, I miss food from home so much... mostly Monterreys enchiladas and queso dip! Wahhh. I've resisted the urge to go to McDonalds and Hard Rock so far though, unlike some of my friends here haha. 

On the terrace with Liza, Christina, Dana, Sally, and Monet

After dinner we found a really cool terrace on top of our hotel and hung out there for awhile with our friends and took some pictures. It was freezing, but it was so gorgeous. Then we went to a couple bars before going to a really cool discoteca called Space. All the people from our program were there, so it was really fun going out with everyone! It's easy to get lost in Rome, so being in a smaller town for a day was a nice break from constantly being lost. 

Duomo

Piazza Repubblica

The next morning we woke up at 7am for a tour of Florence. We went to David first then to the Duomo. I'm all for tours, but this was honestly one of the worst tours I've ever been on. Would've been wonderful if I was an art history major, but she talked about everything in SUCH intense detail that we couldn't even pay attention. Aka... she talked for an hour about each panel of just one of the doors on the baptism building of the Duomo. We wanted to make sure we saw more of Florence than what was on the tour, so we ended up just asking our guide where else we were going and went ourselves. This was fun because we found our way around Florence very easily and were able to see the sights that we wanted to see. We went to the Duomo and Piazza della Repubblica.

After that we found a hole-in-the-wall place to eat and I had Carbonara, YUMMM. After that we did a little bit of shopping in the market, and I was able to find a satchel made of Italian leather for only 14 euro! I really needed a satchel for while I was here because I had to leave mine behind (weight restrictions) and this one made a great cheap souvenir! After that it was time to head back to Rome, which everyone was so thankful for. It's amazing how attached you can grow to a city after only having been here a week and a half! I loved being in Florence, but being there made me so happy I chose Rome. 

There was an option to stay in Florence for an extra night, but I decided not to do that. I have a bunch of friends studying in Florence and they all get there this week, so I'm trying to go back and visit them for a weekend when it gets warmer and see more sights then!

Torre Argentina

When we finally got back to Rome, I went almost straight to bed because I was so exhausted. Today I even slept in really late, but it was much needed. After waking up, my roommate and I headed to explore. On the way there, we stopped by Torre Argentina, a cat sanctuary. This sanctuary is actually on the ruins where Caesar was murdered. It was buried for hundreds of years because the Romans kept building on top of it. When they were digging to build a new stop for the metro, they stumbled across these ruins. It is now where they keep the stray cats of Rome so they are in a protected area. It is so funny to see all these cats walking all over such famous ruins. It was definitely my crazy cat lady moment of the day and made me miss Kali :(.

View of the Vatican on the bridge to Trastevere 

After our stop, we headed to Trastevere an adorable area with so many small winding streets to get lost in. We used my top 10 guide (thanks David!) to explore some of the things around that area. We didn't really follow directions and just stumbled across stuff, which was so much fun! We went to Santa Maria Cathedral and Santa Cecilia Cathedral. Santa Maria, built in the 340s, is the oldest church in Rome. It was so incredible seeing all the different decades of art. You could see how it changed between styles throughout the building as different parts were added on- ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS. It was really cool because the church was actually built on top of a spring that spouted on the day Jesus was born.

Santa Maria Cathedral

Santa Cecilia Cathedral wasn't as over the top as Santa Maria, but still gorgeous. The church was built over the house where Santa Cecilia lived. Cecilia was Roman patrician and a secret Christian. She was sent into Roman baths for three days by political enemies, and came out singing. They tried to behead her, but she did not die from the three strikes and lived three more days converting hundreds of people to Christianity during this time. The entire church is covered in pictures of her and her life. It was incredible.

Santa Maria Cathedral

After this we headed home and ate more carbonara at a restaurant by us. After that we satisfied our chocolate craving with some gelato. I had dark chocolate and chocolate chip. Their dark chocolate is incredible - it literally tastes like eating a piece of chocolate cake!
Now I'm headed to bed considering it's 2:30am here and I have class at 10 eeek. Tomorrow we're working on budgeting trips to travel for weekends and Spring Break here :) My roommate and I are also going shopping and I plan to look at some clubs to get involved in at JCU!