Jake and I are having a blast together!
London was great, his friend, Sammi really showed us a wonderful time. He planned two nights are trendy clubs in downtown London and also arranged for tickets to the musical, Chicago. On Sunday we did all the touristy things and saw sights such as Big Ben and Buckingham Palace using the tube. The weekend was wonderful, but very busy. We left late Sunday night, early Monday morning and didn’t make it back to Florence until 2 pm. We were up for 26 hours and extremely tired, not to mention cranky.
Luckily, we had time to nap before I showed Jake around Florence. We had dinner at my apartment and then walked to the Ponte Vecchio and did some window-shopping. He was amazed and the city and kept saying, “I can’t believe I am in Italy!” We walked around for a couple hours and then had some gelato at a place near my house.
On Tuesday we got a late start because we were still tired from the weekend. When we finally got going we headed toward the market and did a little bargaining. The leather bags here are awesome and Jake couldn’t resist getting a briefcase. It took 2 hours to pick out but he finally got the perfect one! We did a little more shopping and the each had a pizza at Mamma Toscana. That afternoon we went to the grocery store to get stuff for sandwiches and headed up to Fiesole. The view of Florence is breathtaking there and we were in time to see the sunset! (I know, how romantic )
Right behind the main overlook is a quaint church and we happened to walk in right before the monks started their nightly prayer service. It was really special to watch their ritual and pray for those we love.
After this, it was really dark and starting to get cold so we headed back to bus 7. On our way back to my apartment we heard a band playing at a club, Be Bop, across the street and decided to listen for a while. We ended up running into Evan, a friend from school, and his parents there; it was entertaining listening to the Italian rendition of The Beatles.
Today was rainy so we couldn’t do everything we planned.
First, we had an authentic Italian lunch at The Cat and the Fox where I had another pizza and Jake ate his whole serving of spaghetti and meat sauce. We then went back to the market and I bought presents for people, thankfully Jake is bringing home an extra suitcase I had here full of stuff that I wouldn’t be able to get home on my own. The rain just wouldn’t stop so we ended up watching a movie back at my apartment. After, we decided to climb to Duomo, rain or not. As we walked up the entrance this guy literally shut the door in our face! Jake was relieved because he didn’t really want to climb the 382 stairs! Hopefully though we will get to do it on Friday or Saturday. Tonight we made pasta at my apartment and planned to walk to Vivoli for the best gelato in Florence, but it was still raining. Instead we read through our guidebooks for Venice and planned out the two days there. We are leaving around 8 and should get to the “sinking city” by 11, can’t wait!
Ciao for now!
Katie
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