The Final Week, More or Less

The semester finally ended and boy was it a long, drawn out, exhausting end.  Just these past few weeks, we’ve had assignment after assignment due, on top of a trip to Barcelona that we planned before spring break. We had a ten page Italian film paper, an 8-10 page Renaissance art paper and a 10 minute presentation, a five page evolution paper and a 15-20 minute presentation, and three finals.  I really wish this stuff had been spaced out a little more or that they had warned us that we would have this much due alongside a free weekend, but whatever. 

I managed to get through all of this to be able to meet mom and dad in La Spezia this past Wednesday, which was really nice.  They had an amazing B&B in La Spezia with absolutely fantastic hosts.  Once I got there, we pretty much just had dinner and relaxed in the apartment.  The next day, we hopped the train down to Montarosso al Mare, the last town of Cinque Terre.  It was a very beautiful city, although at this point all of the Italian cities start to look the same.  Apparently the only way to truly see the beauty of the Cinque Terre is by ferry, but the waters were too rough for the ferries to be running. 

We walked around the city, stopping in the souvenir shops to look at the shirts and whatnot along the way.  We eventually wandered back down to the beach just in time to watch a group of kids trying to jump across the water to a rock that was about 3 feet away from the dry part of the beach.  Several of the kids hesitated a little too much and got their feet wet while a few others just weren’t paying attention and got wet up to the knees.  After we walked a little further down the beach, we saw two other ladies encounter the same problem.  See, the beach had a slight hill that the water almost never crested.  However, every once and a while, a large enough wave would come up and rush over that hill and soak anyone who was standing there.  Apparently it happened to mom the first day that she was there and she had to walk around in wet tennis shoes!

The day after we went to Montarosso, it was time to head back towards Arezzo to pick up our suitcases, say goodbye, and head to Florence.  Unfortunately, we were stuck on a train with some EXTREMELY annoying Italian middle schoolers that were screeching and kicking chairs the entire time.  They were being very rude and very loud, but it seems to be a very common theme amongst the younger Italians. 

It was a long day of travel, but it was really great to see the Bruschis one last time.  They were an amazing host family that definitely made Italy a home away from home.  Federica and Francesca were extremely helpful and Stefania was absolutely amazing.  She definitely filled in any time I was missing mom! It was a hard goodbye, but hopefully I’ll see them again. 

By the time that we finally got to Florence, we were all exhausted.  It’s funny how sitting on your butt all day can wear you out so much.  Our B&B host in Florence was a bit of a sleaze ball and the apartment wasn’t great, but the view from the tower was absolutely spectacular.  I’d seen the Duomo quite a few times at this point, but this was the best way to see it.  Not only were we right up on the dome, but the nighttime lighting was perfect at this level.  I would highly recommend it!

 

Our first real day in Florence was one crazy adventure.  We started out with the plan to buy our Firenze cards to be able to have an expedited entry into the various museums.  Unfortunately, our first stop to get the cards (the Uffizi) was a bit of a bust, so we headed next door to get one at the Palazzo Vecchio, which is where the fun really began:

I was walking in the lead, trying to see where the entrance to the ticket office was, and dad was apparently following right behind me.  Mom, being mom, wasn’t watching where her feet were and fell into a hole instead of walking on the level ground between the pillar and the dropped floor like dad and I had.  She had a very spectacular fall and scraped up and bruised her knee, in addition to further injuring her hip.  Every time she starts to feel better, she has another fall!

After a bit of recovery time, we continued with our plans for the day, which included the Uffizi Gallery, lunch near the Duomo, dad and I climbing the Duomo, and the leather market.  The Duomo wasn’t nearly as crowded this time around, which was really nice.  We only had to squeeze past people once or twice, which was much better than standing chest to chest with people like we did before, waiting for the path to clear.  On the way back down the stairs, we had a very funny American gentlemen who was cracking jokes the entire way down.  By the time we go to the bottom and went to get mom out of our decidedly not-so-great B&B, mom was asleep and her knee was stiff again. 

Once we got her moving, we headed towards the leather market, where I finally bought a purse.  I’d been looking all semester, but I’d never found one that I really liked.  Thankfully, I found one!  We had dinner right there at the leather market in the Mercato Centrale, which is absolutely delicious.  It’s built into an old warehouse with the bottom floor as a sort of merchant’s area and the top floor for us hungry people.  It’s kind of like that one wall of Whole Foods with the pizza and sandwiches and whatnot, but it’s the entire top floor of the building.  We had some amazing hamburgers and chips before heading back towards the B&B for the night. 

Sunday was our last day in Florence and pretty much our last day in Italy.  We got up early and went to see the David at the Galleria dell'Academia and to the Capella Medici, which is the burial grounds of several Medici family members.  Mom had been wanting to see something specifically Medici (despite the fact that Florence is basically the Medici family) so this was a perfect site that wasn’t too far from the B&B.  Afterwards, we had to drag our luggage to the train station for storage since we couldn’t get a late check out and it was quite the trek.  Normally, it’s only about a 10 minute walk from the Duomo to the train station, but dragging 5 suitcases and 3 backpacks along with us made it horrendous.  Not to mention, there was a 10K race running around the Duomo, so we had to push our way through the crowds, which made it even worse. 

Next, we headed back towards the Duomo to visit the Baptistery and the Museo del Opera, which is the buildings works commission of the Duomo.  The Baptistery was gorgeous, with very Gothic frescoes all over the ceilings and an intricate design on the marble floors.  It was definitely a sight to behold.  The Museo holds most of the original sculptures from the façade of the Duomo and even some from the Bell Tower.  The best part was that there were benches throughout the museum, which was very nice on our poor tired feet. 

By the time we finished the museum, it was sprinkling outside so we shot across the backside of the Duomo to Magnums, where we made a custom Magnum bar.  Thankfully, we only got one to split because it was incredibly rich, but also really delicious.  We got vanilla ice cream, dark chocolate coating, and pistachio, almond, and honey comb toppings. We sat there, enjoying our Magnum bar while watching the rain come down.  Eventually we headed towards the train station to catch our train to Rome for the night.

Our official day in Italy was an exhausting whirlwind, but it was amazing. We saw the last few highlights of Florence, had some good food, and enjoyed some down time.