Florence and Tivoli

The first week that I was here, I had so much spare time because I didn't know what to do, but now that everyone is settled and classes have begun, I have almost no free time except weekends, if I'm not traveling. Of course, as soon as I get steady internet I have no time to use it. But that's a side note because I need to finish up my Florence story.

There were three of us that traveled together: Kelsey, Sheeba, and myself. We tried calling the other people that were there (about half the program) but no one was answering, so we just decided to do what we wanted and try to meet up later. As we're circling the Duomo, we run into some people from St. Johns. Apparently, Florence is tiny, because we ran into the rest of the St Johns people about half an hour later. We walked everywhere and saw the Duomo (I gaped for a good ten minutes--its huge, and beautiful), the Ponte Vecchio, the river Arno, some huge piazza that had a carousel, the leather market (bought a little wristbag and I love it), and tons of beautiful statues and buildings. What I like about Florence in comparison to Rome is that everything is medieval. Rome has modern parts (like where I live) and then the ancient, but Florence is the same architecture everywhere (at least where I went). The food was incredible, and inexpensive. I'm excited to go back when my mom gets here and do the things I didn't get to because I didn't have enough time.

My first hostel experience was okay. There was a latino dance party going on in the basement, which was actually just someone playing sort of spanishy-crappy music and a bunch of people in their mid twenties dancing like idiots. Europeans (especially the traveling ones) do not know how to dance. They're so awkward. It made it hilarious to watch. One of my friends here (Eyal) is from Venezeula and actually knows how to dance (he was the one that wanted to go to the party), so we meringued a little bit around everyone else. I didn't know what I was doing, but it was hard to tell because he was so good. It was so much fun.

The next day we went to the Gallera Accademia and waited in line for an hour in the rain to see the statue of David. It turned out to be worth it because David is amazing. He's huge, and you feel like he's going to walk away. The rest of the statues in the museum were really cool too. We spent about an hour in there because it was so small and then peaced out. It was cold and raining and we were not prepared for bad weather. I almost bought a sweatshirt. We had to take a Eurostar back even though we weren't planning on it because there was a train strike on the regionale. Some of our friends had just planned on coming up for the day on Friday but couldn't go back because of the strike, so instead of getting a hotel in Florence, or staying with some of us in a hostel, they took a bus to Pisa and stayed there, took pictures in the morning, and then caught a train the next day. We think they were delirious. Anyway, I paid about thirty more Euro than I wanted, but I got home and took a shower and it was wonderful. It was a good starter trip because I learned all the things I shouldn't do. And that I need to check the weather before I go anywhere.

I guess I still haven't learned my lesson because I went to Tivoli today even though I had an idea that it would rain. Tivoli is a small town about half way between Rome and Naples. It's beautiful, but hard to manage in the rain. I wasn't prepared, and neither were most of the people I was traveling with. We went to this park that was absolutely beautiful, but treacherous to navigate in the rain. The stairs were impossible and some of them were marble and it was so dangerous. I guess I need to give you some background about how I got to Tivoli in the first place.

It was a school sponsored trip. A bunch of us signed up because we didn't have plans for this weekend and it was only supposed to cost 6 Euro roundtrip. Our Student Activities planner person is a very enthusiastic Italian man named Domenico and he came with us. He's from Calabria, which is southern Italy, but he's lived in Rome for awhile. He's hilarious because he although he speaks good English, its not perfect, and hes always trying to get us to speak Italian to him. Anyway, when we got to the train station he realized we had about ten minutes to buy our tickets, get them validated, and then get to the tracks. We ran through the station, which was up and down marble stairs and through corridors, and someone started singing Eye of the Tiger. It was great and exhausting. We made it, barely, and got situated. Domenico had been to Tivoli before, but he wasn't that familiar with it. He got us to the park and we all took a bunch of pictures, but by the time we were ready to go it was pouring and no one wanted to go to the Gregorian villa, which was the whole reason to for going to Tivoli in the first place.

We ended up eating lunch and going home because everyone was cold and wet and the villa was completely outside. All in all, it was a lot of fun because we were all in the same conditions together. It's still raining right now, so I think we're doing a movie night with some weird looking hot chocolate that I picked up at the supermarket. Tomorrow I'm going to an American bar to watch a University of Florida game because everyone here from UF actually has school spirit, unlike us Wagner kids who could care less about our football team. It will be fun. I might also try to go to the catacombs outside of the Vatican, but I have to convince someone to come with me. It's supposed to be creepy.