Training for the Duomo.....

Well my first week in Florence has come to and end and soon I have to start studying again:( But on the bright side, a lot of fun and funny things have happened! Just an FYI the Duomo(Pic below) is a catholic church right about the center of the city. It is HUGE, like no joke. The top of the Duomo has what is said to be the best view of the entire city of Florence(Firenze). To get there though, one must climb 463 stairs!!!!! So every chance we have we take stairs and walk up hills. All in training for the Duomo! Pretty much it has become our motto, "For the Duomo!!"


This is a picture of me rubbing a the snout of a hog which is said to bring you back to Florence one day...I hope it works!!


So on Thursday, Amy, Briana, and I went to the open air-market! Markets here are so cool. They are part outside, part inside. Outside is mostly fresh fruits and veggies and a few clothes items, and inside is meat, cheese, pasta, wine, sauces etc... It was a culinary heart attack!! So beautiful, fresh and lively! We also found a YUMMY little cafe to eat and we had the most delicious kabos!! Definitely my favorite thing, I've eaten so far! Like mouth watering right now they are soooo good!! After the lunch we set off the find our classes. As luck would be one school is like 10 mins away then my other school is like 30!! But it's okay because I've become a pro walker! For dinner we used some fresh pesto and pasta, and broccoli and made ourselves a wonderful little dinner! Somewhat chill but always fun to walk around and keep learning the ropes! And since we don't walk enough, we took alittle walk and found all the really nice stores like Prade, Gucci, D&G etc... while walking we walked across the bridge and saw this little statue. It is a man about to step off the bridge! A suicide statue...keep that in mind as you read...





Friday started with some lame orientation stuff, then again back to the yummy kabob place because we are that obsessed!! Then as usual, we set off to learn something new and get lost once more. This time we decided to walk to the other side of Florence, which is across the Arno River. There we saw this huge palace. We went in a learned it was the home of the Pitti Family. The Pittis were a rich italian family that lost this place to the Medici family in 1549 and the Medicis became the chief residence of the ruling families of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. It grew as a great treasure house as later generations amassed paintings, plates, jewelry and luxurious possessions. We spent the next 3 hours touring(For the Duomo!!) the entire palace. We couldn't take pics inside but here is what I did get...maybe or maybe not illegally.




After a long day of learning and walking, we went out clubbing Italian style! It was a blast! Everyone and their best friend was out and music was great! Amy, Briana and I got all did up and had a great time. There were plenty of Italian men around, so that always made the situation more interesting and hilarious.


Saturday was amazing! After another dumb orientation thing, and a very late lunch, we set off again across the river to explore. And o what we found!! We saw this huge hill, and we were like sure lets climb this and see where it leads! Lordy, 5 hours later We had seen about 10 of the most gorgeous views of Florence, met a man who owned a crossbow shooting range, found a hidden park filled with luscious grass and trees, walked our feet off (For the Duomo!), and paid 60 cents to use the bathroom, and found the Michelangelo plaza which had the most beautiful view of all! The view was stunning and was well worth our random adventure(last picture seen). It was amazing and will probably do it all again when it is warmer and can picnic while we go! But then on our way back to our apartment, we were walking down that same bridge from Thursday night, and we noticed that the suicidal statue was missing! We literally searched for it or its remains but nothing was discovered. There was nothing, no bolts, nada. Then I had the bright idea that I had taken a picture, because we were starting to believe we had gone crazy and not really seen anything. BUT I have a picture to prove it and it was exactly where we were standing.. RIP suicidal statue.





The night ended with a sweet, club called Space. Plays tons of great american tunes and was jammed packed!! Danced the night away, one might say!
Sunday has been very chill. We went to Ikea with the school to buy here and there things like blankets (our apartment is freezing) and hangers.. Went to the grocery store, made dinner and calling it a night! school starts tomorrow and I have Event Management at 9:30! I'm super pumped to get started! Miss everyone back home and wishing y'all could come see my new home!