I slept pretty darn well last night and woke up to the best present ever: a free morning. No obligations (except to print out passport photos), no plans (except to print out passport photos), and nowhere to be (except the booth where we could print out passport photos). After a leisurely breakfast, we went over to the Santa Maria Novella train station (SMN), printed out those darn photos, and then split into smaller groups for shopping and sightseeing. Sammy, Gretchen, and I ended up in the market, where I had my first splurge purchase of the trip when Sammy and I bought leather jackets. In my defense, it is both fire and water proof, so it was worth the money. (Edit: I have also worn it pretty much every day since, so it's essentially paying for itself. If only the euros went back into my wallet....)
We grabbed a quick lunch, after which I discovered the greatest cheap-o food item in the world: gelato sticks. Two bites of gelato, covered in chocolate and chopped nuts. Beyond delicious. And from McDonalds. I know, I know, it's weird.
Back at the hotel, we had another ACM meeting and some more important paperwork before our planned trip to Fiesole (an archeological site just outside the city). The trip ended up being cancelled on account of more rain, so we walked as a group to Palazzo Vecchio instead. We looked around the palace for a while, then climbed the tower and got an amazing view of the city. We also all jumped about three feet in the air when the bells started tolling the hour (and we happened to be blissfully unaware of the fact that we were directly beneath them). A group of us (pictured below) got kicked out of the tower for spending too much time up top (there was a line downstairs that we had no idea existed) and so made our way back to the hotel just in time to drop stuff off and head back to yesterday's restaurant for dinner (penne pasta with zucchini-tomato sauce and roast chicken with the BEST peas ever and more of the house wine). After dinner, Ian, Sammy, Gretchen and I went out to an Irish pub for a little while with a few other students, but ended up heading back to the hotel pretty soon and hanging out in my room (which, yes, is still housing 5 of us girls), watching youtube videos and talking.
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| (L to R) Gretchen, me, Ian, Sammy, Isa, and Stacy |
Successful day? Yeah, I think so.
Anna, I just caught up with you on your blog. Keep the great accounts of Italy coming---I love it. I remember the Zurich airport when my friend and I did the grand tour after a summer at University of Oslo, a long time ago. It was overwhelming then, too. What a cool experience you are having! You will never forget it. Just today I happened to find my flight bag from the travel agency that helped with our trip when I was digging into the back of a large closet. What memories! Should I give it away/throw it away/ I thought? NO! For now, it is saved, again.--Mary Jo in Mpls.
ReplyDeleteSo, you didn't answer the great mystery of this blog post: why the heck did you need to printing out copies of your passport photo? Were you giving them away to random Italian men selling you leather jackets? were you papering the city just in case you lost your passport? were you some bizarre form of duck-duck-goose? Inquiring minds want to know! And your Dad does, too. :-)
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