Verona & Firenze!

After our evening in Venice, we left at 7 the next morning (Friday) we took the 8 am train to Verona. Verona is supposed to be the city of love, mainly because Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet were based there. Interestingly enough, Shakespeare had never been to Verona when he wrote Romeo and Juliet…he just thought it would be a good place.

This picture is of Unaiza (pronounced ew-neh-za) and me in front of their baby Colosseum…it’s just called the Roman Arena there. They usually hold operas and concerts..crazy enough the next night JUSTIN BEIBER was there! I’m not a huge beebs fan, but I still thought that was cool.

Here is the fake house of Romeo and Juliet…yep, I said fake. And yet this place still attracts hundreds of people a day. I guess if you pictured it back in the day, this is what it would look like, but no…that isn’t the famous balcony. Couples still go up there and recite Shakespeare to each other and kiss though.

I guess the thing to do at Juliet’s house is to defile her by grabbing her boob…everyone does it. I found it quite strange. Also, my brother in law Austin pointed out that her right boob is much shinier than her left…truth.

When you walk through this stone tunnel to get to Juliet’s balcony, there is a massive wall covered in people’s signatures and professions of love. Because I love my sister, I added us to the wall J

Aren’t I precious?!

By 1:30pm we were all POOPED (we had to carry all our stuff with us for the weekend) and ready to go. We actually chilled by a fountain for an hour or two, then Rebekah and I decided to go check out a castle that was only a few minutes away. We walked to bridge, and got a great view of Verona!

So this picture may seem insignificant (and a little blurry at that) but this is a picture of TRIUMPH. From Verona we took a train to Florence, and Caroline, Ryan, Lauren and I all had the same ticket. It was cheaper than I thought, and we had to make a connection, but we thought it was okay. Unaiza and Rebekah had a different ticket that was more expensive, so we were kind of freaking out by the time we got to our next train. We got to the connection, and had 15 minutes before the next train left. After haggling with the ticket guy, Unaiza and Rebekah thought they had their ticket sorted out, and we jumped on our next train with 3 minutes to spare. At this point we know our tickets are severely screwed up, and have NO CLUE what to do about it. We get on the train and its super nice and we realize its assigned seats…which we do not have. We wait in one of the connecters between cars and PRAY that we don’t get kicked off. A ticket guy comes and realizes we are all messed up, but he was super nice, didn’t fine us, and only charged us an extra 8 euro each (which was definitely cheaper than it would have been). So, this picture is the picture of FINALLY WE MADE IT TO FLORENCE!

After the train fiasco, we made it to our hostel relatively pain free and had just set down our stuff when the other group staying there said we had to meet up for dinner and to go out. Really we just wanted showers and to rest, but hey, when in Florence…We had a great meal and then I rewarded myself with a drink with Maddie, Emily, Stuart and Taylor on the steps of the Duomo…I know that seems wrong, but everyone was hanging out there! (plus there are no open container laws...we "cheers-ed" the cops when they drove by lol)

Well a bottle of wine turned into an Irish Pub, and we had a GREAT first night in Florence. I walked home with the girls, and honestly, felt really safe. I love Florence already!

The next morning (way too early if you ask me) we climbed up 450+ steps to the top of the bell tower that is right next to the Duomo. The weather was overcast, but the views were INCREDIBLE. Definitely one of the top three cathedrals I have ever seen! (Notre Dame and Saint Peter's Basilica being the other two)

This picture doesn’t even do it justice. The details are incredibly ornate, and the whole cathedral seems to have a pink and minty color about it. After the Duomo, we had 11:00 am reservations for Academia, where the statue of David is held. We got there and the line wasn’t too long to just wait in the normal line and not pay the extra four euro, so that’s what we did. In Florence, we didn’t like to rush.

So photographs of David are super illegal, hence its not my best camera work. But he was absolutely BREATHTAKING. We stayed in the room just staring at him for at least 30 minutes. Every few minutes we would find another place to sit so we could have a new angle of him. I wasn’t expecting David to be so big either…he is over 20 feet tall. Fun fact- Michelangelo was only 26 when he sculpted him. Crazy.

After David, we went back to an outdoor leather market we passed on the way to Academia. We were there over two hours, ended up getting separated, and spent too much money- but it was well worth it. Florence is known for their leather market, and I got a new purse, wallet, & belt, among other things.

That evening we had an evening cruise on the river that runs through Florence (Arno River). The weather was beautiful, and we had a great time.

This is one of the gondola guys…he is 80 YEARS OLD! It was crazy, you could see his muscles when he was pushing the boat. I swear, these Italians are the healthiest people I know (minus the chain-smoking…bleck).

We actually did a pub crawl Saturday night, but my camera died so I don’t have any pictures. It was really fun, it just made for an early morning Sunday morning. We decided to take the bus back with the rest of the CIMBA kids at 3pm on Sunday, so we basically had 4 hours to go around Florence some more. We sailed under this bridge (Ponte Vecchio) last night on the gondola ride, but we wanted more pictures of it when the lighting was pretty. If you are wondering why I look like a complete and total nerd in my glasses, my allergies got BAD while I was out on the pub crawl. I actually threw my contacts away and stuck with glasses the rest of the weekend.

We went to the Ponte Vecchio, back to the leather market (more $ gone…) and then to Grom for gelato. The other girls had this gelato the first night, but I opted for wine instead. According to Rick Steve’s, it is the best in Italy. I would have to second that. It was the best gelato I have had hands down. I had dark chocolate on top, and a scoop of crema di grom on bottom. I have no clue what was in that one, but it was so delicious I don’t want to think about it too much.

After a 4-5 hour bus ride, we got back to school around 8pm. We all actually decided to grab a pizza, then go back to hit the books. After this weekend, we had finals! My next blog will wrap up my last week at CIMBA…I was just too busy to blog during the week. I am actually writing this blog in a word document on the train to Germany to see my sister Carissa presently. The next blog will be about saying goodbyes! (sad face). Ciao!