spring break adventures, part two: gelato and michelangelo

More train issues resulted in me not having any time to spend in Nice (quelle tragédie), so I will skip right on to Italia. First stop: Florence/Firenze.

Some of the city + the Arno + pretty mountains in the background

This city is so pretty. I am forever indebted to my mom for telling me to go here instead of Milan. The hostel I stayed at (The Archi Rossi, if anyone is planning a trip and wants a rec) was my favorite of the whole trip. The room I stayed in was huge and spacious, and they served free breakfast and dinner every day except Saturday.

I met lots of really cool people in the hostel, including a girl from Maryland who was studying abroad in Amsterdam for the semester, a guy named Kevin from Arizona who looked like a 90s boyband reject, and Lizzie, my new buddy who lives in Hammersmith and works for the BBC.

The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore

The first morning I tagged along on the free tour that was set up by my hostel, and it was actually really informative. I love free tours because you actually learn shizz, but you don't have to skip lunch to pay for it! (Hey shuddup, I really had to watch my spending on these trips!)

The fake David they put up after they moved the real David inside to protect him

I spent most of the rest of the day wandering around, looking at the architecture and numerous pieces of art around the city. I had the best pizza I've ever eaten for lunch, and then went back to the hostel and had free pizza for dinner. I pretty much survived on a diet of pizza margherita in Italy.

The second day I crossed the river and walked up the hill to the Piazza del Michelangelo, because the view is incredible. It was a gorgeous day too and I spent most of the afternoon up there just reading and walking around and soaking in the Italian-ness.

Both nights I hung out with Lizzie and Kevin and a few other people (whose names I can't remember) in the common area of the hostel, drinking wine and limoncello and just chatting about random stuff. We also went to get gelato several times because, well, it's pretty much an orgasm in a waffle cone.

So yeah, like London, Paris and Barcelona before it, this city was one of my immediate loves. If I knew how to speak the language I could happily spend a very long time there.