C'è La Neve a Firenze!

"There is snow in Florence!" <- My last name means snow in case you didn't get it ;)

I know some of you have been patiently waiting for me to set up this blog and I apologize for the wait. As you can expect life has been pretty hectic these last few weeks. Starting back at home I was busy celebrating my birthday (despite Irene's best attempt to make sure I couldn't), packing up everything I own (only this time in a mere 2 suitcases, 1 backpack, & 1 purse), and finallyyy arriving in my dream land of Firenze, Italia. I still cannot believe I am actually here... I have literally been dreaming of this for most of my 2 decade old life haha. Simply walking down these century old streets takes my breath away. I literally cannot stop smiling, which I need to learn to stop doing since apparently sharing eye contact and a smile with an Italian man could lead him to believe I'm in love with him... haha oops.

On our first day here we took a taxi from the airport to the hotel we'd be spending the night in. My italian is very rusty and the taxi driver's english was non existent besides "it's a beautiful day," however, we did manage to make it to the correct place. Did I mention Italian driving is CRAZY and a little scary at times? It was a nice little place with an amazing view onto some of the rooftops of the city (breath taking view #1). After we got settled in a bunch of us decided to go wandering the streets a little. We ended up right smack in front of il Duomo, the FOURTH largest church in the WORLD! (breath taking view #2). That's when me and Lauren realized our apartment should be close by so we went on an adventure to find it & sure enough we did. Not merely 30 ft down our street (which literally leads to the Duomo piazza) is our door. Can you say amazing location or what? After a quick photo shoot in front of our door we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. We went to a nice restaurant called the Golden View Open Bar, which was right on the river (breath taking view #3). Here is where I had my first taste of alcohol in the form of red wine, don't get too excited though it was gross. Haha I'm assuming the combination of dehydration and jet lag didn't help though. I'll give it another shot later on. The food, however, was deliciousss! Not a good sign for my waistline but I wasn't expecting anything less haha. So all in all a great end to day 1.

Day 2 we were all sooo excited to move in to our apartments, but first we had our program orientation. Once we finally finished it was a mad dash to the hotel to get all our things. When we arrived and after carrying our suitcases up THREE flights of stairs that feeling of "this cannot be real life" just washed over me once again. I walked in expecting a quaint little place with low ceilings and maybe 3 rooms total. Nope! There are 6 rooms (2 bedrooms, giant dinning/living room, kitchen, 1 full bathroom, & 1 half bath), a little balcony, and very high ceilings. The first thing we do is throw open the shutters only to see the most breath taking view (#4) of the Duomo right in front of us! How could you ask for anything more (ok I could do with some air conditioning but hey I am in Italy). So all in all I'd say my first few days were pretty darn great even with the added jet lag and heat. Sorry this is so long but there's just so much to talk about (half of which I haven't even included... yet). Hope you will keep reading and enjoying this avventura italiana with me :)

view from our apartment!

vita, amore, felicità