I've been slacking on updating this...I'm really going to try and keep up now! I'm just busy enjoying every moment here :) Highlights of the last 2 weeks (woahh..how has it already been that long?!):
Piazzale Michelangelo & San Miniato
San Miniato is a church located on one of the highest points in the city. Our program set up a walk/hike for us around the city of Florence. We started at the Ponte Vecchio then walked up and circled around the city until we reached San Miniato...the views were amazing the entire way! The church was beautiful inside and the view was definitely the best I've seen. Definitely worth the work out up there :)
The Piazza Michelangelo is close to San Miniato if you just keep walking along the road. We took the long way to get there but you can also walk up from right near the Arno River. In between San Miniato and the Piazza is an amazing gelato place and restaurant (wish I could remember the name!) that's on a cliff and overlooks the entire city. The Piazza is probably one of my favorite places in Florence.
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| Walking up to San Miniato |
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| Still walking... |
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| A little higher... |
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| The view! |
Meredith visited from Milan
Meredith came last weekend and it was so exciting to see her! We went to the duomo, Piazza Michelangelo, San Lorenzo Market and the Ponte Vecchio. I also bought a leather jacket and purse at the leather market. This was entertaining...we talked to the merchant for an hour as he explained to us what made one zipper better than another and how great he thought Chicago was because the word "chic" is in it. It was fun & I love my new stuff! 
Conveniently, there was also a huge chocolate festival at the Piazza Santa Croce (2 blocks away) so we spent a lot of time there :) The chocolate festival is there for 2 weeks and changed vendors after a week. It's fun to browse and try samples (& buy even more...) It's crazy how many kinds of chocolates there are. One stand had chocolate sculpted into things like dogs & other random objects. Mer and I bought some Cioccolata Calda (hot chocolate) & it was sooo good! It tasted like melted chocolate & had whip cream on top...definitely the best I've had!
We also went to a restaurant, Il Latini that was incredible. We did family style and got so much food and wine for a more than reasonable price! It's a smaller place and I think you need a reservation. It was also very crowded which is always a good sign. Definitely one of my top recommendations for Florence food! I loved the atmosphere here...it could have helped that they gave us 2 bottles of house wine as we were leaving! It was a good ending to a weekend with the best friend :) I'm looking forward to visiting her in Milan!
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| Coming back to Firenze soon! |
Classes
All my classes have been great...I thought I would struggle sitting through 2.5 hours but they're all so interesting! For my Renaissance Art class, we have a lecture the first half and then go somewhere in the city the second half which makes everything a lot more relevant and interesting. In Exploration of Wine Culture we tried 2 wines from the Piedmonte region of Italy: Moscato d'Asti and Roero Arneis. The first is a traditional, sweet sparkling wine and the second is a dry white wine. I was definitely a fan of the first one! We learned how to read labels and taste/smell certain things in a wine...a skill I'm trying to understand. How does a person smell leather in wine? I guess I'll find out...My italian class is going pretty well...so far I remember everything we're covering.
Upcoming Trips
We finally made some decisions about traveling! We've planned a Venice day trip for Carnivale, Rome, Munich for Springfest and Amsterdam! We're still working on Spring Break (Almafi Coast maybe?) We also want to go to Bologna, Pisa and Milan but those don't need as much planning because we would just take the train and do a day trip.There are so many places I want to see and not enough weekends! Already considering planning where to go backpacking after graduation...
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