My last European trip for a while
I went to Italy last Sunday to see Melissa while she’s studying in Florence. I got back Thursday to a rainy England, although it actually rained quite a bit in Italy, at least in the afternoon. I managed to get some sun though, actually more than Melissa because she has classes every morning when the sun is out, and in the afternoon, it starts to rain. So anyway, we met up in Pisa on Sunday and climbed the Leaning Tower. Then we were both pretty tired, neither of us having gotten much sleep the night before for various reasons, so we went back to Florence and had a lazy evening in.
Monday, I walked with Melissa to her classes and then sat outside and read “Under the Tuscan Sun” under the Tuscan sun. Haha. This old Italian man came and sat down next to me at one point. And he kept trying to talk to me, while I was reading, even though he spoke no English and I spoke no Italian. I told him I didn’t understand, but he kept trying. Finally, I got up and left. Then on Wednesday, he found me again, but this time, it wasn’t too long before Melissa got out of class, so he didn’t have much chance to talk to me. I didn’t look up when he sat down to ignore him. There was another old man who stopped and tried to talk to me in Italian on Tuesday, but he didn’t sit down, only said I was getting “bronze” from the sun. So for some reason, I attract old Italian men, but it wasn’t too bad.
Monday afternoon we went to a couple parks, and after we got comfortable at this one, lying in the shade reading, it started to rain. The sun was still out, and we were still in the shade, but it started pouring. We tried to wait it out under a tree, and eventually headed back to Melissa’s apartment, huddled under her little umbrella. We had Chinese that night, and then got some pineapple gelatto, which was amazing.
Tuesday we went to a little old town called San Gimignano. We still don’t know how to pronounce it, but they call it “Medieval Manhattan” because it has a bunch of towers. We climbed up one to some amazing views. There were some complications getting there and getting back (at one point being told that the “fat man” was not good, but then not knowing which bus was his). But we made it, and we had a good time. And made it back to Florence in time to get some coffee gelatto (I had chocolate with mine too). Then we watched “Roman Holiday” on my computer, which seemed fitting even though we weren’t in Rome.
Wednesday I went to the Academia Galleria where Michaelangelo’s David is. It was amazing to see in person, as were some of his other sculptures. Sculptures just amaze me. I can’t imagine ever being able to do something like that, and it’s so beautiful. When Melissa got out of class, we went to the Duomo and climbed up to the top to look out on some amazing views of Florence. One girl said any city looks pretty from this high up, but Melissa and I disagreed. We’ve seen quite a few cities from that high up that weren’t as pretty (Athens, for example). The church was huge, and climbing up to the top took some energy, but we powered through our fourth (had to climb up in the Boboli Gardens Monday to see another view of Florence) and final climbing trip in as many days. Our legs got a workout this trip. We had planned on doing the Uffezi that day too, but I ended up wimping out because the line was really long, and I didn’t think it would be worth it to wait and then only have a little bit of time to spend in there. So instead we went to the Ponte Vecchio, got some good pizza, and went to the grocery so I could get my last thing of Paprika Pringles (though Melissa and I might petition the company to sell them in the US).
It was a good, busy trip, with many more stories that I have left out and will have to tell people later when I’m reminded of them. Unfortunately since I will soon have to work at a job and pay back my student loans, it will probably be my last fun trip to Europe for a long time. Ciao, Italia.