On Thursday evening, Aimee, Carly, and I decided we'd go for a stroll and went exploring a bit. We hit up all the normal spots, such as the main piazza and the duomo. While we were strolling, we decided to investigate some of the menus at the restaurants around the city's hot spots just out of curiosity. Well, there was a bowl of cornflakes for 6 euro, pizza for 8, and oh yeah, a hamburger and fries for 18, which is roughly 26 dollars or so. Clearly, pizza and other Italian specialties are so common in this area that they have to charge picky tourists outrageous prices for a taste of their homeland. Ohhh, those cooky Italians. I also got my second cannoli from a different shop than my original mouth-watering confection, and this one was subpar in comparison. I was spoiled by the first one for sure. We continued walking and found a really out-of-the-way piazza that was actually quite pretty even though it was completely deserted and saw an adorable puppy who looked kind of lost...then just went for it and peed on someone's doorstep. It was a rather bold move, I must say.
On Friday, my six housemates and I decided we needed a housemates' night out and hit up my second club of all time, Central Park. We did not fly to New York (though I know that is ever so plausible, and it is exactly what you were thinking). We were able to walk just 10 minutes from our apartment to this very well-decorated and interesting outdoor club. There was an area with a live band (and randomly some girls in slutty outfits modeling in the middle of the set), a mini waterfall, sofas and little awnings everywhere, and obviously, a dance floor. My housemates and I were some of the first on the dance floor, and soon enough, it was crowded like no other. Unlike my last club experience, though, the guys there were way too aggressive. They didn't understand the concept that friends just may want to dance together and not find a gang of drunken, hair gel covered, too tight pants wearing, possibly gay men to dance with. I know. It's so hard to believe that we may not be interested in that. I was pretty much living the Dane Cook joke. So eventually, the whole act of trying to get rid of the guys trying to sneak up and dance with my friends got a little old so we decided to head out after about 2 hours or so of dancing. OH. And I forgot to mention the greased up shirtless hipster who was paid to dance and do ab exercises on a little platform above the dance floor. He was actually hilarious to watch. I probably would have wanted to leave earlier if I hadn't got to witness him impersonating Michael Jackson while looking like Ben Gibbard.
So after our late evening out, we slept in, and then Aimee, Carly, and I decided to take a walk to Piazzale Michelangelo and a nearby church where the views of the entire city of Florence were rumored to be unbelievable. My friend, Lina, from Marist studied here and lived in my apartment last fall, and she told me when I got up there, I would fall in love with Florence for good. And I certainly did. Though Google Maps deceived me and told me the walk would be thirty minutes, and it turned out to be an hour and a half (mostly uphill), it was completely worth it. It was basically Narnia, but it's cool. We took pictures up at the church and actually saw two couples who'd just gotten married taking pictures (and I totally creeped and snuck a few, which you can see below).
We saw some beautifully decorated shrines, tombs, and graves, and even heard the monks chanting within the church. It was an unbelievable experience. We then walked a little ways up to the the actual Piazzale Michelangelo, which was very touristy but still offered beautiful views. After snapping a few more pictures, we caught a bus back then decided to relax and eat dinner. But our day didn't end there. Of course, we had to go out and get gelato. :) So far I've tried pistacchio, cookies, and banana spignoli with chocolate pieces, and they all have been utterly delicious...though cookies definitely takes the cake thus far (ahaha. Cookies. Cake.).
I now plan on crashing for the rest of the evening and perhaps watching something online with my roommate as we wind down. I stayed in Florence this weekend, but I feel like I still was able to branch out and explore. I still have tomorrow and half of Monday to relax and maybe even do a little bit more adventuring to the foreign lands within Florence, but we shall see what happens. Thanks for reading, and hopefully at the end of this week, I'll have some true tales to tell, but like I said...I could always just make something up for your entertainment if need be. Ciao. :)
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