Saturday morning, we left at 5am, taking taxis to the train station. We got on a 6am slow train to Florence, which was a little annoying because there was a fast train that left later and would have gotten us there faster, but the other girls had already reserved the slow train. We got in Florence (or "Firenze" as the Italians call it) at around 11am, then it took us a little over 2 hours to find our hostel (which was really campsite) and put our bags away. After that, Krystina, Maddie, and I all rented bikes and audioguides and went on a tour of the city. We saw a bunch of pretty piazzas (squares) and churches, and then we went to Academia museum and saw the famous David statue. After that, we had some delicious dinner (I got hot dog pizza yum!), took some pictures on the bridges at sunset, and then we returned the bikes. We went back to the same restaurant we ate at and got a chocolate, nutella, and pear pizza. SO YUMMY.
We got on a bus up to our campsite, which was way up on the hill where there was a gorgeous view of the city, and changed into dancing clothes. Haha it was so funny, cuz the tents we were in were a tad see-through when you had the lights on inside. Do you remember that one part in Austin Powers when they are in the tent and the silhouettes look like they are doing funny things? Well, needless to say, we took some funny videos. After we were done goofing off, we went out and experienced the Florence night life hehehe. At first we couldn't find any of the clubs that were recommended to us, but when we were about to give up, we decided to ask a taxi driver if he knew where the club Twice was. And he did. Lots of fun.
We made it back to our camp at around 3am. The day before, Merek, Maddie, Alli, Krystina, and I had booked a tour of Tuscany (which is just a region in Italy that includes Florence and Siena), so we got up at around 7am so we could catch the bus from our campsite to get on the tour bus. Unfortunately, the bus from our campsite came later than we thought it would, so we couldn't make it to the other hostel to get on the tour bus. But the tour bus also picks people up at the train station. Unfortunately, we couldn't find where the bus picked people up. We were literally on the phone with the ppl from the hostel where we booked the tour for ten minutes, trying to figure out where to go. We were about ten minutes late getting on the bus, but they were nice and waited for us.
First the bus took us to Siena, where there is this famous horse race called the Palio, and it was a really cute little town. We ate at this really cool pastry place that was supposed to be somewhat famous. Then, as the tour guide is trying to get the group together to go, Maddie wanders into a store, and then on the way out, me and Maddie both stopped to buy something. So, again, we were the last ones to get on the bus.
We stopped for lunch at this restaurant surrounded by vineyards. We got cold cuts with cheese and bread, and then we got pasta. It was all yummy. Then we were getting back on the bus, we realized that Maddie and Krystina had disappeared. The tour guide was getting on the bus so we could leave, and I had to run off and find Krystina and Maddie, who were apparently taking a bunch of pictures across the street. Again, the last ones on the bus. Seeing a pattern?
Next, we went to this town called San Gimignano and basically just shopped the whole time. We even got the winner of the best gelato in Italy... and it was soooooo good. After we had our ice cream, Maddie decided that we just had to go back and buy a purse that she'd seen. After that, we were sprinting down the streets, five minutes late to the parking lot. Luckily, the bus wasn't there yet, but the tour guide just shook her head at us. The rest of our group had only gotten there like 2 minutes before, so we were once again the last ones there.
Last, we went to a winery and had a wine tasting. We tasted one white wine, and three red ones, and then we tasted olive oil and this yummy yummy balsamic vinegar. The wine guys was this hilarious Italian guy who taught us the "proper" way to drink wine. This time, we were not the last ones on the bus. Thankfully. Our poor tour guide was probably about ready to throw us off the bus.
There was a fire in one of the train stations on the way back to Rome... which was really unfortunate for us. We were worried we wouldn't even make it back to work. But somehow, we made it on this super nice train and we were able to use our other train reservations so we didn't have to pay more money. The train, though, took forever to get into Rome, though, because there was apparently only one track for all the trains to use. It took FOREVER AND EVER. We didn't get into Naples until 1:30am, then Alex had to pick us up because there were no more trains going to Aversa. UGH. Didn't get to bed until 3.
Work on Monday was not fun.
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