Buon Giorno Florence!

I went to Florence with Sara this weekend. She has some friends who are studying abroad there (it's another NYU site) and we got to stay with them. Apparently Italy doesn't want anyone to visit, because it was extremely difficult for us to actually get there. Sara and I were set to fly out of the Beauvais airport (about an hour outside of Paris) at about 11 pm, but since the plane coming to Paris was running late and the airport closes at midnight. So they put us up at a hotel in town and we got on a 8:30 am flight the next morning to Milan. So once we got to Milan, we wanted to spend half a day there, but unfortunately the mean train ticket lady told us we had to take the noon train, which was leaving in 20 minutes.

Finally, we made it on the train to Florence.

...And this was about as much of Milan as we saw. I know that it's a fashion capital, but I have to tell you, I don't think we saw one fashionable person. Everyone looked like they had just walked straight off of Long Island.

Finally, Florence! The Duomo at night.

Enjoying my first pasta in like foreverrrrrrr

Sara, enjoying her's too. That dinner (unlimited bread with this amazing homemade balsamic vinegar, giant bowl of pasta, water, and wine) cost me only 9 euros. 9 euros!!

Sara and I overlooking the river on the Ponte Vecchio.

The next day, Sara's friends took us to a bunch of different markets. First stop, was the food market, where Sara and I bought 10 euros worth of dried fruit. As you can see, they had literally every kind of fruit imaginable, all of it delicious.

Then we went to the touristy market outside of the food market, that's filled with pashminas and leather goods. It's right outside of the Basilica San Lorenzo.
Then we went inside the Basilica (but don't worry, there was a "Christmas Market"/garage sale going on inside there)


Then back to the Duomo again (pretty much everything leads back here).

More Duomo. Apparently Brunelleschi built it without using any scaffolding.

Then we went to another, better Christmas market, where Sara and I partook in some chocolate covered fruit.

More Christmas Market

Back to the Ponte Vecchio, but this time in the daylight. Apparently the river was incredibly high because it had been raining for the past couple of days. (Venice, in fact, is flooded right now)

Looking the other way down the river.

View from Ponte Vecchio

Other view from Ponte Vecchio.

The bridge, which has a bunch of jewelry shops lining it, was all decorated for Christmas and incredibly crowded.

Then we finally got some gelato!

On Sunday we went to the NYU in Florence campus. It's about 20 minutes uphill from Sara's friend's apartment and the sidewalk is so incredibly narrow. Apparently, students get hit every semester, and understandably so because I was afraid for my life numerous times on the trip there and back.

Anyways, the campus is gorgeous and is everyone's favorite part about being in Florence.
This is the freshman housing villa.

View from the freshman villa. (Everything that you see is the campus)

Looking back at the freshman villa. They call that path that you have to take through the olive gardens "death valley" because it's uphill both ways!
View from their main building.

View of the olive orchards (gardens/grove/field? I don't know what you're supposed to call them).

Walking through the olive trees.

Ahh, I'm so jealous. I wish that this was my campus...

Me, eating dried fruit on the train ride back to the airport. I think I need to lay off the dried fruit for a little bit...

Another great trip....my next (and last) stop is Morocco this weekend!