Our day began with a guided walking tour of the Galleria dell’Accademia – the famous museum in Florence that holds the Statue of David. Just like how I felt about the Eiffel Tower when I went abroad to France, I’ve seen pictures of the Statue of David numerous amounts of times, yet seeing it in person is a completely different feeling. Even though I grew up in a Kodak-loving family, I genuinely believe that no camera has the capability to truly capture the essence and grandeur of great views/objects in the world like The David.
If everyone tuned into yesterday’s post, you’ll remember how I warned you all about going to restaurants with English on their menus – well that notion was completely thrown out the window today. A small group of us that weren’t dressed conservatively enough to get into the tour of the Duomo decided to be wild and try Italian Chinese food. We found a majorly sketchy Chinese restaurant down a random side street that we had passed previously before called Ristorante Alfani. I feel like with my Italian blog I have become almost like a food critic of any food I eat while on my daily adventures more than anything else and I must say… Italy showed me some of the best fried rice I’ve ever had. Not only was the food amazing, but it was also dirt cheap – if I’m being honest, it was one of my favorite lunches I have had in Italy thus far. Shoutout Kari Eshleman and Nick Fratto for putting up with my craziness and just going along with my weird ideas.
The rest of the daytime was spent walking around the streets of Florence really just wondering around and looking for souvenirs and picture taking opportunities. I hadn’t bought any souvenirs throughout our entire time in Italy thus far (which I am sure my father, one of my most loyal blog fans, will be happy to read) and I finally found some today in an open air market around the block from our hotel. As Tom Eason always reminds me – “don’t travel to Europe just to buy something made in China,” and I did not do that don’t you worry.
My dinner was in a small local restaurant across the bridge called Diladdarno, and it was just a really nice way to relax with some friends. There you didn’t have to pay a cover charge for water, so our entire dinner group was ecstatic about our location choice. I ended up getting gnocchi with a parmesan sauce and truffles – definitely a complete-180 from what I had had for lunch. After we finished eating, I convinced a group of the people I was with that we HAD to ride the night carousel in the city square near our hotel. We spent a whopping two euros on what was probably a two minute ride that was also most likely meant for young children, but after reflecting on the experience as a whole, I still stand by the decision.
Are you all wondering what my title is referring to? Well here it is – the highlight of my night and probably my entire trip. As I have mentioned before, I am involved in Theta Phi Alpha back at Pitt, which is a social sorority on campus, and my big Elizabeth is studying abroad in Italy for the next seven weeks – and our paths just so happened to cross in the same city for one single day. Even though with her flights she was up for eighteen hours straight, she was able to meet up with me for a quick nighttime gelato run. I have been getting a little homesick recently and she was just little bit of home to keep me going. As I always say, I hail to Pitt for a countless number of reasons, and one of those reasons I will forever be grateful to this university for is having brought her into my life.
To end the post for the day I want to make a big announcement. We were checking the stats on WordPress of the blogs for all of the different Plus3 trips and my blog is officially the most viewed blog by a student of the week! Thank you to all of my devoted fans/followers/readers for this big accomplishment – without you I wouldn’t have the passion and drive to create the blogs that I do. I’m excited to bring my stories and wit to our next stop on the Italy tour: Verona! Hope everyone has a bene night!