miamacaroni

[miamacaroni]

Also, in case y’all were curious:

Step Count: 17,417 (it’s been around this number everyday)

Blister Count: 2 (pray for me)

[miamacaroni]

Day “not really sure I could look it up but meh” in Italy~

We made it to Florence today! The minute I stepped off the train I know I already maybe like it better than Rome… It feels less crowded, and since the city is smaller you can see a lot more in a lot less time! (And the streets are shadier..)

Our hotel is super nice, and when we walked outside this was almost our immediate view:

The Duomo! It is MASSIVE, like no photo could convey how huge and insanely intricate it is but it is beautiful! We walked around for awhile, and this was the view from one of the bridges:

Like you really can’t beat it!

For dinner I had the best bruschetta ever and a steak that was also very good! Then we got gelato and I ordered 100% in italiano! It was going great until the guy went off script and asked if I had 30cents instead of a full bill, but don’t worry I recovered and no English was spoken. I was even able to ask for a sample, so i am basically fluent.

Then some of us waited by the Duomo to hear the bell toll which was cool.

I didn’t post, but yesterday we went to the Colosseum and it was nuts! I’ll probably post those pics tomorrow or something. Overall, really digging Italy! I miss you all!! <3<3

[miamacaroni]

Italy: Day One

Ciao!

My mission? Not to die. Will I succeed? That is up to Leonardo Da Vinci, and him and i have beef (don’t ask) so i don’t know.

Let’s start with the flight. 0/10. Horrible. Uncomfortable. Do not recommend. They did have The Dark Knight though, so I guess that’s something…

Moving on to the fun stuff - I was quite proud of myself following the flight, as I managed to find my bag and get a taxi all by myself with no tears! The hotel is gorgeous and I was able to check in 90% in Italian so that was cool too. I ended up staying in the room for about 2 hours because I was too nervous to go outside amongst the Romans, however, Megan called me a baby…and ugly… (she in fact did not say either of these things, she was very encouraging but it adds to the drama)so I ended up leaving the room for about 20 minutes, but hey it’s better than nothing. Then I came back and peed.

Eventually, the rest of the group showed up and we were off!

We saw the Pantheon which was HUGE and gorgeous and fascinating, however, I will not bore you with that right now. (Mom: I will tell you when I get back)

We then went to a thing (I literally don’t know what it is) where basically this lady neuters/spays stray cats and they all just hang out in this on area and you can adopt them - they were all so cute!

Then we went to the Trevi Fountain and we all tossed a coin in (my ultimate Lizzie McGuire movie moment).

We also went to this one building, but I didn’t get a picture…whoops. But after walking around for a while we got dinner and let. Me. Tell. You. It was the WORST carbonara I have every eaten. Like truly terrible. The restaurant was absolutely aimed at tourists, but we were all starving so no one cared, but oof not a great first meal in Italy. HOWEVER, after dinner we got gelato and it was BEAUTIFUL. Below is a picture of a Harry Potter window that was set up across the street and there was a really creepy doll in it for some reason.

We ended the day at the Spanish Steps at sunset and it was beautiful.

All in all, not too shabby of a day. I will say, the amount of tourists in the city is a little overwhelming and kind of ruins the magic, but what can you do?

Also, we have a cute balcony at our hotel with a little table.

Ci vediamo, tutti!