Friday, July 25th was supposed to be my last day
on this magical study abroad trip. However my prayers to the Italian Travel
Gods (and my dad) were answered and I was granted an extra 4 days in this
beautiful country. On our last day in Ascoli we were visited by our Italian
friends who sent us off with a warm goodbye and made the act of leaving that
much harder. I really want to thank our friend Giorgio who made us feel so
welcome and so at home while we were in Ascoli Piceno and we will never forget
you or the fond memories we have shared with you!
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Rachel, Irene, Angelica, Tom, Giorgio, Me, Kasey, Amanda, Lindsey |
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Me & Giorgio |
That morning (Friday) myself and four other girls set out to
begin our own adventure on our own for the very first time. We took a bus to
Rome in the morning and that afternoon we hopped on a train to Florence. When
we got off the train we were definitely overwhelmed by the big city and not
having any idea where our hotel was. But, we were able to use our Italian and
ask an officer for directions and find the hotel on our own. It was definitely
one of the first experiences that made me feel totally independent and has
forced me to come out of my shell to be comfortable advocating for myself and
talking to strangers. If I’ve gotten anything out of this trip, it is
definitely a new sense of self-confidence!
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Found our way to the hotel! |
That evening we set out to explore Florence and find a
place to have dinner. We settled in at Trattoria Kitty and had an amazing meal
of Caprese salad, pesto pasta, tomato-basil pasta, and a curry risotto dish.
The food (like everywhere else) was delicious!
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Chicken & Curry Risotto |
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Tomato Basil Homemade Spaghetti |
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Caprese Salad |
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Homemade Pesto |
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Ponte Vecchio |
Saturday morning we headed out at 8:30 a.m. to start seeing
all the sights that Florence has to offer. We started our morning at the
Galleria dell’Accademia where we enjoyed magnificent works of art including
Michelangelo’s “Statue of David”.
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Michelangelo's "David" |
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Michelangelo's "David" |
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Christine, Kristina, Rachel, Emily, Me |
From there, we headed over to the Duomo where we hiked up
the 463 stairs to the top of dome to take in the breathtaking view of the
entire city. The Duomo at the top of this church in Florence is the largest
brick dome in the world. The view was absolutely amazing (definitely worth
standing in the hour-wait line).
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View from Top of Duomo |
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Artwork on the ceiling of the Duomo |
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Duomo in Florence |
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Me, Christine, Emily, Rachel, Kristina |
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Rachel, Me, Christine |
That afternoon we went to the markets to do a little
shopping and we totally got sucked in to one of the vendors selling leather jackets.
He chatted us up and convinced us to go back to his store where he custom
fitted a jacket to one of our friends (Emily) and pulled out all of his tricks
to make her fall in love with the jacket. He fit it perfect her taste and body
shape, scratched it with a key to show how it does not scratch, and then lit
the sleeve on fire to show it will not burn. We kept asking how much the jacket
cost and he would keep saying “ah, no worry! Just look” and show us even more
reasons to buy the jacket. In the end, it ended up costing 160 Euro (almost
$300) which was almost heartbreaking. Emily was able to keep her cool and not
fall for his tricks but it was definitely heartbreaking to walk away from that
perfect jacket.
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Me, Rachel, Christine, Emily, Kristina |
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Leaning Tower of Pisa |
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Grapes from the vineyard |
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Fresh picked blackberries! |
After the Vespa tour we quickly headed back to our hotel to
grab our luggage and then ran to catch a bus to Greve, Chianti. We will be
spending one night and day in Greve, Chianti and then we will be headed home on
29th. This trip has been absolutely amazing and I am so incredibly
sad to be leaving. The people I have met, the places I have seen and the
memories I have made will stay with me for the rest of my life.