Firenze 2006-2007: A Few Weekends in Florence

Sunday, February 04, 2007

A Few Weekends in Florence

This week’s highlights were our trip to Bologna on Wednesday and now the weekend here in Florence. On Wednesday night, 14 of us rented a bus and went to a +44 concert in Bologna. +44 is a band that is composed of a few members of Blink 182. We all left after dinner and after the hour and a half drive we were at the palazzo sport that was the venue for the concert. We got there in plenty of time and got our places in the mass of people there. We pushed our way to the front and by the time that +44 came on, we were front and center. Several of us crowd surfed and we all had a blast. When it was over we headed abck to the bus and onto Florence, studying on the way as we had a humanities quiz the next day. We got back before it got too late went to bed, and woke up the next morning ready for class again. The quiz wasn’t too bad and with Wednesday over, my week was pretty much done.
I began to feel sick on Thursday, and as I was planning on staying around Florence this weekend anyway, I thought I’d take it easy for the weekend and try to get better. I slept most of the weekend, but did manage to get out and do several things. Friday was a pretty dull day, the only times I really left my bed or the house was when I went to get food, but on Saturday I felt a bit better so Drew, Myles and I decided to try and go to Volterra, but the bus schedule was different than we had seen for Saturdays so we decided to go to Settignano, a town overlooking Florence and the birthplace of Michelangelo instead. A long city bus ride later and we were there. There wasn’t a ton to see there partly because it was so early, but just in general. We hiked around a bit on the frost covered mountain, saw Florence from a different angle, and wandered around the tow. We headed back, took a nap, did some homework, and then decided to go play soccer with several of the guys and Leonardo at the parco Cascine. We played for several hours and then came back to the house, got some dinner and watched several movies. Sunday was a lot like Friday. A lot of sleeping and not much besides that. I caught up on all my Astronomy reading but apart from that it was a pretty easy and boring day.
This week started without me feeling 100% again, but I did think I was getting better. Monday was bearable considering the eight hours of class that I’ve got. On Tuesday I gave my convo talk on goals which apparently went very well which was pretty cool. Wednesday was our next soccer game. We played at a place within walking distance from the villa so a ton of people came to watch us. And, in addition to our team we had a friend of Lauren’s- a goalie. We had been trying to teach West how to play goalie because that was what we were missing most. He came and played a bit, but it really didn’t make that much difference because we won 4-1. Thursday was a pretty easy once again, and then came this weekend.
For the second weekend in a row I was in Florence- this time to show around several kids who were coming from Lausanne. Andrew, Amanda, Courtney, and Gwendolyn came this weekend, so on Friday I went with them to Pisa, then showed them how to get to Lucca and Cinque Terra so they could continue exploring while I headed back to Florence to get ready for Drew and I’s dinner with Leonardo that night. Drew and I got dressed up and made reservations for a restaurant named Del Fagioli, a Tuscan restaurant near Santa Croce. We met Leonardo there at 8:30 and got our table. We all had some kind of antipasto- mine was the liver spread on bread, then all got some soup as our primi, and the bistecca alla Fiorentina as our secondo. We took several hours to eat, and then talked for several more so that it was near 12:30 by the time we left. It was a very nice evening, I’m glad that Drew and I got to talk with Leonardo outside class, and try a new restaurant in the process. Our Saturday, the Lausanne kids wanted to see Florence, so I showed them around the city all day. We climbed the Duomo, saw the David in the Accademia, the Ponte Vecchio, Piazzale Michelangelo, and finally about 15 of us went to dinner at the Red Door. It was a nice day, and great for me to get to do a ton of stuff in Florence that I’ve needed to do for a while. Now, it’s Sunday and they are gone, I’m catching up on work and blogging, so hopefully by the end of the day I’ll be up to date with both.