I do want to preface my description of this past weekend with some details of this weekday. As I said, Milan Fashion week started. Thus... what is life like in Fashion capital of the world during Fashion week? Well the city is a bit more crowded, and the people and clothes are just a little extra beautiful this week. Casually there are a lot models (noticeable because they are over a foot taller than me and have legs like toothpicks) on the metro. All of the stores have upped the designs of their windows.
To kick of Fashion week, my fashion class visited the first Prada store (ever) which is in the Galleria in Milan. I didn't feel worthy enough to be even be walking in the store haha. We also visited La Rinascente and Excelsior, two large department stores here in the city.
On Wednesday, the official start day of fashion week, we (Sadie, Chris, Victoria, Erica, and I) went to Martini Bar, which is a bar that is jointly owned by Dolce and Gabbana and Martini. SO CLASSY! and FABULOUS! We all dressed in our finest to be worthy of the experience... the other people were in pretty high fashion; it was a great way to start Fashion Week! Chris bought a pair of boxers from Dolce and Gabbana to celebrate.
...
What does it mean to travel with me? First, it means that it rains. Of course, Florence rained for pretty much the entire time I was there. Trip #2 with immense amount of rain. Second, it means that every thing that there is to do or see gets done...it means conquering the city.
This past weekend, I went to Florence with Sadie, Brent, Arturo and Chris to visit Zoe, my very best friend from Skidmore who is studying in Florence. Florence is such a beautiful city; the atmosphere feels like Italy- maybe its the yellow toned buildings, the stone streets or the statues everywhere. I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming my life of living and visiting Italy. In contrast to Florence, Milan is so urban and so industrialized, so it doesn't necessarily feel like Italy. BUT... Florence has so many Americans, so many tourists, and so much English. Milan makes me have to use my Italian and makes me feel like the odd one out (in a good way!- like in a I am studying abroad way). So there are pros and cons to studying abroad in both locations.
Friday in Florence
We got to Florence on Friday around 11am. Our train took an hour later than expected because it was snowing on the way there. We stayed in a hostel for the first time; it was called Soggiorno Primavera. The people that ran it were so nice and very helpful; the place was pretty ok- clean is all that matters!- but it was far from the center of the city.
Zoe gave us a tour of the city that afternoon. We saw and went inside the famous Florence Duomo. We went to Ponte Vecchio, the famous bridge in Florence. We went to Piazza della Signoria (where the fake david is). We went to the leather market- everything was beautiful but it was kind of hard to tell what was real and what was not. Florence is a small city- it is possible to walk everywhere in maximum 20 mins, so we were able to get an introduction quickly to all of the things there were to see. It started to rain, so we decided to go to the Galleria dell'Accademia, which is the where the real David, by Michelangelo, is located. Of course, we stared at the David from all 360 degrees in awe. It was exquisite. The details are incredible. Umm.. just saying- shouldn't the David be circumsized since he was Jewish?... Michelangelo check your facts?? Haha
Afterwards, Zoe and I decided that we wanted to go to Shabbat services. The synagogue in Florence is pretty famous- it's very decadent and so beautiful! Actually there is a synagogue in Baltimore that is modeled after this Florence synagogue. We went to the synagogue and a Chabad rabbi found us standing outside and invited us to light candles with him. Us girls (Sadie, Zoe and I - we met a girl from Baltimore(!) who lit candles with us) lit candles with him. We (Chris, Sadie, Zoe and I) all then went to the synagogue for Kabbalat Shabbat. This was Sadie and Chris's first time at the Jewish service- I think they really enjoyed it despite not understanding anything. Inside, the synagogue was breathtaking- so many intricate details. The service itself was not what Zoe and I like in a Jewish service because the rabbi did the prayers very fast and on his own and there was no real community aspect to the prayer. The men all did their prayers individually. I tried to catch up and follow along but it was difficult.
After the service, the Chabad rabbi invited everyone to Shabbat dinner at the local Chabad. WHAT AN AMAZING EXPERIENCE THIS DINNER WAS. There were Jews visiting Florence from all over the world and they all came to the dinner to share in a Jewish experience abroad. We talked with Jewish girls from Chile and from Israel!! One of my favorite parts of being Jewish is being able to go anywhere in the world and finding a home in the Jewish community, having the prayers be the same (all in Hebrew) and have an immediate connection with the Jews from all over the world. For Sadie and Chris, this Shabbat dinner was a brand new experience. There was so much to observe and learn for them. And they couldn't stop talking about how much they loved it! We left the dinner early and grabbed dinner part two from GUSTA PIZZA...THE BEST PIZZA EVER! IT WAS AMAZING...if you are ever in Florence promise me you'll get GUSTA Pizza...yumm.
Saturday
We woke up EARLY so that we wouldn't be stuck in a line at the Uffizi. Of course, there was of no line. We spent two and a half hours at the Uffizi. WHAT AN AMAZING ART MUSEUM. Unfortunately, after the first hour, a lot of the art was blending together, but we made it through seeing all of the artwork. Of course we stared in awe at the Birth of Venus for a good half hour. When I studied in Barcelona, I took an art history class and was then able to go to the museums and know about all of the artwork. There are a lot of significant pieces of artwork at the Uffizi that I saw but I do not think I was able to appreciate it as much because I didn't have a background in this artwork. Nevertheless, it was a wonderful museum and I am really glad that we had devoted that much time to it.
After the Uffizi, we went inside Santa Croce Basilica. This was a really cool Basilica because it has the tombs of a lot of famous people. I saw the burial monuments for Michelangelo, Machiavelli and Galileo! This particularly was really cool!
Of course it started raining at this point. We were a bit disappointed that we weren't going to be able to go to Michelangelo's lookout and the Boboli gardens like we had planned to because of the rain. We decided to go back to Zoe's apartment and have a mini- wine and cheese party to pass the time until the rain stopped. We chilled there until dinner when we went to ZaZa's for dinner. Yumm. Arturo and Brent shared a 50 dollar ginormous Florentine Steak- it was super rare and super delicious! Arturo, Brent and I grabbed yummy gelato from Venchi (although I am sorry but I have yet to have amazing gelato). We then met up with Chris and Sadie who was at Chris's friend's apartment and hung out with his friends. We went to a really fun local bar afterwards to kill time until 2am, when we were supposed to meet Zoe to go to a secret bakery.
Ok. Secret Bakery. Coolest thing ever. Secret Bakeries are the bakeries that prepare the pastries for smaller pastry shops that do not cook the desserts themselves. Thus, these secret bakeries start baking at 2am to be able to distribute the fresh baked goods. These secret bakeries sell the goods they are baking for like a euro- but the catch is that it is a secret and you have to be very quiet. There is no sign- you are supposed to be able to sniff out the goods baking. Zoe and her housemate had already found them so they took us there. There was already a line of people waiting outside and shushing anyone who was too loud. They were cooking mini brioches and pizza at the time- so I ordered 4 brioches- 2 filled with chocolate and 2 filled with creme. FRESH BAKED, STILL WARM. OMG! It was amazing- I savored each one- having one for breakfast the next morning, dessert for dinner that night, and then breakfast the following following morning. This was definitely one of the highlights of the trips.
Sunday
On Sunday, we woke up and checked out of our hostel. It was not raining so we thought that it was a perfect opportunity to go to Piazza Michelangelo for the lookout over the city. Of course right when we get to the top of the hill, it starts raining. Always our luck! But the lookout was beautiful- a panaromic view of the city. Because of the rain, there was a rainbow in the sky over the city which was just fabulous!
We concluded our stay in Florence with Gusta Pizza again (we couldn't get enough of it!) and gelato! It was sad to say goodbye to Florence - what a beautiful and cute city it is- and it was really sad to say goodbye to Zoe- but luckily Zoe was coming to visit me in Milan 4 days later!
Ok - I am so sorry that I am so behind in my blogging. So much has been happening. Blog post about the alps and Copenhagen coming soon.
Fairies and Rainbows,
~E
No comments:
Post a Comment