firenze

Yes, I made it! First of all, its sunny and gorgeous out- something I haven’t seen in so long since it has been nonstop rain in Sevilla ever since we got there. It actually hasn’t rained this much in 70 years, SEVENTY! Can you imagine? People are dying from floods in Portugal and France, its obscene. But anyways, back to Florence! And goba! I hadn’t hung out with that girl in way too long and here we were reunited again, the dynamic duo. She picked me up from the train station and we walked through Florence back to her house. I saw the Duomo for the first time on my way to her apartment and it was breathtaking. Its absolutely enormous and its so beautiful and detailed. Its mainly white but with green and orangeish color stripes, and of course the immense orange dome. Really gorgeous. I took a delicious shower when I got to her apartment (which is actually really cute- she lives with 6 girls!) and then we went out to lunch. We went to ‘Pino’s’ which isn’t the actual name of the place but it’s the name of the owner who is the cutest Italian man ive ever seen! I seriously regret not taking a picture with him. This place is kind of like a deli and Pino makes the BEST paninis- im not kidding, these things were heavenly. Great bread, and then all sorts of toppings from cheese to potatoes to spinach to peppers- anything you would want, and then heated to perfection.
After devouring lunch, Goba and I walked around Florence. We saw the Santa Croce church and that plaza and then walked across the Arno River and up a huge hill to get to Plaza Michelangelo, a viewpoint for the entire city. It was such a nice day out and the view was incredible. The first thing you notice is definitely the Duomo. At this plaza, there was a statue of David, but it wasn’t the real one. Apparently there are a lot of fakes all around Florence and the real one is absolutely enormous and in one of the museums- I never got to see the real one. Up on the same hill was the San Miniato Church, which was really pretty and all golden inside. Right next to this church was a little cemetery. I don’t know why but I have always enjoyed walking through cemeteries- not in a morbid way but im not exactly sure why, maybe because its peaceful. I don’t know, I find cemeteries pretty- how people are remembered I guess. This one was pretty cool though. There was only a little part of it that looked like an actual cemetery with tombs laid out next to each other but the rest was just all white walls with white marble stone heads that had names and dates written on them. These walls were covered and covered in hanging flowers. I had never seen a cemetery quite like this one.
Later, Goba and I descended back down to the city center, going by the Duomo, definitely one of the main attractions of Florence. It is extremely impressive. We didn’t go in but I did the next day. Next, we went into a cute little church that is gobas favorite because its quiet and pretty too. Later, we went to the San Lorenzo market which is a long street crowded entirely with street vendors. They sell typical tourist objects and clothes, but also beautiful creative Carnaval masks and jewelry, among other things. One piece that really made me laugh were shorts that had the David statue dick picture at the crotch- do people really buy that?? And if people really do buy them as gifts for people, do they really actually wear them?? I guess they are a hilarious joke gift- truly obscene. Also in the market, leather, so much leather! Wallets, jackets, keychains, purses- Allyson made sure to get at least one of each of these, no joke, she really went wild. Once you get to the end of the street, you start entering the more sketcky vendors. It was here that I saw a little vendor with hippie-ish bags and so I stopped to look. I immediately got hounded by the vendor trying to spit out deals and basically pushing the bag onto me. This guy was not taking ‘just looking’ as an answer. Next thing we know, goba and I have the thinnest shittiest rainbow string bracelets tied around our wrists. Oh shit, does this mean we are married? Goba panics, as always, which I shamelessly take pleasure in, because I like seeing her squirm in awkward situations. Finally, we do manage to escape from the vendor and continue walking until I see another one, the only one mind you, slightly related to weed and the red, green, yellow colors of bob Marley followers. There is a small selection of bowls, of which I pick one out for my brother and barter the price down at least a little bit. Although I think I did ok bartering, I wish I had Jill with me on that one and especially in Morocco because she is obsessed with bartering and quite good at it. Miss you girl!
After walking around some more, window shopping, and seeing the city, goba and I headed back to her house. We went food shopping and tomassa made us dinner- pasta with a light sauce of cherry tomatoes and random spices- so good, thank ya girl! We hung out for awhile and then went out. We decided to do a bar crawl to check out a bunch of different bars they hadn’t been to yet. We walked into this one bar that looked normal enough from the outside but then when you walked in and looked to the right, there were a bunch of people lying down getting massaged. It was a little weird and although I would have loved a massage, this wasn’t the time nor place. We were looking to get drunk, which we managed to do quite well at the next bar which was crowded with tons of people outside of it. We now refer to this place as Pedro’s because that was the name of the bartender and he made bomb ass drinks. Pedro didn’t fuck around- he gave us so much alcohol. We chilled there for awhile, drank a ton, stared at random pictures of half naked women on one part of the wall, and then walked down the street to check out more bars. We came across a couple and got more drinks but none compared to pedro’s, so we eventually returned to drink more before heading out for our final destination- Twice, a discoteca in Florence. Sadly, I reached blackout city before making it to Twice so even though we were dancing there for about 2 hours, I remember none of it. I guess its safe to say my night was a blur. Goba, on the other hand, had a fabulous time at Twice. The Italian Maneater, as they call her, apparently is always instantly joined with an Italian every time she enters this club, and this time was no different. She was ‘talking’ with one of her many victims all night, and thankfully for me, it was documented by one of her friends. The next day, we were able to rifle through several pictures that showed gobas entertainment for the night. At this point, she mentions, ‘hmm, I remember him being younger.. and better looking.’ I feel many of us think this the morning after. To her horrification, she receives a text the next day inviting her to drinks- I think his wife and kids would be rather upset. I guess this is a typical thing for goba though- getting Italian men and then half-regretting it in the morning. Walking around Florence, she has been called out by her full name before by an Italian man, to which her response was scurrying away with her head down.
Anyways, after all that action in Twice, goba and the girls all dragged my ass home and I woke up in the morning, feeling fabulous as I always do, even if the night before took place way beyond blackout city borders. Its both a blessing and a curse.
The next day, we went to Pino’s again for lunch which was so great. I seriously am gonna start making the same paninis he does because they are a delicious concoction. Goba and I set out again to visit some more of the city. We went into the Duomo, which is spectacular from the outside, but not so impressive in the inside other than the dome. The inside is enormous with big arches but other than that, quite plain, until you get to the inside of the dome, which is absolutely gorgeous. It’s entirely painted with people who look as if they are all looking down at you- it looks so real and its with great colors and its just SO bIg! That’s what she said. But yes, pretty cool. We also visited one of the bigger plazas where there were a bunch of big statues representing Gods and such. One of the biggest and best statues was one of Zeus, maybe?, on his chariot of horses. Its a fountain and from what Goba tells me, one of the most defaced articles in the city of Florence. Drunk kids used to take full advantage of the fountain when drunk to either pee or go swimming, so now they constantly have guards around it at night. We quite possibly stopped for a gelato somewhere along our walk throughout the city which was so fresh and delicious. Walking around the market again, guess who we saw! Holy shit, John Denapoli, a kid from our high school I probably haven’t seen in 3 or 4 years. He is an architecture major who is studying abroad in Florence too. What a coincidence. We also spent a little bit of time out at H&M before getting ready to go out to dinner.
We ate at Acqua al 2, a very authentic Italian restaurant. Goba, Ali, and I and decided to split this thing called ‘a taste of pasta.’ What happens is they give you seven different tiny tastes of different types of pasta. They were all entirely different shapes, colors, sauces, etc. it was really fun to explore a bunch of what they had to offer. We also split ‘a taste of steak’ which was really good. There were three different types all with different sauces again- the balsamic sauce was really good but they had a blueberry sauce that was absolutely divine. Of course, we popped open a couple bottles of wine with our meal as well.
That night we bar hopped out to several different places. The first was a little bar called Angie’s, which had wild decorations in the back room that was hosting a little dance club of its own with a girl dj. The paintings on the wall were fucking sweet though-would have fallen into straight tripping status. We danced and drank awhile at this place before heading down to a different bar, Kikuya, that was a little more original Italian, and to our surprise, who do we see but john denapoli again! We chilled here until the wee early hours of the morning until we decided to leave, at which point I actually perched myself on the back of a passing motorcycle hoping to get a ride until Goba screamed and tore me off. Instead, we went on a search for the ‘secret bakery’ which is a little bakery that bakes for other bigger bakeries but is only open from 2 to 4 am or something. Its not even marked as a bakery- it only has a sign outside that says ‘quiet please’ but it gives random passersby pizza and croissant type things for real cheap. Sadly, we were too drunk to ever find it and returned home feeling unsuccessful. Instead, we made a bertucci’s type of concoction with olive oil and red spices and dipped warm bread into it. Instead of going to bed which would have been a good idea since goba and I had plans to go to Venice for a couple days, I chose to watch ‘factory girl’, probably my new favorite movie. It’s about andy Warhol and his main girl inspiration of the time, edie segwick. It’s a ballin ass movie and im fully not embarrassed to say ive watched it twice since then.