For the second half of Semana Santa, my friends and I left Rome and headed to Florence! We took a 3 hour train ride through the countryside of Italy (not too bad if you ask me) and arrived in Florence around noon. Lucky for the girls I had traveled Rome with and I, our other friend was in Florence with her mom and they let us stayed in the extra room they had for a few nights! Their apartment was only a few minutes from the center of town, which kind of feels like all of Florence. It is such a walkable city and the Duomo is right in the center of it all, so it’s a very easy landmark!
Our first day there, we met up with one of my absolute best friends from school who is studying in Florence. She showed us around town, brought us to the best gelato place and walked us along the water. As we walked along the river, we ran into two other girls from my school who just happen to be our two roommates for our senior year! So we had a little reunion on the river in Florence! After heading home for dinner, we decided to call it an early night because we were traveling to Cinque Terre early Thursday morning and needed to get our beauty sleep.
We woke around 5:30am and walked to the train station around 6:30am which, though early, was a beautiful walk and we got to see the sunrise over the Duomo. Our bus was to leave at 7, and we ran into another couple using the same company. But as time crept closer and closer, we began to panic a bit. Where was the bus? We began running around the train station and calling the company, who told us we were at the wrong meeting because they had changed it but hadn’t updated the website yet. After running around trying to find the new meeting place, we called the company again who told us we had missed the bus. The couple who was searching with us ended up going with another company because they didn’t have any more days in Florence. We rescheduled for the next day with the knowledge of the new meeting point.
Since we had gotten up so early, we went back to the apartment to surprise my friend and her mom, explained the situation, and took a nap before taking on the day. Since it was beautiful, we climbed the bell tower to look over the Duomo and went to the Piazza Michelangelo that looked over the entire city! It turned out to be a great day and we were excited to go to Cinque Terre the next day.
Friday turned out to be lovely on the coast, we spend all day in cute little towns along the water, taking lots of photos and enjoying exploring. It was definitely a super adorable area, but for me, it felt more like a tourist attraction than real towns. All we saw were tourists and the towns seemed so small that I wondered where they people who worked there even lived! Overall, a great visit thought!
The last few days we moved into an Airbnb house we found that was the perfect little place! We finished the weekend exploring the city and on Easter, we watched the exploding cart in front of the Duomo! It was absolutely amazing! It was like the 4th of July, but much closer and a lot of smoke! We went with my other friend from school that was studying in Florence and had a broken leg! She powered through and we grabbed coffee and caught up. Seeing all my friends from school made me realize what a great school I have back home and makes thinking about having to leave Seville a little bit easier!
Overall, it was an amazing couple of days exploring Italy. But by the end of our travels, we were all ready to get back to Seville. I missed my host mom, her amazing food and how well I know the city and how comfortable I feel walking around!
Our first day there, we met up with one of my absolute best friends from school who is studying in Florence. She showed us around town, brought us to the best gelato place and walked us along the water. As we walked along the river, we ran into two other girls from my school who just happen to be our two roommates for our senior year! So we had a little reunion on the river in Florence! After heading home for dinner, we decided to call it an early night because we were traveling to Cinque Terre early Thursday morning and needed to get our beauty sleep.
We woke around 5:30am and walked to the train station around 6:30am which, though early, was a beautiful walk and we got to see the sunrise over the Duomo. Our bus was to leave at 7, and we ran into another couple using the same company. But as time crept closer and closer, we began to panic a bit. Where was the bus? We began running around the train station and calling the company, who told us we were at the wrong meeting because they had changed it but hadn’t updated the website yet. After running around trying to find the new meeting place, we called the company again who told us we had missed the bus. The couple who was searching with us ended up going with another company because they didn’t have any more days in Florence. We rescheduled for the next day with the knowledge of the new meeting point.
Since we had gotten up so early, we went back to the apartment to surprise my friend and her mom, explained the situation, and took a nap before taking on the day. Since it was beautiful, we climbed the bell tower to look over the Duomo and went to the Piazza Michelangelo that looked over the entire city! It turned out to be a great day and we were excited to go to Cinque Terre the next day.
Friday turned out to be lovely on the coast, we spend all day in cute little towns along the water, taking lots of photos and enjoying exploring. It was definitely a super adorable area, but for me, it felt more like a tourist attraction than real towns. All we saw were tourists and the towns seemed so small that I wondered where they people who worked there even lived! Overall, a great visit thought!
The last few days we moved into an Airbnb house we found that was the perfect little place! We finished the weekend exploring the city and on Easter, we watched the exploding cart in front of the Duomo! It was absolutely amazing! It was like the 4th of July, but much closer and a lot of smoke! We went with my other friend from school that was studying in Florence and had a broken leg! She powered through and we grabbed coffee and caught up. Seeing all my friends from school made me realize what a great school I have back home and makes thinking about having to leave Seville a little bit easier!
Overall, it was an amazing couple of days exploring Italy. But by the end of our travels, we were all ready to get back to Seville. I missed my host mom, her amazing food and how well I know the city and how comfortable I feel walking around!