It has currently been five days since I left my lovely little city of Firenze after my semester of studying abroad. As you may have noticed, I am not home yet, and yes, that's on purpose. I have the wonderful opportunity to do some traveling before I head back to the States. However, it has only been a few days and I do already miss Florence, and I am greatly looking forward to going home-home as well.
Last week was full of emotion-positive and negative. I had my final exams, one of which was simply turning in a photography project. All things considered they were quite easy compared to normal semesters of college, so I was thankful for that, because, let's be honest, we all had our minds on other things throughout the week so the focus on "school" was almost nonexistent for me. Because it was my last week I also had the task and pleasure of trying to get around to see things I hadn't seen yet, and re-see things that I ad enjoyed so much. Many of the places I went back to were for the food, naturally.
Last Tuesday I was lucky enough to see one of my old Wisconsin housemates, Kim, as she was visiting from Ireland! After exploring the Duomo a bit I brought her to il Mercato Centrale, where you can get the best pasta in the entire world. Even though we obviously had pasta then, I went back again on Friday to get some more of a different flavor. I already miss it. You may be thinking, "It's ravioli, how much better can it really get?" But trust me... Until you've had this ravioli from the wonderful, friendly people at the Pasta Fresca booth, you will just never know.
(To the left is me eating my last ravioli from the central market. I had their spinach and ricotta ravioli with pesto Genovese.)
People have often asked me what my favorite place in the city is, and as weird as it sounds, the central market, il Mercato Centrale, has to be at the top of my list. Given that it's a market for fresh, local foods and other products, it doesn't always qualify as one of those "must see in Florence" places, but it's cheap, fresh and delicious food, the people are friendly, and it was such a good experience to get to know the culture a little better.
Wednesday morning Caimyn was sweet enough to get up way too early to come out and take some pictures of me in a few different spots in the city. I wanted to get up early so we could avoid the crowds of tourists, who I am definitely not going to miss at all. Living in the city rather than just visiting it for a couple days really sets off a slightly different vibe. Florence is quite touristy because of all the wonderful art and history it has to offer, but it's also quite small, relatively speaking, and when you get to know it without all the people piled up taking pictures with selfie sticks, I find it to be even more precious. It's times like this, early in the morning or literally in the middle of the night-like 4am not like 1-that I could take in how gorgeous the city is.
Once in a while as I walked to class I would pass the Duomo and think to myself, "Wow, you are just so incredible, I can't believe I walk past you every day." It's tough sometimes when you become accustomed to something, like I became accustomed to walking past Santa Maria della Fiore, to remember to appreciate how wonderful it is. I don't think I will ever not be in awe of this building, even if I do like the outside more than the inside.
(Another picture from my early morning photo shoot, this one next to Ponte Vecchio, which, like the rest of the city, is so rarely quiet)
Last Wednesday night I went back to one of my favorite restaurants, Trattoria da Benvenuto, which just so happened to be right next door to where I lived all semester, on Via dei Neri. There I (again) ordered a creamed pasta with truffle, as well as roasted potatoes, and everything was fantastic, of course. I went with four of my roommates, as the fifth one was sadly unable to come, and when we were done we all went down to Gelateria dei Neri for gelato, just like we did the first night we arrived in Florence. It was one of my housemate, Bri's last night in Florence, which was very sad but we all had a great time at dinner and getting gelato.
On Thursday night I was able to go out and enjoy one last aperitivo with Caimyn and her Florence housemate, Maddy, on the south side of the river at a place called Pop Cafe, and Friday was my last full day and night in the city. That evening I went with one of my housemates, Olivia, to climb up to the top of Palazzo Vecchio, which has always been special to me given how close we lived to it. We had a nice little hike up all the stairs and although the view of the other four sides was a struggle because of the walls surrounding the top of the tower, we had a great new view of the Duomo. We also had good timing because there weren't many other people with us which is always nice.
(Olivia and I at the top of Palazzo Vecchio)
Because this was a new perspective on the city, we were also thrilled to find out that we could see right down our street, Via dei Neri from the top! Neither of us had been up high enough from the right location to be able to see our street, so we were both extremely excited and feeling quite sentimental about having to leave the next day.
(A VIEW OF MY STREET FROM THE TOP OF PALAZZO VECCHIO!)
We talked a little about how weird it was that if we ever have the chance to come back to Florence, that we wouldn't have any direct connection to our street anymore because we won't be living there. Obviously it would still mean a lot to us because of this time in Florence, but it is still an odd thought. That night the two roommates I had left, Olivia and Shayna, and another friend, Colleen, all went over to Gusta Pizza one more time, which was delicious, as always, and that evening Olivia and Shayna and I hit Gelateria dei Neri one last time.
Within last week I packed up all my stuff, repacked it, and left Firenze.
To expand on that last sentence a little bit, I have had lots of plans changing recently. Not only did I have to wrap up my time in Florence, but I was supposed to have my large suitcase shipped to Dublin to meet me there when I was done traveling through Europe, as well as prepare myself to do that traveling. The last two parts unfortunately did not happen, or at least not according to plan. There were a number of complications with getting my bag shipped so it has since stayed with me, all 62 pounds. That's what I get for buying so much stuff. I still cannot say I regret any of it but then again, I am not home yet. So given that I was going to ship my bag and that changed, I had to repack my bags more intelligently on Friday night before I left.
When I left Florence I spent that first night in Milan, but was feeling incredibly stressed out by a number of things regarding my travel plans, and decided to change them a bit too. Basically instead of coming home June 2, I will be coming home May 25, cutting my travels short about a week and a half. Though it is a little sad to be eliminating some places from my itinerary, I am excited to get home, and I will hopefully have the chance to visit them all some day.
Since leaving Milan I spent about four days in Slovenia, staying in their capital city of Ljubljana (lyoo-BLYAH-nah) as well as visiting Lake Bled, and I am currently in Vienna, Austria, headed to Salzburg, Austria tomorrow. I still feel like as if I'm in a sort of limbo because it feels like the semester went by in a blur. It's crazy to think I'm done in Florence and going home soon, but I am so thankful for having been able to spend all this time in Florence and traveling, and I am thankful to be going home soon. I have lots of pictures to come from my last few adventures outside of Italy, so if you're interested keep an eye out for them! I also try to keep the map on my home page updated so you can tell where I am from that too.
Love, abbie