It's not goodbye it's see you later

Two days is NOT enough time to spend in Florence. It's such a cute town and there are boutiques, leather stores, and gelato on every square! While in Florence you can definitely tell it's a more ritzy part of Italy. I think I've heard more people speak English than Italian here and there are street vendors who barade you around the extra touristy areas. The annoying vendors are only in certain areas though so if you power through and don't look at them it's not a big deal. 

I got excited because I love maps and they had map everything all over bags and wallets. But it was real leather and the smallest thing was 150€ so I cried on the inside and left 😔

This morning we got to see the David which was actually really cool. Sometimes I find it hard to appreciate art but the David just looked incredible. I will never understand how some people  have so much talent. The museum also had these statues called the 12 slaves, and they were unfinished sculptures by Michael Angelo. I really like those because it showed you a little of the thought process being his sculpting. Only 2 out of the 12 were finished but I think it's funny he got halfway on all 10 of the other sculptures. Rough drafts or long term projects?? 

After the museum we went to the Boboli garden. I never realized how important gardens were to castles, but the past two days the gardens have been really unique in their designs. Yesterday, the garden had a long rectangular slab of rock with the middle carved out and about 2 feet for still water. When I looked closer I realized the water was actually slowly flowing from one end to the other. Our teacher explained that the servants would put food on one end and it would float down and you would grab out the middle, how fun! We got to try it with a Tupperware container of Italian honey candy, it was delicious. I think I want one of those my garden when I too get a castle or estate. 

Medici castle where the Boboli garden was 

"Stop! Collaborate and listen!" 

~The inspiration behind the song ice ice baby ~

When we were released for our free day, Janae went to go enjoy historical old stuff while we went straight for the food. You don't realize the stuff you will miss from home until you don't have it anymore. Everywhere in Europe you have to pay for water. There are no water fountains and only sometimes can you drink from sinks or public areas. Rome was really awesome because it had those cool aqueducts that still worked, so you had unlimited cold water. In Florence they don't have that system so you have to buy a 2-3€ bottle of water if you want to stay hydrated. I still fill up at the hotel when I can but it pains me when I have to buy water. It pains me even worse when we get charged a sitting fee.. A fee to sit. For each person. What is that??? Who knew simply "existing" in Europe was so expensive! We only ran into this near the very touristy/ritzy area but I hope Paris doesn't have that! Your girl is going broke here! 

When you are so sleepy you drop your phone in your pasta and you aren't even mad about it (pictured above: Liba)

We walked around for a while and then went back to take a nap before dinner. Of course our one hour nap turned into two and a half hour nap and we ended up leaving around 8. Everyone is freaking out because for our flight to Paris tomorrow you only get ONE carry on, meaning either purse or backpack but not both, and the suitcase must be under 44 lbs. There are also limits on the carry on size so anyone who brought duffle bags is out of luck. We tried to eat quick so we could get back and re situate our bags, but then we got sad about leaving Italy so we walked around, shopped, and got gelato instead of heading home. I'm sure we'll figure it out tomorrow. 😊 

Here they have MOUNTAINS of gelato. It's fantastic. 

Super cool street art 

Shops over the river. On the other side of the shops there was a band playing music all night and people were surrounding them dancing and having a good time. I will miss Florence. 

Tomorrow night I'll be in Paris! ✈️

Bona nota! 

~emily