Firenze

During my last weekend in February, my best childhood friend Jamie and I traveled together to Florence to meet up with our third. The three of us have known each other since our kindergarten days, and we have kept a close knit friendship to this day. Back in our days, we used to refer to ourselves as JAR, standing for our names Jamie, Rachel and Abbe. It was great to reunite abroad, just the three best friends that anyone can have. Jamie and I flew to Pisa, where we took a bus that was about an hour and a half to the small town of Florence. There, Rachel greeted us in her stomping grounds. Our first stop as predicted was lunch at a restaurant known as Trattoria Za Za, where I indulged in a delicious Caprese salad. For the table, we split beans in a tomato sauce along with seasoned artichokes. We sat at this restaurant for nearly two hours, drinking their house rose and catching up on our past experiences abroad.  After lunch, we went to Rachel´s apartment, where we spent the remainder of the day being lazy and napping. A few hours later, she took us to dinner at a restaurant known as La Giostra. This restaurant is notable in Florence for being one of the best and most expensive restaurants. Here, I had one of the best meals of my life consuming Spaghetti Bolognese. After this delicious feast, we met up with some of Rachel´s friends and went to a club. It was fun to see the difference between night life in Florence and in Barcelona; except, I was rather shocked by how similar they were to one another.

The following day we went to an another amazing lunch at a restaurant called Osteria Santo Spirito. On a carb streak, I indulged in a delicious pasta with tomatoes and garlic. After our lunch, we explored the small town of Firenze. We walked along the Ponte Vecchio, which was truly quaint and scenic. We also walked through the leather markets, as Florence is particularly known for having great and affordable leather items. Amongst the abroad students, everyone raves about this man known as Massimo, who has the best leather. So, as we were guided, we stopped into his store and played dress up for quite a while. I did not end up purchasing a jacket, however I fell in love with one of his bags and had to get it. It was a copy of the Stella McCartney bags, and a copy that looked just as good as the real one. We also walked along the markets where I purchased a beautiful scarf, a cool leather bracelet for my boyfriend,  and other fun little pieces that remind of Florence. Additionally, Florence is particularly known for these yarn like bracelets that have flowers, butterflies, and other cute looks. Although copies are made all over the world, the true place to buy these bracelets are in Florence. So, I bought three for myself and one for my boyfriend so that we can have something to match one another. Rachel took us to other fun boutiques in Florence, and I must admit my credit card bill must have been pretty high due to the great shopping. After all, I was only there once how do I refrain?

For our last dinner in Florence, we had a group dinner with all of Rachel´s abroad friends. Nearly seven girls sat at the table indulging in everything delicious and Italian. That night we went to the club Space, which everyone also raves about for being the best. The following morning, we had to return back to the square to get on the bus back to the Pisa airport. However, I could not leave Italy without having gelato. We stopped at this gelato place next to Rachel´s apartment, where I had a huge cup of nutella gelato. This was well worth every bite. I in fact learned something this break: real gelato is never piled up high, that would be fake! I had such a great weekend relaxing, gossiping, eating and being able to spend time with my best friends in the world.