Sunday May 21st – Buona Giornata Florence!

Finally getting onto solid ground was a nice feeling and the hustle and bustle of the airport was a nice, welcoming sight. Once our group was all through customs, the real fun began – getting all 12 of us to our hotel.

Now, I thought I drove like a bat out of hell, but oh no, Italian taxi drivers totally beat me out in that aspect. After getting 4 taxis to take us and all of our luggage, it was like getting a fast paced tour of the whole city. I was taking in all that I could as my taxi zoomed past the streets and buildings as mopeds and bicycles went by.

The streets and sidewalk were so narrow and the buildings were all close together – it was like everything wanted to be in your personal space. Now, I wasn’t expecting the hotel to be on the side of the street like they were in the states, but the hotel we went to was a bit hidden from eye sight.

Going down the cobble stone streets, we hiked for a bit until we came to our cozy little hotel. Now, being an American I felt privileged a bit with the use of elevators especially in certain buildings like hotels, but in Florence, and in this particular hotel – there was no elevator.

So, lugging our stuff up three flights of stairs to get to the hotel itself was a fun ole time and the fun kept going  when we had to continue up more stairs to get to our room.

Huffing and puffing after finally getting to the door, it was cozy. The room itself had a nice unique charm to it. With cute little touches in the decor, but my favorite thing about the room was the huge windows that reached from mid-wall to the ceiling.

Opening the window I was surprised to see that there wasn’t a screen and it was straight fresh air and sunlight. There weren’t really any bugs to get into the room, so it was a nice little detail that I wasn’t prepared for. After relaxing for a bit and getting to know Emily’s and I’s roommate for the night – we ventured out into the bustling streets of Florence.

Now, walking through the streets were a bit hazardous at first with cars and bikes and mopeds going up and down the street and with everyone walking in the streets and well, trying to walk on the sidewalks – it was an adventure in itself.

Here’s a word to the wise when you’re walking in the streets of Florence, or any busy city for that matter – watch out for everything around you, or just have a friend push you out of the way when you’re about to get hit by a car. Shout out to Emily for saving my life, I owe you girl!

Finally sitting down for dinner that night was very much welcomed because my feet were aching something fierce! Now, I know it might be cliche, but I got pizza for my first dinner in Italy. A margherita pizza to be exact and some wine of course because I have to blend in with the locals and all.

I almost said no to the wine, but the waiter looked at me like a committed a crime, so I quickly changed my mind and enjoyed about 2 glasses of white wine with my amazingly fresh pizza.

Another tip, Italians like to drink wine at almost every meal and they’ll totally serve you the right wine with whatever dish you get and it’ll taste just incredible. With a full belly and a nice amount of wine in my system, it’s easy to say that I slept soundly that first night in Florence.

 

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Saturday May 20th – Departure Day

I always heard the phrase, “Traveling wears you out” and I never really believed that until this day. I mean, I wasn’t worn out at the start of our journey, but afterwards…oh yeah.

Meeting at Saint Louis airport was all fine and dandy because it’s a familiar place that I’ve been to many times before and meeting the rest of our group there was nice. You know, doing the whole small talk and stuff until the professor got there and all.

The first flight to Georgia was fine, it wasn’t that long and it was nice and smooth. Of course, I was never one for flights in general because of my fear of heights and the whole turbulence while in the air always freaking me the fuck out, but how else was I going to get to Italy?

The things that killed me was the 9 hour flight to Amsterdam. That was probably the longest flight I’ve ever been on in my life. They had little screens in each seat so we could watch movies, shows and listen to music, so that was nice. They fed us too. Dinner and Breakfast to be specific and I think that’s what made me sick in all honesty. I mean, running through multiple airports and custom desks to get to our flight on time with a heavy ass carry-on probably didn’t help either and only added to my growing sickness.

So, I basically felt like total shit for most of my traveling day which is what we did all that day and let me tell you – it wasn’t fun. The one thing that really lifted me up was the views I had from the plane windows, it was so beautiful. Mountains and rolling rills down below me was a wonderful sight to see and seeing the cities from up above before you actually get down onto the ground was wonderful.

So, yeah, pro tip for when you’re traveling long distances – bring some pills to help with nausea and wear comfy clothes because you’ll be sitting for a while buddy.

Of course, I had Emily there to talk with and make laugh for those long hours being seated with jack shit to do so that was a little sunshine to my cloudy mood that day.

Emily and I before leaving Saint Louis

 

It all started when…

My friend Emily told me about this trip opportunity. Knowing her for 10 years helped too of course! Being in the same college, but different with two vastly different majors – I wasn’t aware of something like this until she told me and I’ve always wanted to travel outside of the country especially to Italy.

Wow, maybe I should introduce myself? Probably, wow, rude right? Well, I’m Nicolle, but everyone calls me Niki.