Firenze continued...

Ciao! I forgot to blog about the rest of our Florence excursion. Saturday was a pretty eventful day. We had a little trip to San Miniato al Monte and got to see a beautiful panoramic view of the city. 

The whole API crew.

Me, Leslie, Chelsey, JP, Brittany, Dana, Molly, and Alex

Malissa, Alycia, Caroline, Me, Chelsey, and Leslie

The David (replica)

Then came the brainwashing. Everyone was super pumped because as the world knows, Jersey Shore is currently being filmed in Florence. I had no desire at all to find these people but that soon changed. My friend Alycia had seen the cast the night before and she took us by their pizzeria. I am a little ashamed that I signed my life away, but how cool would that be if I was on TV! It was very intense. The wavier had about 12 pages and I read them all very carefully, of course :). 

Before we were allowed to enter we received a little lecture by someone who didn't have as much power and prestige as he thought he did. Needless to say, he was quite annoying and I could have done without. There were so many rules that went into filming it was ridiculous. There were the obvious ones like not looking into the camera and not acting like the cast was "famous", but then we weren't allowed to talk about anything TV related once we sat down. This part made me very nervous because as we all know I don't say the smartest things sometimes - and I always seem to have the worst timing. I was freaking myself out a little bit. I kept thinking I was going to say or do something really intelligent and then I would be on the show in the background or something and be made fun of by The Soup later on. We were greeted by Vinny and Pauly D once we made it inside. Vinny recommended a great pizza, Sammi cut our pizza and called our names, and Pauly D told me where to go out after I asked where the good places where. It was pretty cool.

I'm a loser and pathetic, I know.

The Jersey Shore cast lives behind the carousel. 

Saturday night we had a cooking class. It was a little hectic because there were so many people. It was fun though and the food was really good. I'm no expert but I think I can recreate some of the food we prepared. 

captions and such coming soon...

Firenze!

We went to Florence this past weekend for one of our excursions included in the API program. I absolutely love it there! Florence is gorgeous and I highly recommend going. There is so much to see and do there. We didn't even get to see all the museums and such but we did get to go to the famous leather market... That took up most of our time and I am very happy with my purchase (a teeny tiny strap of leather, promise).

API provided us with transportation to and from Florence which was really great - definitely stress free. The majority of the group didn't enjoy that too much because they went to the Tiesto concert the night before (Tiesto is some really famous techno/rave DJ). I really like that API always organizes the walking tours for us because they are a great way to learn about the city  (usually I don't listen too intently or I try to and am excited I'm learning all this new information but then 30 minutes later I forget it). The first thing we got to marvel over was the Duomo which honestly looks fake. It is absolutely breathtaking. It reminded me of Despicable Me and the pyramid. I just wanted to take a needle, poke and it watch it deflate. I could of stared at it all day if I had the chance. We didn't go inside the actual church and our guide told us that the outside is the part to see. I didn't take too many pictures from the tour because I was just enjoying the views (and sorry for the lack of artsy-ness - there just isn't enough time!)

So beautiful

 Inside the Church of Orsanmichele. I may or may not have gotten in trouble for taking this picture. Warning signs should be in Italian and English. 

One of the leather markets. Smells sooooo good

Stumbled upon this slice of beauty :)

 Here are a bunch of statues. There were very beautiful but maybe a little too detailed :)

After the tour, we did a little shopping. It was a nice and relaxing afternoon. We came across Zara and it is just so hard to go in there. Then we all got dressed up and went to one of the restaurants that our program managers called ZaZa's. It was one of the best dinners I've ever had and definitely was the best dinner in Italy. They actually had fettucine alfredo. I have yet to see chicken parmigiana. 

 Malissa, Blondie, Leslie, Alycia, Chelsea, Caroline, Chelsey, Daniel and Ben

Chels had a bunch of friends studying in Firenze so we met up with them! He is one of them - that is why I explained :)

Whoop! Aggies really dominate this session. 

Friday was a really fun night. Chels and I topped it off with late night gelato. Leslie said she knew I was grubbing on gelato when she heard someone order mint and chocolate from across the room (mint/chocolate shout out to Stephers - you would fall in love it's so amazing). Well, I'll write about our Jersey Shore filled Saturday and Sunday in the next post!

Love you and miss you!