ciao firenze e milano!

how to even start?

florence is the most beautiful place i've ever seen. ever. i am in love. i arrived last friday to stay with bea and her roommates for the weekend in their apartment right in the middle of the city and i instantly knew i never wanted to leave. if i could marry a city, it would be florence.

we started off my crash-course in italy by walking all over...ALL OVER. i really can only tell friday's story in pictures.

[the duomo! walked around it]

[that's david! look how tall he is!!!!]

[bea and i!]

[focaccia pizza...my first taste of real italian food!]

[on top of a giant hill overlooking all of florence...so beautiful]

[gelato on top of the hill!]

we finished our day with a real italian dinner at ciro & sons near the apartment with two of bea's roommates, lauren and jessica. it was so delicious, but the one bite i had of bea's was the BEST. homemade ravioli with pear and cheese...MMM. then we got gelato and walked down by the uffizi, along the river, and watched a musician play cat stevens and james taylor covers on the street.

on saturday lauren, bea and i woke up early to head to milan! we were so excited to shop and eat the day away. the three hour train ride was super easy until i turned my head suddenly and then couldn't turn it back! my whole neck had cramped up really quickly and soon i could feel my shoulder tensing. throughout the day it was getting worse, but i kept hoping it would loosen up soon.

we exited the metro station and were instantly in awe of milano! milan's duomo is so different than florence's but just as beautiful! definitely more gothic than what i was expecting.

we walked through the galleria vittorio emanuele ii, the most BEAUTIFUL mall i've ever seen. absolutely stunning and so beyond expensive to shop in. prada, louis vuitton, and other designer shops were SCREAMING my name, but i resisted.

[that is a MALL!]

past the mall was a square dedicated to leonardo divinci. the last supper hangs in one of milan's museums, but you have to book tickets to see it ahead of time and it was a bit of a distance away, so next time i make it to milan i will have to stop by.

[leo and i]

after popping in and out of some high-street shops (zara, mango, the usuals), i was starting to feel worse. my shoulder muscle was tensing and my head was starting to tilt involuntarily. so uncomfortable! we sought refuge in a little italian family restaurant. DELICIOUS.

the pain was becoming unbearable so i split from the girls for an hour to find a spa to get my shoulders massaged. i found one pretty quickly and somehow managed to explain to two people who don't speak a word of english that this was an emergency and i couldn't move my head! thirty minutes and seventy euro later, i wasn't feeling any better. eesh. i met back up with bea and lauren for a while and we walked around the rectangle of gold, a district bordered by four streets containing every designer shop you could imagine. unbelievable.

it was time to catch our train back to firenze. by this time, my jaw, arm, and ribs were starting to hurt. i couldn't stand up straight. i felt so bad that i was holding everyone up! i wanted to enjoy milan so much but all i could think about was the fact that i couldn't move. thank GOD bea's mom is a masseuse and that my parents are pretty smart as well, because with the combined effort i was able to feel a bit better after some pain meds, an incredible homemade dinner cooked by mom bea, some wine, hot chocolate, a hot towel and the notebook. and i woke up feeling much better!

sunday we slept in but still had a few hours to kill until i needed to catch the bus to the airport in pisa, so bea and i decided to get lost in the city! we got biscotti and cappuccinos and walked past santa croce to a little pizza place bea knew of. BEST PIZZA EVER. so good. at this point i was ready to settle down and never leave. after pizza we walked some more and took some pictures around the city.

[PIZZA]

[my last cappuccino of the trip :( ]

that is, until it started to pour! we ran into shop after shop to dry off, sipped on more cappuccinos, and then ended up back at the apartment completely drenched! i lucked out to sunny skies on friday so i couldn't complain.

a bus ride, a plane, a train, and another bus ride later, i was home! i loved italia so so so much. i am currently trying to devise a plan to go back to florence at some point because i already miss the amazing food, buildings, river, and good company! it sure made me excited for rome the next weekend...

grazie to bea for such a great three days! loved every second of it.