Florence

Ciao,

So So glad I got the chance to return to Mia Firenze. it was just like how I left it. I was just so happy to now share it with two of my best friends from back home. I wanted so badly to share my feelings toward this city with everyone back home the first time I was here. And I finally got the chance. I was just so happy to make that turn aroundthe corner and show them the grandeur of the Duomo. to share that with them was one of the best feelings of the trip thus far. I hope  to show many more in my lifetime hopefully.

Well most notably of the 5 nights(!) we spent here was that we ate like kings. No where else will we 5 months of solid research on restaurants like we did here. I took them to almost every favorite panini, gelato, pizza, pasta, and kebab place in the city. We had gelato 1-2 times a day. Haha. We saw David, all the major churches, graves of michaelangelo, Galileo and Machiavelli, the boboli gardens begin pitti palace, sunsets from piazzale michaelangelo, and climbed to the top of the duomo to see the best 360 view of Florence.

We even took a lil adventure to a tiny city up in the hills north of the city. Just a lil lower of the more popular city Fiesole, lies one called Settignano. Home of the Enoteca la Sosta del Rossellino. I was here my second day of Florence a year ago. then I lead Aaron and Teddy to it's delisciousness. The chef is pretty highly revered. He's even the one who takes ur order and pours u wine; it's dencently small. The wine was a 5 yr old Chianti from the Tuscany region and it was definitely up there as one of the best of my life. But the main attraction was the gnocci with a parmesian and pepper cream sauce. They melted in your mouth. Delicious. The desert was a chocolate tort with a Ginger, orange, chocolate sauce. Probably best desert in Italy so far. So we ventured back home after enjoying the view of Florence from these hills while smoking some cigars we picked up earlier.

We definitely got our Italian fashion fix. We made sure to peruse the designer shops. Teddy even bought shoes to replace his 6 yr old clunkers he's been using. Very fashionable. I got myself a nice fashonabke baseball cap as well as I've needed a hat for all the sunny weather were havin. It's been 90's every day.

All this warm weather called for some beach time. We took a day trip to Cinque Terre, five coastal cities connected with hiking trails in the coastal hills. It was very hot but very beautiful. We even climbed down some smaller paths and went swimming off some rocks into the ocean and explored some minor water caves. Actually felt like a vacation. :-P

Nightlife has been pretty chill just because of how much sightseeing and walking we do during the day. We did get a chance to go to two clubs, Twice and Central Park. The latter was the huge outdoor club which is quite a sight. My reputation still precedes me as well as the doorman remembered me and got us to skip the whole line haha. Crazy. Teddy and Aaron were impressed ;-). The clubs would be so much more fun if every group of girls didnt huddle to eachother and took any male trying to dance with any of them as a hostile kidnapping. But we still had fun, Minus some confusion from Aaron somehow wandering out of the club and him payin cover twice. But good night. Dirt cheap Disarono before going out is always a beautiful thing.

So it was a great homecoming. I love this city. It will forever be mine. And I liked the fact I still never needed a map. Can't waitto return and I think I showed a damn good time to my due amici (italian language came back pretty quickly as well).

On to Venice, the floating city. And with that, back to new cities for me. Were on a (maybe too nice/expensive) train ride there and I'll send my love from Venezia when I arrive.

Ps - I'm starting to learn that when backpacking, clean clothes are really just a suggestion. :-P

Tutti Mia Amore,
Stefano Dibolami