Firenze, Italia!

At 2am on Thursday morning, 17 people piled into four cars and drove 4 hours to Frankfurt, Germany. From there, was an 1 1/2 hour plane ride to Pisa, a 1 hour train trip to Florence, and a 30 minute bus ride to the youth hostel. This may not sound like fun, but I have to say that the travel time was one of the best parts of the trip. There are 100 students at Bodenseehof and sometimes it is hard to find opportunities to get to know everyone. The travel time was a perfect excuse to ask eachother some deep questions and to build deeper relationships. I find that from the moment I am introduced to a person, I tend to categorize who they are and whether or not I believe I will be friends with them. Yet, as I get older, I realize that my first judgments are often completely off. I was suprised to find qualities (both good and bad) in the 17 people on the trip that I had not originally noticed.

So what did we do in Florence? Well after a good night's sleep at our hostel, our first stop was Michaelanglo's David...the statue was way bigger than I had expected. There were also a lot of other interesting pieces of art in the museum. Unfortunately I have no pictures because we were not allowed to take photos. Next stop was the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (also referred to as the Duomo), which, besides the river, is probably Florence's most useful landmark.

Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore

Then we split up into smaller groups. My group (which was my friend Mandee, my roomie Jessica, brothers Zach and Jake McBride from Colorado and myself) decided to put the map away and wander around the city. It was really nice to spend the day getting to know the streets of Florence. Also, while wandering, we happened to start discussing the movie Life is Beautiful which is an Italian film starring Roberto Begnini. I jokingly mentioned that it would be awesome if we saw him in Florence. Two minutes later, this is what we find:

Roberto Benigni!!! He was a lot shorter than we thought he'd be.

Day two in Florence was spent exploring the outdoor markets and then trekking up into the Tuscan hills. We had no idea where we were going 90% of the time and it was awesome.

The river...actually pretty dirty but anything looks good at sunset.

To tell the truth, the Italy (Venice, Florence, and the surrounding countryside) that I have seen is not the beautiful romantic place that I had imagined it would be. Even the countryside seemed dirty and...well a little sketchy. Thank goodness for big strong protective guys. Perhaps I just haven't hit the right spots. Even so, while the destination itself might not be the most memorable out of all those that I have been blessed to visit, the trip was definitely a success. I could have spent the whole time in the Florence airport and still enjoyed myself because the people on my trip were so amazing. A lot of times, it's not about where you go or what you do, but who you are with. This can be good or bad, and I am happy to say that for this trip all 17 of us got along and thoroughly enjoyed spending time with one another.....Thanks also to my parents who gave me enough common and street sense to be able to read a map, a train schedule, a bus schedule, ask the right questions, and not walk down any dark alleys. The experience you have passed off to me was very useful and in high demand on this trip. Also thanks to Roberto Begnini for teaching me almost all of the Italian that I know. Believe it or not, some of it actually came in handy. Buon giorno principessa! La vita e bella, T