duomo arrigato mr roboto

Alright so I finally got to Florence. The plane ride was about 2 hours long, I sat next to two young girls about age 8 and 9, who made me feel silly because they spoke better English than I spoke Spanish. I ended up talking to them the entire time because one of them was very scared of flying. The girl asked for my phone number so she could call me on my birthday, and now im not normally into 9 year olds but I made an exception and humored her and said id be waiting for her call on my birthday. I landed in Florence and it felt like it was 100 degrees, and it literally was 100 degrees. Alex met me at the bus station and we started our journey to the hostel. The hostel itself is brand new, no more than 3 months old but it felt more like a hotel than a hostel. We checked in and looked around. Everything was extremely clean, they had an indoor pool as well as a SICK rooftop terrace with 3 levels. We checked into our room and were sharing it with 2 girls from Calgary who we befriended. It turned out they were headed to Nice the same day on the same train as us. That night Alex and I went out to dinner with them and for the first time in 6 weeks I felt like I could actually eat. Everything on the menu looked amazing; Pasta, Pizza, Ravioli, Lasagna. I finally got a satisfying meal, I love Spain and all but god damn if I see another bocadillo im going to jump off a bridge. Everything in Spain was so bland, with the exception of Paella, its like they don’t really eat there. I had some friends form MSU that were studying in Rome visiting in Florence the same weekend as us so I gave them a call and we decided to meet up in town. That night was the start of Florence’s most famous festival, don’t ask me what the name is, but the festival ends with a brutal soccer game of the best youths in Florence which is basically just an organized fight. That night was the Nott’Arno, which means white night. All of the vendors and crafts shops along the river keep their lights on till 3am to light the streets for the festival. It was just a giant party in the street with 100’s and 100’s of people gathered to listen to music, drink, and be merry. We spent most of our time on the Pont D’Vecchio, which is the only bridge left from WW2 as all the other ones had been bombed out by the Germans. After hanging around the bridge, Alex and the girls and I headed over to the Duomo, which in my opinion was the coolest monument that ive seen so far in Europe, except maybe the Eiffel tower. The Duomo was surreal, it looked like a painting. I wish I would have gotten an opportunity to go inside but it was closed on Sundays so I was unable to, but seeing it from the outside was a cool enough experience for me none the less. That next morning we woke up and grabbed lunch, it was literally 100 degrees out and humid once again, so hot to the point where it wasn’t even worth it to go outside. We hung around the hostel for a while, taking in the breathtaking views from the rooftop terrace and did some swimming. After dinner we headed to the terrace to watch the Italy vs Spain game, and my boys Espana took the win to beat those greasy Italians. After having many beers on the terrace and a mojito, which I must say was the second best one ive ever had, only next to the Coconuts club in Rimini last summer, we headed out to find a bar or club that was open late night on Sunday. We were unsuccessful in finding a bar, but we did have a good time wandering lost around Florence drinking our beers. The next morning our train was at 7am so we got about 3 hours of sleep and woke up hating ourselves. The train ride was long and slow. The only train available was an intercity train so had to stop at every city on the way to Nice. We had to change trains in Genoa which was cool because we got to walk around for a little bit and Genoa was cool to be in, and I got some gelato because there was no way I was leaving Italy without getting at least one real Italian gelato. We hoped on the train to Nice which was basically a sweat box on wheels. The ride was incredible. The entire journey was along the Mediterranean sea and the views were awe inspiring. The shear variance of landscapes is incredible. From the rolling hills of Tuscany, to the mountainous coast of the south of France, we couldn’t get any sleepy because we were too busy with our eyes glued to the window. Finally after getting there, which seemed like eternity because it really was like an 11 hour train ride, we headed to our hotel. Im sure you all read my experience in Paris, where I swore NEVER to return to this god forsaken country again, but so far I am LOVING Nice, I will delve into this a little