San Valentin in Firenze

It was Valentine's Weekend, and after being surprised by roses on our doors from all the boys, 9 girls and I went to one of the most romantic cities in Europe to spend V-day weekend with just us gals.

We arrived at the Hotel Sampaoli late Friday night. The multicolored walls, tall ceilings and the stairs that needed to be climbed to get to the lobby made the building a little awkward, but Catie, Whitney and I got 3 beds in a 4-bed ensuite room when we paid for a 6-bed dorm. The weekend was off to a good start.

We walked around Florence until we found a gelateria where I got a scoop of Niccola Gelato with Nuttel Swirls...I was on Hazelnut overload. We got up the next morning, Valentine's Day, and went straight to the Academia to wait in line to see the David. I remember vaguely seeing the statue when I was 13 traveling Florence with my mom, but had forgotten how amazing the detail was. Michaelangelo carved every vein in his arm, and the expression is so realistic. We continued looking at the other sculptures and paintings in the museum, and noticed how different the perception of beauty was in the time of these artists, the women looked so real.

We continued to the center of Florence where we came upon the Duomo. The architecture and marble work is fascinating on the outside. Compared to other churches we have visited, this one was magnificent on the outside and very plain on the inside, where others have very ornate interiors. We waited in line to spiral our way through the walls of the dome and make it to the top with an amazing view of the entire city. We could not have asked for more perfect weather and we were excited to be able to take off our jackets and enjoy the sun. We took lots of pictures in front of the city backdrop and were psyched that we would have some pictures of us without our coats on.

We walked through the street markets. I bought a few souvenirs for some people back home and a Carnevale mask to wear to Bellinzona Rabadan Carnevale. We dropped our stuff back at the hotel, changed quickly and crossed the Ponte Vecchio to the Piazza Piata for our Valentine's wine tasting. We tasted six wines, sampled cheeses, meats and bruscetta. “Edwardo” taught us what to look for in good wines and taught us a bit about the varieties in Tuscany. I bought a bottle of red wine to bring home.

We stopped to ride the carousel on the way home. Brittany, Katie and I went to the “Fish Bar” but the scene wasn't very good on Valentine's so we had a drink and went back to the hostel. The next morning Catie, Whitney and I got up early to walk to the San Miniato al Monte Church atop a hill on the outskirts of Florence. We got lost and took a right instead of a left and routed ourselves through the neighborhoods. We made it to the church 15 minutes before the service, had the chance to look around the unique split level design, and sat down for mass. The service was entirely in Italian so we only stayed 20 minutes before we left to take pictures and walk to the Piazza Michaelangelo to meet with the rest of our group.

We arrived early and were surprised to run into a crowd of Asian tourists who were on some sort of wedding tour. There were at least 10 brides getting married at the same time, taking cheesy pictures in front of the Duomo views, and throwing confetti on each other. We people watched for a while, met up with our group and grabbed spaghetti at a restaurant with a great overlook of the whole city.

We walked back through the city and caught a 4'oclock train back to Lugano!