The Weekend

This weekend was spent mostly doing nothing. Like in Illinois, it rained off and on so the weather was not exactly conducive to a lot of exploring. Saturday Jessi, Brianne (room mates) went to Pisa with a few other students from LdM/ISU. Allison, Catherine and I stayed at the apartment for a little while. We woke up late, went to the market then all sat together and ate lunch. That is basically all that we did on Saturday…except, Catherine took a nap in my bed while I video chatted with family. Oh, and I did laundry so the day wasn’t completely a bust. Today on the other hand, I woke up at 11 with the intention of going out and walking around Florence a bit. Finding out what buildings my classes were and everything. My roommates and I were even going to have a little photo shoot and take some real touristy photos. By the time everyone was dress up and ready to go, it was 3pm and was pretty cloudy. We got downstairs and around the corner before it stated to sprinkle so we stopped by the apartment to pick up umbrellas and raincoats. Then we headed in the other direction to find where some of our other classes were. By the time we got there, 4 minutes later, it had started to rain pretty hard. Catherine and I decided to come back to the apartment until the rain died down but Brianne and Jessi had some stuff to get at the market. Cat and I worked on some stuff then decided to go and get a bite to eat. This was at about 5:30 and most places don’t serve dinner yet, so we decided to walk around for a little bit. We explored, took a picture by one of the class buildings, and walked through some of the markets. While walking through the markets, we saw lots of bootleggers, these are the people who sell fake product to Tourists, not only can the venders get in big trouble but also the people who buy the counterfeit items can be heavily fined. We also go pulled aside by one of the venders named Franco. He talked to us about his shop and taught us some Italian (some of which I forgot already) then he gave us a business card and told us to stop by if we had any questions or anything. He seemed nice but it was also a little strange. Traveling with Catherine, you get all sorts of strange things that happen, I keep telling her that part of why people creep on her so bad is because she doesn’t ignore them like most people, she stops and talks to them. I pretty much decided today that I couldn’t go anywhere with her unless she puts a bag on her head or something. After walking through the markets, we walked through a couple of shops and found the general area where my Italian class is. Then we headed back to the apartment, stopping by some shops on the way. We went back to the pizza place but they didn’t have any fresh pizza out yet so we decided to go down the street to a Kebob. Kebob is a pretty cheap restaurant that sells gyros. Catherine and I both got a sandwich with a couple of fries and they were both delicious and filling. Best part about them was that it only cost 3.50 so the sandwich didn’t even break my budget. I ate the whole thing and will probably frequent there on days when I need to grab a quick cheap bite to eat on the way to class. All in all, what started out to be a rainy lazy sort of weekend ended up not actually being so bad. I still have much to see but I also have plenty of time to see it.
Enjoy the pictures, click here to see the web album.