Ciao! I am Ali and I live in the heart of Florence.

Tile floors, Tuscan apartment, huge open windows on the top story of an ancient building, right off the Piazza della Signoria and a block from the Uffizi, beautiful huge dark brown wood furniture, stone walls, church bells ringing though our open windows, and I am never coming home. La dolce vita.

Before I go into my love affair with Florence, I have to tell you about the rest of my wonderful trip to Rome. Two nights ago was a friend's (Natalie) 21st birthday. Maddy, Natilie, Chandie, Lindsay and I went to dinner and shared the house wine over pasta and pizza. We asked the waitress for a good place to go out to, and she told us of a local pub she though we would like. And OH MY GOODNESS best night of our trip so far, and I think it will be hard to beat. First, we were the only Americans in the packed bar - awesome. Second, a live band was playing fun music - American pop music to be exact - and everyone knew the words, it was hilarious. Third, we had many drinks and danced and met many Italian guys (some creepy, some not, ha!). And last, we didn't leave until almost 3 am! It was so fun! Trying to talk to the Italians was the best part, because they would try hard to speak English, and we would speak in Spanish with somewhat of an Italian accent, and the result was great. The band ended up singing "Happy Birthday Valerie!" instead of Natalie for one example haha!

The next day we saw the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel, which I have seen before but had a MUCH better experience this time around because I have been studying art for a while now and had a much better appreciation for it all! And St. Peters with Michelangelo's Pieta was still monumental... so beautiful!!

So now Florence. We left this morning on a 4 hour bus ride here. We had one stop in which I got a real Italian cappuccino - so delicious, and strong - and when my group arrived we realized we would have to hike through rugged cobblestone roads for 10 minutes carrying two large suitcases, a duffle bag and a carry on... it was horrible, but all 9 girls in my building laughed and laughed the whole way there. Lets just say we had about 5 "rest" stops in 10 minutes lol. And a few Italians stopped and took pictures. We were the ultimate tourists. And then we arrived at Piazza della Signoria (yay!) took a left and saw two huge brown doors in between a food and wine shop and a store. We were home! And then we looked up. Oh no. You have got to be kidding me. Yes. Our apartment is 5 stories high. And yes we had to carry everything up the stairs. It took about 25 minutes for 9 girls ha! But 100 calories burned later, we arrived at a glass door with metal bars (cute) and unlocked it. ANOTHER FLIGHT OF STAIRS - not joking - but this time they lead to a large common room, which had three different doors, which were our three apartments! There are 3 girls in each, and we were happy to see we were all so close! We opened all of our windows and began unpacking. It is so cute and adorable and I will upload pictures for y'all tonight!! Right now we are going to go buy some food and towels, and walk around the beautiful city, so until I upload pictures, Arrivederci!!