florence, part 2

i really loved florence! i think we ate the best food of our entire trip there. you can see in all the photos of food above (pear pizza, spaghetti alla carbonara, pizza margherita) that the placemats are the same because we kept going back to the same restaurant. i'd say that was mostly because they had amazing food, but i also have to mention the free wi-fi. let's just say free wi-fi was a major selling point for us in europe. my favorite thing to order in italy was the spaghetti alla carbonara. if you've never had it, it's a pasta dish with this sauce made of egg and cream with cheese, pepper, and bacon or pancetta. it's so delicious. i'm probably going to have to make some soon (with this recipe) to fulfill all my italian cravings. our other favorite thing to eat in italy was bread dipped in a mixture of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and parmesan cheese. we would practically beg the waiter for oil and vinegar as soon as we sat down and we would eat as many bread baskets as they would give us. yum.

florence's duomo (cathedral) is very famous and so amazing to see in person. as part of our study abroad coursework, everyone had to choose a work of art or architecture and do a presentation about it on-site. i chose the duomo in florence and i learned so much. it's a really incredible structure, far ahead of its time in terms of the construction and engineering. 577 years later, it is still the largest masonry dome in the world. if you're interested in italy or the renaissance or architecture, i really recommend this book that i read about the duomo; it was fascinating. later, my friend brooke and i climbed the 463 narrow, uneven, cramped, dark stairs to the top. it was so worth it, though! the view was unreal.

another fun thing about florence was the marketplace. there is this market that opens up near the duomo on certain days and people sell all kinds of everything, like neckties, shoes, handbags, books, and lots more. i bought plenty of souvenirs for my family (and myself), including some of the beautiful leather wares this market is famous for. i got pretty good at haggling, too, if i do say so myself. if you're ever in florence, don't miss the market there! 

our last day in florence was a sunday. we went to church in a tiny LDS branch, and the missionaries translated the meeting into english for us again. our group practically doubled the size of the congregation, so they were very excited to have us there! after church, a couple of my friends and i decided to take a train to pisa. it was only about an hour train ride and we really wanted to see the leaning tower, so we just decided to go for it. i'm really happy we went. one thing i learned in europe was that i never regretted making spontaneous decisions. every time i went on some last-minute adventure, it was always worth it. even if it didn't work out exactly as planned, it was always fun and exciting, and those spontaneous decisions are some of my favorite memories. in pisa, we walked around, took lots of cheesy photos in front of the tower (which is really, really leaning, by the way—more than i even expected), got photobombed by lots of asian tourists, and sat on the grass eating gelato and loving life. that next-to-last photo above was one of the funniest moments of my life. one of my friends was taking a photo of the rest of us when a lady from china asked if she could get a picture with us. then she started telling us funny poses to do, and then a man who didn't know her or us jumped in too. another lady jumped in on the other side of us and by that point there were lots of tourists who didn't know any of us snapping pictures like crazy. i don't remember the last time i had laughed that hard! we had a wonderful time in florence, and next our group headed to venice for our last stop in italy.