Florence and Milan -- April 17 - 20

Florence, from the top of the Duomo!

We arrived in Florence early afternoon and headed to our Hotel (should be called a Hostel) which was right around the corner from the train station once again.  My friend Jackie is studying in Cortona, Italy (about an hour and half train ride) and she was coming to stay with us for the night as well! Unfortunately she missed her train in the morning and was running a little late, so Audrey and I set out by ourselves to explore.  We headed first to the Uffizi Gallery but thanks to culture week the line was 3 hours long.  We happened to run into McKenna, Kelsey and Abby so we all decided to head to the Academia Galleria to check out the David.  The line was only 30 minutes long and by that time Jackie was able to meet up with us! :)  It was SO good to be reunited with her.  She is a photography major and had been to the gallery before so she was able to teach us a few things about it.  After the gallery we made our way to the famous leather market in the center of the city... it was dangerous! I wanted literally everything I saw.  I did pick up a cute leather bag while I was there :)  We went back to the hostel to freshen up.  Hilarious story - our shower didn't have a curtain.. WHAT!  So after we were done showering our bathroom was literally like a monsoon hit it.  We headed back to the city center and got dinner at a place we stumbled upon.  We literally sat there for over 2 hours chatting and catching up - it was nice to take a break from being a tourist!  We got gelato and called it a night so we would be prepared for the morning.

Jackie and I at the top of the Duomo

The Duomo

The next day we woke up early and met up with Abby, McKenna and Kelsey to check out the Duomo.  We ended up climbing all 469 steps to get to the top and it was SO worth it.. the view of Florence was gorgeous from all the way up there, although a little windy haha.  When we caught our breath we climbed back down and Jackie and I split up from the group to do a little more shopping.. the other girls decided to go on a wine tour for the day.  Jackie and I hit H&M, hard.  H&M is the best store in Europe by far - wish the ones in the states were that sweet.  Yes, we spent over 2 hours in there and found some clothes to add to our European wardrobe haha.  By that time it was mid afternoon and we had plans to meet up with my other best friend, Kelsey, on the steps of the Duomo.  She studies in Florence but had class in the morning.  Again, it was SO good to see Kelsey :)!  We headed back to the hostel to get Jackie's things and got her on her train to head back home, she had class in the afternoon.  Kelsey and I then spent the day doing a little more shopping and I got to see her sweet apartment that she's been living in.  We met up with some of her friends from her program (she goes to Indiana University) and headed up to Piazza Michaelangelo to watch the sunset and drink some wine. It's one of their traditions and their program was ending soon so it was bitter sweet for everyone. The other girls were done with their wine tour by then so we all met back up and went out to dinner for McKenna's birthday!  We were recommended a place over the river and we had to wait until 10 pm to even get a table.  It was WELL worth it.. Kelsey and I split some sort of pasta (no idea what it was exactly) and pizza.  We were stuffed forever, one of the best meals I've had in Europe!  We said our goodbyes and then our group headed to Kelly's friend's boyfriend's apartment to spend the night - great way to save money!

Sunset from Plaza Michaelangelo

Me and Kelsey!

Tuesday morning we had planned on going to Milan super early but the Uffizi was closed on MOnday and it's something we all wanted to see.  We woke up at dawn and were in line for the Uffizi at 7:30 AM! Definitely worth it since we were literally second in line.  We were supposed to meet Kelly and Breanne outside so they could give us keys to the apartment to get our things.. only problem was Kelly was out of minutes on her phone and we couldn't contact her or Breanne.  PROBLEM.  We searched the museum for forever and finally (thank God) ran into them outside!  We headed back to Kevin's apartment and got our luggage and headed to Milan :)  We got to Milan late afternoon and checked into our cute hostel. It was run by a family and we had the cutest little room there.  We dropped our stuff and headed to the city center to grab food.  Milan is definitely more metropolitan than other cities in Italy I've visited so it was a change.  We knew of 2 famous places to eat at in Milan; one being a pizza place where they put pizza toppings inside a donut (2 of my favorite foods) and another gelato place where the cone of the ice cream was filled with hot fudge and the ice cream on top.  Both were epic and I"m glad we got the chance to try them!  We saw the main tourist spots like a gorgeous famous shopping center (outside) and the Duomo (which I wasn't allowed into because I was wearing shorts, ugh!) We headed back to the hostel since there wasn't a ton to do and took advantage of the free WiFi haha.

View from inside the mall looking out into the city center

Wednesday morning we headed back to Granada and FINALLY had a flight that flew straight into our city. No 2 or 5 hour bus rides.  Overall my Italy experience was all I could ask for.  Italy is definitely a country I can't get enough of - I can see myself returning many times :)  We got home in the middle of semana santa or Holy Week here - can't wait to see how Spain celebrates Easter!