Just around the river bend

Well, not exactly around the river bend, but across the river is where I adventured today! After sleeping in not quite as late, we walked down to the Ponte Vecchio to see it in the daylight! It was a bit chillier today but the sky was blue and it was a beautiful day to explore! 

Ainslie and I walked across the river and went to the Piazzale Michaelangelo. After a pretty steep hike up, we came to the piazzale which looks over the city of Florence and made me very aware that I'm in no small city! 

We continued to walk up the hill past the piazzale to the San Miniato Church. The Church is beautiful with its green and white marble (which apparently is very florentinian) and had a cemetery on the hill which had beautiful grave markers. We walked through the streets on the way down and I ended up exploring more by myself for the first time! I wandered past the Pitti Palace just to see the outside, then continued down back streets which were all pretty empty since it is Sunday.

However, my aimless wandering led me to a flea market! Strolling through stalls of cheese, wood crafts, jarred goods, and felt crafts, I was a little overwhelmed by the language barrier. It's intimidating wanting to buy some of the goods but not being able to communicate at all. I ended up buying some apples grown nearby from a farmer who spoke zero english. It was difficult but hand motions solve lots of problems (and they are some of the best apples I've ever had!).


After another quick trip to the grocery store (bread doesn't last long around here), we had an apartment dinner. It was fun to be cooking our own food and eating together! Our pre-session Italian class starts tomorrow, I can't wait to finally learn the language!


Check out other pictures from my adventure here!