Pub Crawls and Discotecas

Ciao! So the pub crawl thing on Friday night didn't go exactly as planned, but we did get to eat some amazing pizza. We went to Ghibellini's for dinner and were put in the basement where Mikey noticed all the "non-italians" were put. Everyone in the basement was either American or speaking a language other than Italian, which just inspired us to try harder not to look like American tourists.  Nonetheless, we had another amazing meal. We got a liter of the house red wine and then I ordered the Ribollita soup and Colleen and Mikey had the minestrone. Both were delicious. We then ordered one Margherita Pizza and another one with mascarpone and prosciutto. Colleen and I got dessert: Chocolate Tartufo and the Raspberry Panna Cotta. We then went home to get ready to go out but when we texted some of our friends, they had already left for the pub crawl so we tried meeting them at the first bar Uncle Jimmy's. Uncle Jimmy's felt very American: covered in Graffiti and college t-shirts on the walls. When we couldn't find our friends we left and went to another bar called the Old Stove where we were the only Americans. We left there pretty quickly and then went to Astor, this place where we get coffee in the morning but then it turns into a bar/club at night where we met a group of American boys from Washington who had fake tattoos on their knuckles: one said "Reckless" another "Low key" and lastly "The Thril." The other one named Justice was too cool for the fake tatt. So....they then led us to another bar called Yab but we did not want to pay the 10 euro cover so we went to another location of the Old Stove that felt more like an irish pub. Needless to say, we got rid of the boys. We got free french fries there because the kitchen was about to close and then we ordered hard cider which was so good. They also gave us free limoncello shots! So I guess even though we weren't on the official pub crawl we did still have fun getting lost and getting to see more of Florence night life.

The next day we slept in until 1pm....woops! Our bodies are still not adjusted to this lifestyle haha. So we got dressed and decided to explore more of Florence. We were starving so we first stopped at Antico Noe, an amazing panini shop where I got my first of MANY caprese paninis...literally my perfect meal. And then Mikey and I got americanos at this coffee shop by the duomo...so good. We first went to a department store called Coin and wanted to see if we could find a good pair of sweatpants(were still cold at night!) but we didn't really find one. Then we also went back to the straightener store (Paolo's place) because he gave us the wrong one! He gave us the right one so that was good and then we went shopping a bit more and then went to the market Centrale where we bought scarves, almost bought some journals and also got fresh pecorino cheese to eat for a snack when we got home. We also stopped at this meat market where we met the meat Nazi who gave us some delicious prosciutto. That was our little snack when we returned from our busy day. And then later that night we went to this adorable little trattoria called Trattoria Anita where we had amazing pasta, and Mikey's less than thrilling chicken which does not merit a picture on here. We then went back home to get ready to go out to Space, this club where one of Dana's friends from home was having her birthday party...and also happened to be friends with one of Mikey's camp friends. So we got to Space...which I have no idea how to describe other than insane. We had no idea what we were doing but we were brought upstairs to this area where we apparently had our own "table" and free drinks were brought up to us like every half hour...and they played American music which was amazing. It was so much fun, a little sketchy, but crazy. We left the club around 2:45am and walked this girl home who was leaving alone. She tried to show us where the secret bakery was but we couldn't find it:( And then we saw this wasted Italian guy actually pass out in the middle of the road...and they say the Americans are the drunk idiots??? I think not...anyways, today was another sleep in until 1pm day.

We did a "dress rehearsal" of walking to school today so I know where to go tomorrow when I have class alone at 9am, those of you who know me know that I am the WORST with directions, but hopefully I should be ok. And today we also got our first gelato at Gelateria de Neri where I got Straciatella...my fav! And then we came back tonight and cooked our first dinner in the apartment: Salad, lemon Chicken, roasted eggplant, peppers, and zucchini, and ravioli with Spinach and Ricotta. And tomorrow real life kicks in....and I actually have to be a real person and go to school. We'll see how that goes.....

baci e abbracci

buonanotte!