Sarah is a broad..: Arezzo e Firenze

Ok, so this is a little backwards as far as pictures go, but I think you smart people can handle it :) Heather and I decided to take an impromptu trip to Firenze to see Lindsay! We bought our train tickets the night before, got up really early, caught a 6:45 train and were in Firenze by 10 am - well we would have been if we didn't get off the train one stop too early and have to wait anohter 20 minutes for the next one to come...but you know, what's a trip without some complications huh? So, Lindsay and I talked through e-mail and she decided she'd meet us at the train station in Firenze (she goes to school in Arezzo) - so she met us there, although our train was late and...she doesn't have a cell phone...so that was interesting, but it all worked out. We ended up getting to our little hotel, dropping our stuff off and heading out into Firenze. My thoughts about Firenze are that it is VERY American...VERY VERY VERY - you could very easily go the entire trip there without speaking a word of Italian and there were more north face fleeces and Ugg boots than I've ever seen in Italy in my entire life...but, we did get to see the important sites so that's good - we went to the Uffizi Gallery (longest, largest, most intense gallery EVER), and walked around...saw Ponte Vecchio where there used to be a pole with locks ALLLLL over it. They cut them all off a couple of years ago (no idea why, it was a really charming part of the bridge), but you can still see locks on lamp posts near the bridge, as you can see below. After the Uffizi and Ponte Vecchio we were hungry (what else is new) and found a Mexican restaurant!!!! You can only imagine how excited Heather and I were hahaha - we had really good burritos and chips and guacamole - yummmm....After that, gelato of course...and then we called it an early night because we had been up since 4:30am and it was catching up to us. We walked Lindsay back to the train station and she went back to her little villa in Arezzo. The next day (Saturday), we got up very early, checked out and headed to Accademia where the original "David" is. We weren't allowed to bring cameras in there so, sorry, no pictures :( I thought the David was really amazing - so detailed - it also helped to have an art history major with me the whole time - However, I think the part I liked even more than the David were the "enslaved" statues that were unfinished and looked as though they were trapped in the marble. After Accademia, we got some pizza and caught a train to Arezzo to go to the Antique market with Lindsay, who met us at the train station. We went through the Antique market that literally took over the entire main part of town, grabbed some delicious gnocchi, and began the trek to Lindsay's villa that is her school: Accademia dell'Arte. The walk took a good 45 minutes from the train station (think about that...she has to walk 45 minutes up hills to get into town every time she wants to go out at night, grab a bite to eat outside of the Villa, etc. - CRAZY). Anyways, Heather has more pictures on her camera that I will put up once she gets them on her computer, but there was this really cool cemetery that apparently you have to rent your grave in. Notice I said rent, as in you have to pay for it forever, you never own it, and if your family can't pay, they throw out your headstone and get rid of your body - interesting. But, anyways, people come every single day to light the candle on the headstone and bring flowers - and there are pictures of the deceased on their headstones. It looks more like a condo of coffins, however, because it's all above ground...anyways, more on that when pictures are available...We get to her villa and it's GORGEOUS!!!! There are some pictures of the views for you below. We met some of Lindsay's friends (all crazy theater people of course, it was great!) and caught a ride back into Firenze with Lindsay and her group - they were going into Firenze to see a concert anyways, with their school, so there was a bus and since there are 18 people TOTAL in her program (4 boys, 14 girls...) and some of them weren't attending, there was room for a couple of stragglers on the bus...So we hitched a ride, got back to Firenze, ate at a restaurant by the train station (I got amazing ravioli with pesto sauce mmmmmmmmm yummy! I had been searching for pesto the whole trip) and we caught the train back to Roma. We got back to Roma around 12:30ish, after a long trip full of talking and watching crazy ragazzi (boys) fight and run around the train all drunk. It was a great trip and I'm REALLY glad I got to see Lindsay! Our next trip with her will be Cinque Terre, I believe - very excited for that...Ok, now for the pictures:

That yellow building....is Lindsay's Villa...

View from the top of one of her classrooms (the Teatrino - little theater)

Heather and I by the Duomo (there are many - Duomo just means "Dome") in Arezzo

Heather and I - view of Arezzo

Arezzo countryside

Van in Firenze squatting from the amount of water and beer in it!!!

Heather and Me - Honeymoon shot - we got married by Ponte Vecchio (in the background) - we actually just saw a couple taking a picture like this and decided we should continue with our Honeymoon theme that we've done throughout all of the trips so far...