Around The World in 4 Days

It's an impossible thing to circle the world in a matter of days but we managed to do it in 4. From climbing what seemed like mountains to walking miles looking for a "special kind" of thread.

This Friday we went above and beyond the traditional "we're going on a walking tour" type field trip. What we didn't know was that we would have to climb up a ridiculously steep hill just to walk down another one. What we didn't know was that once we got to the top of that street, there was a staircase like no other waiting for us to conquer. What We Did Not Know was that even after reaching what seemed like the pinnacle of the hill (the Piazzale Michelangelo (Photo 1)) with a beautiful view of Florence, there was still another staircase (Photo 2) to get to the church named San Miniato al Monte.

Photo 1 - The view from the Piazzale Michelangelo 

Photo 2 - The last set of steps to get to the church 

Photo 3 - The organ inside the church

The church was beautiful. There was an ancient organ (Photo 3)  to the left of where the priest would've stood. The walls of the church still depict pieces of the frescoes (paintings done on wet plaster) from the 13th and 14th centuries. There is a crypt under the alter (Photo 4), where no pictures were allowed. Even if you weren't Catholic you could feel how much anyone who entered that room respected the religious presence in there. The center of the crypt holds the remains of Saint Minias after whom the church is named.

Photo 4 - The alter of the church (directly above the crypt)

Minias is thought to have been a Greek merchant or an Armenian prince who arrived in Florence in about 250 A.D. to live his life as a hermit. He was sentenced to be beheaded by the Emperor. Legend has it that after he was decapitated, he picked up his head, put it back on his shoulders and went to die in the cave of Monte alle Croci where he had lived as a hermit. That cave is now the location of the oratory and the church that are named after him.

There was a festival this past weekend in Prato that was advertised as a European Food festival (Photo 5) with all different country's foods in it set up like food trucks and tents. When they actually finished setting up and we walked through it, it was full of candy, pastries, clothes, and jewelry from all over the place. It was way better than what we expected. On Saturday we decided to eat food from the Mexican food tent and both had overpriced burritos cashing in at 18 Euro for the two of our burritos alone.

Photo 5 - Some of the things sold at the festival (Drawn by Lianne Smith)

The burrito was actually pretty good despite what we thought even though Lianne wanted it to be spicy. The corn gave it a really nice flavor. There were 2 candy tents, one for gummy candies like Haribo peaches and the other was purely black licorice candy. We also visited the Greek stand on Sunday and had overpriced chicken gyros with fries in them for 7 Euro each that were actually really good (but still not worth it). I still have my bag of candy that I bought from the festival. Lianne is already done with all of her candy  (that sweet-tooth of hers is SERIOUS).

Monday we decided to sleep in instead of going on the optional field trip/scavenger hunt that actually ended up getting canceled because not enough people signed up. That day the maids knocked on our door and the both of us reluctantly picked up our phones to entertain us while we sit outside but by the time we got to the door they were gone. No sign of them on our floor at all. We were so mad and waited for like 10 minutes and laid back down to sleep. After 5 minutes of silence and almost getting to  sleep, they knocked on our door again to clean in a hurry. That night we ended up going to Mokha, one of the restaurants on our mean plan, for dinner with our friend Madison from University of New Haven campus in Prato. The soup wasn't really the consistency of soup. The second course took 10 years to get to the table. Then it took another 10 minutes to get their attention to get us new forks since they took the last ones from the soup (you shouldn't need a fork for "soup"). Overall, the portions were pretty small and the only thing we liked was the cheesecake.

On Tuesday the maids knocked on our door earlier than they normally do. They put their master key in the door and tried to come in before we said anything even though they know that we are always in there. While Jeunesse is walking to the door, the room phone rings and I slowly go to answer it. It  was Roberta from the front desk saying, "Can you let the maids in so that they can change the lightbulb?" I was so confused but they came in anyway to change the light at the door. After they left we got ready and went out searching for a hair salon that sold needle and thread for weaving. With no luck we came back to the hotel completely forgetting that Zumba was that same day. The minute we got in the class was starting and they told us to go upstairs and get ready. We rushed downstairs in our workout gear and danced away. Afterwards we went to dinner with friends again at the burger place, Ci Garba. One of our friends ordered a pizza that I didn't even know they had (mozzarella pizza with spinach and no tomato sauce). It was by far the best pizza that I have had from Ci Garba since I've been here.

I think the best part about this trip is that we get to watch ourselves grow in real time. There's more responsibility and more freedom. It's all up to us how we want to go about 3 months away from the U.S. and I think we've been doing just fine.