“The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.”   -G.K. Chesterton

We landed in Florence with such a change in climate that most of us were appalled by how much we should be living here instead of the cold, snowy climate we had just left. Luckily, the shock in weather patterns was countered by the timeliness of our “school activities,” that is the fact our bus was prompt at picking us up from the airport.

*please note that the rest of the day is incredibly foggy as I was running on little to no sleep for more than 30 hours and that I am not legally, ethically or morally bound by the legitimacy of the events that followed*

In celebration of their European release, the stars of The Monuments Men (George Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray etc) invited us to a posh gathering of other A list stars at the Hilton Florence and we were bake to rub elbows with some of the most prominent people in film. Even got to hear about Mila Kunis’s tawdry love affair with an albino…pretty sure his name was Macaulay…eh…something.

Wait. That doesn’t sound right….

That was a dream I had on the plane ride to Florence….moving on…

We got to the hotel, which is a very quaint place right along the main river of Florence. We checked in rather quickly and were able to get to our room and finally take a nice relaxing breather for a few moments, but had to avoid the overwhelming urge to take a nap….jet lag is a serious bitch.

The short respite was exactly that, short. It was about four o’clock when we decided to venture out and get a taste of what Florence really is. I’ve learned that the best way to experience European trips is just go out and start walking. These towns were built for exactly that mode of transportation and it’s extremely handy to us, cheap and out of touch college students. We walked into one of the piazzas that included the Santa Croce Basilica where Michelangelo (the artist, not the turtle) is actually buried.

We proceeded to check out the Duomo…the history of this building escapes me at this hour.

And finally the oldest bridge in all of Florence, the Ponte Vecchio.

We returned to the hotel around seven to meet up with the rest of the group to have a wonderful meal at Ristorant Natalino where we had a wonderful pasta and pork dinner with a nightcap across the street at an Irish pub. Finally our fatigue caught up with us and we were off to bed to await the following day.