Ciao! Finally, I am able to tell about my first visitor here in Florence, none other than Lee Jarrold! I am so thankful and lucky to have a friend over here in Europe to visit me and make me feel a little more at home! Seeing a familiar face makes a huge difference when being so far away from most friends and family, and I cannot thank Lee enough for coming!
We began Lee's time here by simply doing a walking tour around Florence, visiting Piazza della Signoria, which is full of outdoor sculptures, Santa Croce, and also walking along the Ponte Vecchio. The main event of the night was that I took Lee out to dinner with all of my friends here abroad, and we picked a restaurant that supposedly had free wine for study abroad students. Well, it turns out the rumor was true, and the restaurant continuously poured FREE WINE for the 13 of us at the table. Dreams really do come true people 🍷. I am willing to admit that the food was okay, not necessarily award winning, but I repeat... FREE WINE! (Don't worry, I took Lee out for good meals later in the weekend). After dinner, my friends and I took Lee to La Carraia, our favorite gelateria. This was Lee and I's second gelato of the day, and trust me when I say we have no regrets. After gelato, we wandered back to our side of the river to show Lee our favorite bars. While some girls went back to their apartments to get changed, I took Lee to a popular bar for study abroad students that has a custom shot for every American university. So, naturally, I ordered Lee and myself the Providence College shot. This bar has an entire ceiling covered in tshirts of every college, and each shirt is filled with layers of signatures of study abroad students. We spent time looking for the PC shirt, but to no avail. Once our friends were finished getting ready, we went to the bar that is across the street from my apartment, the Red Garter. This is a karaoke bar, and my favorite place to go on the weekends. One half is simply the bar side with dance/club music playing and people standing all squished together, and the other half has wooden tables and benches with rafter seating, all in view of a small stage for the karaoke performers. Most people are terrible, but some are amazing, (shoutout to my friend Molly Powers who always ends her performances with a standing ovation). All night long Lee and I kept joking that someone needed to sing the song "Wonderwall" by Oasis, and eventually my friends and I convinced Lee he should go up and do it himself! With the help of some encouragement from my friends and I, the promise of Molly singing with him, and a little bit of liquid courage, he did it!! It was amazing and hilarious and the crowd was very into it; the whole place was belting it out right along with Lee and Molly. And now, Lee can say he sang at the Red Garter, a signature stop on the Julia Miller Florence Tour.
The next day, the weather was great, so Lee and I decided to take a hike through the Tuscan countryside together. The views were absolutely stunning, and it was great to get some fresh air and out of the city for awhile. The hike ended with the beautiful Castello Vincigliata, which Lee and I did not at the time know was private property...oops! Once we made it to the entrance of the castle at the end of the hike, we realized that people looked to be setting up for a wedding. A woman who saw us peeking in the door told us we could come inside if we were quick, but that the wedding started in an hour. Lee and I couldn't help ourselves, and after walking around the courtyard we decided to try and sneak past the people setting up the dining room for the wedding to get to the stairs that led to the top of the castle. We made it past them discreetly, and were able to look out at the most beautiful view of Florence I had seen yet. We ended up overstaying our welcome a bit, and when we finally realized how long we had stayed and headed downstairs, we were caught by one of the wedding planners. He began yelling at us in rapid Italian, so we just hustled past him right out the door and left. Now, I can check wedding crashing off my bucket list! As we made our way back down the hike, the actual vans filled with the bridal party and guests drove past, and we realized how truly close we were to legitimately crashing a wedding. All's well that ends well though, and now we have a memorable story to tell.
The last day that Lee was here we climbed to the top of the bell tower, which is right next to the Duomo. Initially we were going to go to the top of the dome, but it was sold out, so we bought tickets to do the bell tower instead. This ended up being fine, because by doing the bell tower we were able to get a gorgeous eye level view of the Duomo, and a look over the city of Florence. The stairs were exhausting, steep, and narrow, but the view was completely worth it. Also, on a mostly unrelated note, I completely understand why Italians can eat pasta and pizza and gelato while remaining rail thin... are you not connecting the dots by now how much walking and stair climbing goes on around here?! Lee and I checked our steps at the end of every day and it was always almost in the 20,000s! It works for me just fine though, because you better believe my answer is always yes when it comes to Italian food. Speaking of food, to end Lee's trip, we went out to a great dinner right next to the Duomo. A man sat near the restaurant playing violin the whole time, and it was an awesome way to end what was an amazing weekend. Now, I just owe Lee a trip over to London!
We began Lee's time here by simply doing a walking tour around Florence, visiting Piazza della Signoria, which is full of outdoor sculptures, Santa Croce, and also walking along the Ponte Vecchio. The main event of the night was that I took Lee out to dinner with all of my friends here abroad, and we picked a restaurant that supposedly had free wine for study abroad students. Well, it turns out the rumor was true, and the restaurant continuously poured FREE WINE for the 13 of us at the table. Dreams really do come true people 🍷. I am willing to admit that the food was okay, not necessarily award winning, but I repeat... FREE WINE! (Don't worry, I took Lee out for good meals later in the weekend). After dinner, my friends and I took Lee to La Carraia, our favorite gelateria. This was Lee and I's second gelato of the day, and trust me when I say we have no regrets. After gelato, we wandered back to our side of the river to show Lee our favorite bars. While some girls went back to their apartments to get changed, I took Lee to a popular bar for study abroad students that has a custom shot for every American university. So, naturally, I ordered Lee and myself the Providence College shot. This bar has an entire ceiling covered in tshirts of every college, and each shirt is filled with layers of signatures of study abroad students. We spent time looking for the PC shirt, but to no avail. Once our friends were finished getting ready, we went to the bar that is across the street from my apartment, the Red Garter. This is a karaoke bar, and my favorite place to go on the weekends. One half is simply the bar side with dance/club music playing and people standing all squished together, and the other half has wooden tables and benches with rafter seating, all in view of a small stage for the karaoke performers. Most people are terrible, but some are amazing, (shoutout to my friend Molly Powers who always ends her performances with a standing ovation). All night long Lee and I kept joking that someone needed to sing the song "Wonderwall" by Oasis, and eventually my friends and I convinced Lee he should go up and do it himself! With the help of some encouragement from my friends and I, the promise of Molly singing with him, and a little bit of liquid courage, he did it!! It was amazing and hilarious and the crowd was very into it; the whole place was belting it out right along with Lee and Molly. And now, Lee can say he sang at the Red Garter, a signature stop on the Julia Miller Florence Tour.
The next day, the weather was great, so Lee and I decided to take a hike through the Tuscan countryside together. The views were absolutely stunning, and it was great to get some fresh air and out of the city for awhile. The hike ended with the beautiful Castello Vincigliata, which Lee and I did not at the time know was private property...oops! Once we made it to the entrance of the castle at the end of the hike, we realized that people looked to be setting up for a wedding. A woman who saw us peeking in the door told us we could come inside if we were quick, but that the wedding started in an hour. Lee and I couldn't help ourselves, and after walking around the courtyard we decided to try and sneak past the people setting up the dining room for the wedding to get to the stairs that led to the top of the castle. We made it past them discreetly, and were able to look out at the most beautiful view of Florence I had seen yet. We ended up overstaying our welcome a bit, and when we finally realized how long we had stayed and headed downstairs, we were caught by one of the wedding planners. He began yelling at us in rapid Italian, so we just hustled past him right out the door and left. Now, I can check wedding crashing off my bucket list! As we made our way back down the hike, the actual vans filled with the bridal party and guests drove past, and we realized how truly close we were to legitimately crashing a wedding. All's well that ends well though, and now we have a memorable story to tell.
The last day that Lee was here we climbed to the top of the bell tower, which is right next to the Duomo. Initially we were going to go to the top of the dome, but it was sold out, so we bought tickets to do the bell tower instead. This ended up being fine, because by doing the bell tower we were able to get a gorgeous eye level view of the Duomo, and a look over the city of Florence. The stairs were exhausting, steep, and narrow, but the view was completely worth it. Also, on a mostly unrelated note, I completely understand why Italians can eat pasta and pizza and gelato while remaining rail thin... are you not connecting the dots by now how much walking and stair climbing goes on around here?! Lee and I checked our steps at the end of every day and it was always almost in the 20,000s! It works for me just fine though, because you better believe my answer is always yes when it comes to Italian food. Speaking of food, to end Lee's trip, we went out to a great dinner right next to the Duomo. A man sat near the restaurant playing violin the whole time, and it was an awesome way to end what was an amazing weekend. Now, I just owe Lee a trip over to London!
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