Florence in a Day

Can you see all of Florence in a day? No. Not really. I mean I've been here close to three months and I'm still coming across new things that I haven't see or tried or eaten or done yet. The joys of life right?
However, I did do a pretty good job of showing my friend Sam around today if I do say so myself. If you only have one day to do Florence like she kind of does, this is the way to do it (for free/really cheep might I add.)
First off, let me introduce you to my friend Sam. We met my freshmen year of high school because she lived two doors down from me with out a roommate our first semester. Turns our Sam is also from Tosa, went to Tosa East, (my rival high school), swam breaststroke, and did APPSE. She's a poly sci and philosophy major and we pledged ADPi together and then we studied abroad together. This semester she is in Jordan with ACM and she came to visit me over her break in Florence.

She spent most of her break in the West bank actually and ended it with a couple days in Rome and 3 here in Florence with me. She got in yesterday. We didn't do much yesterday, actually we spent most of the afternoon in a park just catching up and eating cheep pizza rounds from the grocery store (and spending the night waiting for my parents to contact me because they are coming in to visit me over my fall break too.) Since we didn't hear from my parents until after midnight (was I asleep), we ended up going to the Dublin pub across the street from her hotel (Hotel Rex which was actually quite nice. Apparently its the nicest (longest) bed she has slept in since August) for a pizza. We got some gelato for dessert and split a bottle of white frizante in her room before calling it an early night. ( I was personally rather stressed out over my parents not contacting me. They are fine though its though its almost 5 pm today and I still haven't seen them.)
Today, since my parents wanted to sleep in, Megan and I took Sam around the city to do as much of Florence in a day. We showed off the Duomo and the San Lorenzo market and the central market. Then We took the bus (2 euro) up to Piazzale Michelangelo (which is one of the places we went when we first got here that looks out over all of Florence.) Then we made our way back down into the city (its not really that face of a walk, its just up hill on the way there and easier to take the bus). We could the rose garden that we were lead through by the teachers when we first got here too!

Still on the other side of the river, and hungry at this point we went to Gusta Pizza with is right by Piazza San Spirito. Apparently last years group RAVED about Gusta Pizza saying it was some of the best pizza they had ever had. And its cheep. I had a yummy yummy margarita pizza that was 5 euro and it was a "personal" sized pizza. I did eat all of it, but half would have been just fine for me. It was hand made right there where I could watch them spin the crust and put it in a fire. Delicious. There is also a Gusto Pinano (sandwiches) which I have yet to try. Highly recommend. Megan and I agreed we should go back (and we should get wine next time.)
Then we made our way back across the river, hitting up the Ponte Vecchio and then the outside of the Uffizi so Sam could see the copy of the David statue (our friend Cat wrote me letters that I get to open like once a month,  through the trip. In them I get some sort of task to do. In the last one, she asked a bunch of our friends what I should do. One friend said I should go to Pisa, another said Venice and take a boat ride (the funny thing was with in a week and a half of that letter I did both those things) another friend said I should do a wine tasting (which I had done in Greve at the beginning of the trip!) but Sam had said I should go see the David. So I saved taking a picture with David for when Sam came to visit. (you can't take a picture of the real one, that one is in the Uffizi and I can go see it with my pass any time, so Sam and I stayed outside to take our picture there.)

We wrapped up the day with a quick tour of Piazzo Republico and then called it a day and headed home. Now I'm sitting at home waiting to get in contact with my parents so we can have dinner with them at some point and connect since they've got here and talk about tomorrow.
But just in case you ever wondered. Florence can be done in a day. Should it be done in a day-no. When you travel nothing should be done in just a day. But when you don't know when you are coming back you have to make the most of it, and we most certainly did. It was so good to see Sam and hang out with her and make these memories. We are both on trips of a life time and I am so happy we could share some of it together.