SO because we completely messed up our sleep schedule (thanks to jet lag) and I already know people are going to be confused this is a timeline of the first couple days in Italia

 

Monday 8/20/18

11:40 pm Gabi leaves SLC for FLR

 

Tuesday 8/21

6:00 am Jayde leaves SLC for FLR

Gabi has 17 layovers (lol)

 

Wednesday 8/22

5:30 am-ish Jayde and Gabi both land in CDG, make it through customs and finally are reunited in terminal F26

 

9:55 am land in FLR

Gabi’s bag doesn’t arrive (shout out to Airfrance!!)

 

10:30 am taxi to airbnb to find it actually isn’t ready

get gelato and sit on the stairs of Santa Croce

 

3:00 pm – 8:00 pm SLEEEEEEP finally

 

10:00pm head out to Lions Fountain Pub and hang around the city for the night  

 

Thursday 8/23

12:00 am run around the Santa Croce district making new friends

 

6:00 am go to bed. better late than never!

 

3:00 pm wake up in a complete panic because some how slept through the entire day

get ready to head out to the city

 

5:00 pm pizza for the first meal of the day!

walk around the Duomo and try to find Zara but literraly closes after walking in the door

 

9:00 pm back to airbnb for quick little hour nap

 

11:00 pm the night begins

 

Friday 8/24

12:00 am wildin

 

6:25 am sunrise over the city

 

7:30 am back to the airbnb

pack everything back up

 

9:30 am head out to the city for breakfast

shopping at Zara

 

1:00 pm the best art store experince ever

 

1:30 pm pick up luggage and taxi to the train station

 

3:30 pm train leaves and journey to Volterra begins

 

5:40 pm trains drops us off in Cecina (aka the Sacromento of Italy)

 

6:10 pm bus from Cecina to Volterra-Saline-Pomarance stop

hope on the another bus that we definitley did not pay for to Volterra city center

 

7:30 pm arrive in Volterra (aka the place of our dreams)

 

8:30 pm dinner with our other friedns that also recently arrived in Volterra

 

11:30 pm head to bed for the first of many nights in our new home

 

And there ya have it.

 

Also, not sure if you noticed but the last time we slept we had slept was on Thursday from 6am – 3pm meaning that by the time we finally go to bed in Volterra we had been awake for 32 hrs :))

 

No doubt we are living our absolute best lives out here under the Tuscan sun

 

Love & miss you all lots,

gabi

 

So imagine this:

 

Two girls with 7 peices of luggage that weigh more than they do, in a foriegn country where they don’t speak a lick the local language, and they had stayed up all night to watch the sunrise over the city of Florence with new friends they met the night before. Their next mission is to get from Florence to Volterra, their home for the next couple months.

As they board the train with their luggage (that easily weighs more than they do) they struggle to get everything aboard. One girl stands on the seat, while the other lifts bags above her head and they work together to stabilize the bags on the racks above the seats. It was quite the site to see, they are sure of it.

 

Once on the train, the girls ride through the countryside passing small towns, vineyards and the coast until they reached the city of Cecina. Cecine is so quiet they can hear the crickets chirping and it smells slightly of chlorine. They take a moment to question where the hell they are. With limited options, they head down the stairs switching off dragging their 100 lb bags down the stairs. To their disappointment the staircase has only lead them to another set of stairs heading up to another platform. One of the girls heads up the stairs to ask where their next train will take off from. Though there was a language barrier, the girl and the Italian train station worker converse separated by a glass wall. The man tells her she is actually taking a bus to their next location. They find a tiny elevator, load their luggage, and head out to the street to where the bus sits.

Baking in the heat and humidity of the sun they wait and observe small town around them. The train station has no signs to actually indicate it is a train station and there is a small cafe attached to the right side. People hang out in the parking lot of the station which seems bizarre to the girls. After waiting for twenty minutes the bus driver finally arrives. As they load their bags underneath the driver is rambling off Italian as if we can understand. Another man walks up to the girls and says ‘He is asking if you guys brought a horse with you.’ Embarrassed and laughing at themselves the girls quickly get on to the bus and head for the back. The driver comes to check their tickets and as he walks back to his seat he rambles off more Italian at them. The only word they recognize is ‘Texas’ and again they laugh because what else can they do.

While riding though city of Cecina they start to get more and more worried because in all honesty they thought the Italian countryside was going to look a lot different. At this point they have not slept in 28 hours and are in extreme desperation of food. As they drive through the city they call it *’The Sacramento of Italy*’ because it seems very fitting. It’s nothing against Sacramento, it’s just that they haven’t slept in while and they are very hangery.

 

Long story short they have to take another train that they didn’t even pay for and up dragging their luggage across the center of the city of Volterra along the cobblestone streets. And for the grand finale they they have too carry all their bags up 10 flights of stairs (seriously, they counted them) up to their room. But it’s okay, because in the end they have the prettiest view off all the rooms and they finally feel at home.

Yup, this was Jayde and I. In the end we made it and we couldn’t be happier.

 

love & miss you all lots,

gabi

 

P.S. sorry all I was supposed to post this two days ago but we went to Pisa for the day and ended up staying the night. . . but that is a story for another day 😉

I have written and completed three other blog posts at this point but I can’t even publish two of them until I publish a post about Florence because everything will be all out of order and confusing. It’s not that I am lacking in things to say and that’s why I am struggling to write it, it is actually the exact opposite. Jayde and I had the most amazing time in Florence and I want to be able to tell you what is like as if you are experiencing it with us. So here is my best attempt:

First off you need to meet Jayde.

Jayde is my design friend and fellow badass travel babe. 8 months ago we were walking through the studio when we saw a poster for a study abroad program in Italy. We grabbed the poster off the wall  and as we walked into class we asked our professor Cameron if he knew anything about it. He said something along the lines of

“No idea, looks dope though”

We sat down and said

“I want to do this. Really, we are going to do this.”

There is this thing about being human where when you say you are going to do something, you don’t always follow through. Especially if you are a broke college student and this thing you say you are going to do requires you to travel halfway across the planet. So, you can see why when we finally met at the CDG airport at 6 am for our flight to Florence everything felt a little surreal.

While we had successfully arrived in Florence, my bag (along with half of the other passangers bags) did not arrive. So we filled out some forms and then hopped into a taxi heading for the city. Once we arrived at our airbnb they told us that it wasn’t going to be ready for at least 4 hours. In major need of sleep and frusterated by this news we did the only reasonable thing: get gelato and sit in front a breath taking church.

This is the Basillica de Santa Croce which would become our go to spot for the next couple days. After gelato and Santa Croce we got some lunch before heading back to the airbnb for a quick nap. We ended up falling asleep for 5 hours and waking up at 9 pm which was perfect becasue we got dressed up and headed out to the bars.

We had lots and lots of fun roaming around the streets of Florence. It was pretty crazy how safe we felt. We even made some new friends while admiring the beauty Santa Croco at 4 am. By the time we got home and feel asleep it was around 6 am. So when I woke up at 3 pm the next day (thanks jetlag) I was completely mortified. How had we wasted an entire day??

We jumped out of bed and headed to the Duomo, aka the city center. We were happy to finally get some delious pizza and then head to Zara. (if you know, you know) We also found a super cool vintage shop while walkin around. Florence is soooo pretty and has the coolest shops it is hard to describe it so here are some pictures: 

After running around the city we, taking another nap (again thanks jet lag) and changing we headed out for the night. We decided to go to this club called Flo which literally was a mountain trek away from us, shout out to Jayde for doing it in heals. Once we got there we were surprised to find that the club was made up of 30-40 year olds. We danced for while and then feeling a little out of place we went and looked at the cities incredible night view in front of fake david.

We headed back to Santa Croce and were admiring the church when we ran into a couple friends we had made the night before. The group decided that we wanted to watch the sunrise over the city at fake david so we trekked up the mountains again. We arrived and realized that we were 2 hours early. We laid on the grass, laughed and waited for the sun. As the sky turned pinks and purples we got to take in the city on a whole other level. Jayde and I led a little yoga cycle and lived in the at moment like it was our last.

Now that it was 7:30am and we had to be out of our airbnb by 9:30 am we headed back down the mountain. After getting everything packed up we hit the city again. We got some art supplies and had the cutest experience with the Italian art store owner. He barely spoke any english but got so excited to help us find various things. Then he added it all up by hand and he had the prices of everything memorized. He even gave us chocolate. Best art store experience EVER.

I feel in love with Florence and Italy over a period of 2 days, and might I add that I slept through majority of those days hahahaha.

 

Until next time Firenze

 

love and miss you all lots,

gabi

 

P.S. tomorrow a post about journeying to our new home for the next 3 months on 0 hours of sleep comin for ya. (probably my favorite post yet)