It's time to do me!: Ponte Vecchio!

January 15, 2011

My roommates and I made plans earlier in the week to visit the Ponte Vecchio today which is this famous bridge in Italy. I’m not quite sure of the story behind the Ponte Vecchio is exactly, but it is lined with jewelry shops and I think back in the day it used to be lined with butchers and they said it smelled and had a bad impression (or something to that effect?) so they said they would allow for jewelers to sell their goods and now the whole bridge is lined with only really expensive and beautiful jewelry. There are also several other bridges that cross over the water and we ended up walking on a few of the other bridges and it is so beautiful and peaceful that I almost cried. My roommates and I just stood there in the sun staring out over the water in awe for the longest time..words and pictures honestly can’t describe the beauty and feeling that you experience there.

We passed many high end stores around the Ponte Vecchio and tried shopping in H&M (which was HUGE..wayyyy bigger than any H&M I have ever been in) but it was so outrageously packed that we were getting hot and frustrated. We decided we needed a pick-me-up to go along with the nice sunny day so we went to our favorite gelato shop – Gelateria Dei Neri – and I got Nocciola di Soya and Cookies and Cream gelato on a cone for only 2.50 euro…which is a pretty good deal! And the soy gelato tasted amazing! We noticed in the gelateria that they had pictures of their gelato cups in famous locations around the world and we are determined to take one of their cups somewhere cool and get it framed up on the wall! On our way back to our apartment we ended up passing this one shoe store that had outrageous sales and I got a pair of brown cowboy boots (something I have always wanted) for 10 euro! Score!

We had planned on having sausage sandwiches with cooked peppers and onions for dinner, but Lauren is a vegetarian so her and I went to this pizza place to get her a pizza to go and she got this delicious looking vegetarian pizza that had all kinds of cool veggies on it. After dinner I really wanted to try and use the internet so Claire and I called up Nick to see if we could come over and use his internet because we didn’t really want to walk home late at night by ourselves from the school and we were sure that the boys there would walk us back whatever time we would end up finishing doing whatever we needed to do on the internet. On our way over to their apartment Claire and I saw these police officers with capes on! It was so hilarious and we joked that we should ask them if they knew the way to Hogwartz. For some reason no matter what I tried my computer wouldn’t bring up a web page using their internet connection even though it said I was connected to their network so I got a little discouraged but all of a sudden Ryan walked in the apartment and let me use his computer and we hung out all night while Claire and Nick were on their computers. Him and I cooked Ramen Noodles (yes, college kids love Ramen no matter what country we are in!) and we also walked out to the Piazza because he really wanted to longboard (it’s like a skateboard, but slightly different) and he claimed he would teach me how, but I can barely stand on two feet let alone stand on a longboard on cobblestone! So I watched him longboard for a little bit and we went back to the apartment and I stole some of his music and eventually the boys walked Claire and I back home.