Today, to switch things up, we went to Florence. We got up early and went to a train station that can only be described as hectic. If I spoke Italian it would probably be less confusing, but since I don’t, I was very confused. A little lesson I learned on this trip is that I should learn the basic numbers of a language before I come. Every time I go to a market or shop, I always say, “Quanto costa?” which means how much. They then reply in Italian how much it is, which I have no idea what they are saying. You would have thought I would have learned to stop doing that, but I still do it every time. But, I digress. The speed train to Florence was amazing. It goes about 150 mph, so the trip is only about an hour and a half. The view was absolutely stunning, with the hills and mountains of farmland and small, scattered towns. However, I fell asleep about 5 minutes outside of Rome once I had moved to my own cubicle across from a really creepy family who stared at me every time I woke up. It’s probably because I’m a very unattractive sleeper, but whatever.

When we got to Florence, our tour guide met us and we immediately began the tour. She showed us some beautiful places around the city and then took us to a lunch where we got to watch our pasta being homemade. After, we had some free time to wander around one of the street markets. We then met our guide to go through the Uffizi museum. The most famous piece of Venus coming out of the shell was absolutely stunning. Our guide was very knowledgeable about what she was telling us, so it made it much more interesting. After the museum, we were allowed to roam for about an hour, in which time we shopped at some more markets. We met back up with our guide to go to dinner at an American diner, where I had the most delicious cappuccino milkshake ever. We got back on the train to Rome where I actually got to see the scenery in full. We met Josh back in Rome and he took us back to the hotel, where it took no more than five seconds to fall asleep. The day showed me that each individual place may have its own unique feel and small twist on culture from town to town, but as a whole, you can feel the pride each citizen has for their country. It really is inspiring. America has a lot of pride after things like the Superbowl or a natural disaster or the like, but sometimes we forget how much we love our country. It is refreshing to see a country who has pride, but not too much that it feels superior to others. If more countries were like Italy, I believe the world would be a better place.