Top things

Top things I have loved thus far:

1. Mercatos! - The markets have so much good food, from cheese and wine to fruits and vegetables. Everything is fresh, homemade, and tasty! The meat is in huge slabs so you know exactly what your getting. And of course the best part..it's fairly inexpensive! Today, I went and got vegetables for a salad, four tomatoes, a red and yellow pepper, and a huge head of lettuce for only 2.70 euro! [About $4]

2. Gelato - Delicious!! The gelaterias are everywhere and they smell soo good! Next time I go I'm going to have to get some with the waffles! Unfortunately, it's just so expensive so I can't get it all the time :(

3. Views - Everything is so beautiful and old. Ponte Vecchio is very pretty, you don't even feel like you are on a bridge until you get to the middle and see the river. It's also pretty romantic with the nice [expensive] jewelry, and the lock fence [you're supposed to come with the person you are going to marry and put a lock, with you and the persons name, on the fence and your said to be married happily ever after]. Really pretty much everything in the city is romantic, old, and cozy. Tonight, I'm going to Piazzo de Michaelangelo, which is supposed to be the prettiest place, overlooking the entire city. I'm excited to get some really nice pictures!

4. Culture - Italians are very old-fashioned and I love it! There are not very many cars, everyone walks everywhere, or rides their scooter/motorcycle. The city was very carefully planned. I love how everything is so compacted together [I wish that we had cities like this in the states]. Also, everyone I've met so far have been pretty friendly. I just found out about where the actual residing Italians go for dinner and stuff like that so I'm excited to go check them out and see what they are really all about!

5. Language - It's very similar to Spanish. My four years of it in high school is helping me out. It's just a very pretty language, which is kind of weird to say, but it's fun to just listen to people. I don't know very much yet, but it should be pretty easy since I'm going to have to use it every day. I can't wait to know and understand it better!

6. The month of January - SALES!! Twice a year they have huge sales. The entire months of January and July are dedicated to them! Almost everything is 50% off. I went to H&M and bought a few nice pieces of clothing, dress pants and shirt, skirt, and a casual top. Also, today I went to an Italian store named Zara, sooo cute! Four floors of fabulous clothes. There I got a nice leather jacket for only 40 euro. Other than that I haven't really bought much, considering I'd rather travel than get clothes.

7. Vendors - There is a huge market running about 5 different streets that just have vendors on it selling scarves, purses and bags, coats, clothing, sunglasses, wallets, belts, just about everything in that sense. Everything is cheap but fake. The scarves are awesome though, only 5 euro and they are actually pretty nice. There is one market that runs about a mile long, but it only opens Tuesday mornings. Everything there, though, is very inexpensive, scarves for only 1 euro.

8. Fashion - As soon as I walked into the Florence airport, fashion hit me in the face. Billboards of people modeling clothing or bags or whatnot. The people are very flashy wearing the latest fashion, and there are clothing stores everywhere. Granted they are really expensive but fashion is pricey!