Friday- March 30
This morning I decided to sleep in because I was poop dead. The night before I had set my alarm clock for 11, but I somehow managed to open my eyes before I heard that pestering noise.
I had told Jon to Facebook message me when they were ready for me to come over, so I checked my inbox before hopping in the shower. No luck hearing from them yet.
After I showered and got ready I checked my Facebook again only to see my inbox empty. I messaged him and told him I was awake and would be ready soon, and just to email me when to come over.
I decided to clean up my room and tidy up the apartment for it to look spiffy for my family to see. After cleaning up the place I checked my inbox again. Still nothing. By this time it was 1:00, two hours after I had woken up ready for the day and excited to show my family around. I supposed the jet lag was hitting them hard.
Of course after I decided to start an episode of One Tree Hill, I saw Jon had messaged me, "Sorry we just woke up."
So I gathered up my things and ventured over to their apartment. I loved how short of a walk it was to my apartment. It was going to make things so much easier.
I buzzed the main front door to the building, even though it was open because I wasn't sure if there was another buzzer inside. I walked through the main door and then to the gated area, where I pushed their apartment, "La Tranquilla." After a few seconds I heard a click, and I pushed open the gate. I walked up the windy staircase and up to their apartment.
Jon was all excited because he said he could see me buzzing their apartment and walking up. It was actually pretty nifty because when someone buzzes them, they can look at this screen to see who it is before they let someone in. My apartment is the old-fashioned way where when I hear someone buzzing I have to look out my window to see who it is.
I lounged around on the comfy, blue couch while my family showered and got ready. My mom said she couldn't fall asleep the night before, whereas Ali said she was out as soon as she hit the pillow.
I ended up waiting for about an hour to an hour and a half for them all to get ready. I tried to be patient, but I was super excited to go outside on this beautiful, sunny day.
Around 2:30 we finally left the apartment to walk around my beautiful hometown. Mi familia was hungry so I took them to a cheap, but delicious sandwich joint right around the corner from my school, Fratellini.
On the way we passed the pizzeria where Jersey Shore worked at when they filmed a season here. Jonathan and Ali got all excited and wanted to eat there, but I refused to. I absolutely hate that TV show because it's ridiculous, but I found it funny they wanted to eat there.
My mom got the same thing as me...number 6: Fresh mozzarella, tomato and olive oil. Ali and Jon both got something with ham, which they enjoyed. My mom loved her sandwich, which made me happy!
I took them into my school to sit down and eat, while also enjoying 50 cent water from the school's vending machine. While we were sitting in the empty common room I said how weird it was to have them sitting there with me because it's been my friends and I here for the past few months. It was also weird not seeing my mom, Ali and Jon through a computer screen anymore. They were sitting with me....in my school...in Florence!
After lunch I grabbed my sister a cappuccino from the vending machine I always get my morning drinks from in the school for her to try. I absolutely love these 45 cent cappuccino every morning in my first class. Not only are they cheap, but they're delicious! I was happy to see she enjoyed it too.
After lunch I showed them around the school. We walked up to the third floor where we looked out the windows. Mom got a little to close to look out and backed out as soon as she realized how high up we were. Ali and Jon wanted to go up higher, so we went upstairs and my mom went back down.
I never looked out these windows before on both the third and fourth floor, but when I did on the fourth floor, I realized how beautiful the view was. I'm barely up here to even think to look out of the window, but I could see over many rooftops. I looked down to see if mom had come outside yet, but she wasn't there. After a few minutes I began walking down the stairs, while Ali and Jon took the elevator.
When I made it to the first floor, I saw mom on the stairs talking to people. I thought, "Oh geeze, she already made friends." Then I realized it was my friends. I was happy she got to meet Bethany, Megan, Yelena, Kelsey and Amy. They were going to go buy tickets for the Florentine soccer game that Sunday and were meeting at the school.
While we were talking I heard Ali and Jon get off at the ground floor and they yelled up at us asking what we were doing. They walked up to where we were and I laughed when I watched Jon casually look at all my friends....such a teenage boy.
After we said goodbye to the girls we started walking around Florence. Mom needed to go to the exchange place again, so we headed over that way. Afterwards we started walking over to the Arno. Once we ran into it, my family was in awe...and so was I. The view really was gorgeous, and while I was looking out at it I realized I never come out this way anymore. I really need to start doing that more often, I thought.
After sitting on the edge for a little bit, we headed over to the infamous jewelry bridge. As we were walking along it Mom kept getting held up while looking at all of the shiny things. It made me laugh. The prices did not. I think the cheapest thing I saw was maybe a little €100.
Ali took some pictures on a lookout point on the bridge and mom found a staircase that led up somewhere, but was blocked off. After we got across the bridge, Jonathan wanted from gelato.
He got chocolate — of course — and said it was delicious. I wasn't sure if we had to pay to sit down or not so I told him to get it to go so mom wouldn't have to pay for more.
We then decided to follow the road where the bridge left off at. I had never been beyond this bridge, so this was a new experience for me as well. Along the way we ran into Sarah Bishop and Lindsay, a girl who goes to school with me. I was completely thrown off when I heard someone say, "Is that the Restelli family?" I soon realized it was Sarah, who I went to high school with.
While we were talking with them, they told us to definitely go to the Boboli Gardens. Mom then said that someone on their plane ride here highly recommended them too. I had never heard of them, but Sarah and Lindsay both said it was beautiful.
After saying goodbye, we kept venturing on until the streets opened up into a big piazza and I saw this massive building. A sign soon came into my vision that read "Pitti Palace." I immediately said, "Oh my gosh! I've been wanting to go here forever, but I never knew where it was at and never really tried to find it!" Mom was happy to see something new with me. We didn't go in, but we said we would come back another day to see it.
Since it was a warm, sunny day outside, we sat out in the piazza, soaking up the sun. After about 20 or so minutes we decided to head back toward my apartment. Along the way Jon got hungry and really wanted to try the Jersey Shore pizza, so we headed that way. The manager was very entertaining and had us laughing while Jon tried figuring out what he wanted. He ordered his pizza to go and soon enough the pizza was ready. We took it back to my apartment, and when we reached the doors to my building I warned my family it was about 72 stairs to my place. My mom remembered me saying that and they were all not looking forward to the hike.
I laughed because I have no choice and have to do it every day. When we were winding around the corner on the floor below me mom asked if we were there. "Only one more flight!" When I reached the door I realized Jon was gone. He was ahead of me and didn't ask which one was my apartment so I let him go up the last flight of stairs that led to the rooftop. I laughed when he came walking back down the stairs, and he did too.
When we walked in no one was home, so I showed them around the apartment. Afterwards we sat at the living room table while Jon ate his pizza. I ended up trying a bite, and it was surprisingly good. While we were sitting around I gave Ali here extreme-belated birthday present. Since it was too expensive to mail, I decided to hold on to it to give to her for when she visited. I also gave my mom and Jon their presents I had bought for them back in February. I was super excited to finally give it to them after having it for this long.
While I was home I packed everything I needed because I was going to spend the night at their apartment and we were going to leave early the next morning for Cinque Terre.
We ended up hanging out at my apartment for an hour or so and then we went back to theirs. After stopping back at their apartment we hung out for a while and then decided to venture out for a little dessert. I took them to the first place I ever went to for gelato. It's where Deb and Stan took us the second day we were here. I had only been in there one other time after, so I was excited to have it again. I got nutella and fior di latte, yet again. It's by far the best gelato I've had yet and it's the first one I had.
Ali, Jon and mom all loved it as well.
After gelato, we went home and hung out for a while. I logged on to my Netflix account and we all decided to watch The Double. It got about half way through and then froze and wouldn't work. I was pretty happy about this because I was exhausted and wanted to go to sleep. My family, however, was still awake. Mom said they should probably get to bed anyways.
Before I went to sleep, we all agreed that we weren't going to go to Cinque Terre anymore because we didn't want to leave so early in the morning. The trains to this place only run every few hours, and since it takes three hours to get there, we figured we would go another day. They were still trying to get over jet lag so we decided not to set alarms and wake up whenever.
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