Fiorentina!

The week leading up to the soccer game was pretty eventful. On Monday, we celebrated Danielle's birthday with aperitivo at Moyo. Aperitivo is done at a few local bars that set up a small buffet of different kinds of finger foods and small dishes, including pasta, sandwiches, and french fries. All you have to do to indulge in this buffet is pay for a drink, and the food is then all you can eat. Of course we took advantage of this and went up several different times. Our teacher told us that usually Italians only take a few things to put on their plates. But of course, as Americans, we loaded the plates with as much as we possibly could and called it dinner! Oh well ...

We also visited the Palazzo Vecchio with class. This building is located in the Piazza della Signorina, next to the Uffizi. This building was used by the Medici family years ago and is full of history. Now, it is the town hall of Florence. It was great to be able to go to a sight with class because I have been in Florence for a few weeks now, and I have only seen a handful of the sights! We are trying but the days are not long enough for everything we want to do.

This week, we also went to aperitivo at Gatto. They just started their aperitivo so we decided to try it out. It ended up being a weaker selection than Moyo, so we just got meals which is fine with me since I love their food. After that we headed to a place called Twice for a 'Black and White' party. There were a lot of people from Elon there and it was a lot of fun to see people from school outside of class.



This weekend we stayed in Florence and decided to see some things we have never seen. We also realized we had a lot of fun weekends coming up and it would be a good idea to take it easy before all the traveling began once again. On Saturday we went to a serial killer museum and the Pitti Palace. The serial museum was RIGHT up my alley. When you walk in, they give you headphones to listen to stories about each of the featured serial killers in the museum. There were a lot of American ones that I recognized and had heard about, along with ones from other countries that I had never heard of. I felt like I was in a real life 'Dateline' episode so of course I was loving every second of it. Chelsea couldn't make it past the Jack the Ripper exhibit and had to leave because she was too scared. I knew she was doomed when Allaire sneezed and she almost had a heart attack. Either way, it was a great museum.

After that, we bought jerseys at the market for the soccer game on Sunday, and then met the boys and walked to the Pitti Palace, which is on the other side of the river, passed the Ponte Vecchio. The Pitti Palace was the home of the Medici family, and is now a place with about ten museums and beautiful gardens. Since the place is so massive, we only walked through the Boboli gardens.



Saturday night we went to a sports bar called the Lion's Fountain to watch the Michigan vs Notre Dame game. It was really funny when we walked in there because the place was packed the soccer fans, which was not surprising. When we asked when the game was going to be turned on, the bartender told us after one of the two soccer games being shown was over. Then, after about 10 minutes of the game being on, the bartender said that Italians find American football 'quite boring' and asked if we would mind watching it in the back room. The back room wasn't quite as nice as the actual bar with their flat screen televisions. There was an old TV on a rolly stand and not that many seats.



It ended up being extremely fun because the entire place was packed with Americans screaming and yelling at the little screen. It gave me a little taste of home, and it was the first TV I had watched since I have been here, so I was taking it all in. Michigan ended up winning in the last few minutes, so the excitement in the little room in the back never gave up. We met a lot of Americans from all over the country who were in Florence for all different reasons. It is always interesting to talk to people about why they are in Florence. All in all, it was fun to hang out with some normal, football-loving Americans.




Sunday was, of course, the highlight of the weekend. We all put on our jerseys to cheer on Fiorentina, the local soccer team. We had a tailgate of our own in the apartment before the game, took the bus to the stadium, and found our seats for Fiorentina vs. Calgary.


I have been to soccer games in America but this clearly does not compare. People spend the entire game waving flags, doing cheers, and screaming at the other players. There is even a special, caged-in section for the away team fans because people can get so into the games that fans have been injured in the past. The stadium was as big as a college football stadium and it was packed. Calgary is not one of Fiorentina's top competitors, but it was still a close game. Fiorentina won 1-0.



All in all, it was a great weekend for sports in Florence!