Florence: GTL (Gelato, Trains, and Leather)

Since this is a long weekend, a good portion of the group of Arizona kids took off for the weekend. I, unfortuntely, have too much homework and not enough money to be able to such things, so instead Michelle, Tiffany (new friend!), and I decided to head to Florence for the day. We will be going there later as a whole group, but I figured it couldn't hurt to have extra time in the city I have heard so many wonderful things about. And oh my gosh, let me tell you, it far exceeded my expectations. Firenze (pronounced fear-ents-say not fur-en-zeeee like the Americans on the train pronounced it) is gorgeous and classy. I think that's probably what makes it stand out against Rome (which is still awesome), the city just exudes class. It's a very clean city and with the exception of the scary, old lady beggars on the street (Michelle swears they cursed us when we refused them money...more on that later), all the people look fabulous all the time. Also, it's very touristy so pretty much everyone in the shops/restaurants speak fluent English which was very, very refreshing!

The first part of the day was great. We left around 10 from Orvieto. It takes about 2 and a half hour by slow train to get there. There are two types of trains in Italy, the regular trains which make frequent stops and are slower and the "fast" trains that make less stop and are, well, faster. The slower trains do take longer and aren't always nice on the inside (we got lucky this time) but are much cheaper. We shared a compartment with a nice Italian nun.

For those of you who don't know, the fourth season of Jersey Shore is currently filming in Florence. I understand why MTV sent the guidos/guidettes to Italy, but not Florence...it's not near a shore, unless you count the river, and like I said, it is a classy place. Nevertheless, we decided we needed to stalk the Jersey people while we were there. Afterall, Michelle and I are huge film and TV nerds and we were very interested in how reality TV is filmed...and man! it is an intense process. We found the restaurant, O' Vesuvio Pizzeria thanks to the help of my phone's navigation, but honestly, it would've been hard to miss considering the huge mob of Americans (mostly girls our age) outside. I recognized two of the cast members immediately but someone had to tell me that it was Pauly D and Vinny that were just chilling outside the restaurant (I'm just really proud that I didn't know who they were, ok?) 

Anyway, we chatted a little to the Producer who was more willing to talk to us after he found out that Michelle and I are film students. You can't just walk into the restaurant, the show blocks off an area around it and people can take pictures from the outskirts, but if you want to go inside, which we did, they take you around into an alley "holding zone" and you must sign a release form since cameras are rolling AT ALL TIMES. They were very intense about this point and told us that we were not allowed to talk about the show, the cameras, or any of the equipment and were allowed to talk to the cast but NOT about the show. That part made me giggle because what else would I talk to them about? Hey...Snooki, how do you like Florentine weather? 

Badass camera woman filming Vinny and Pauly D 

When we were about to walk in, a young American man who worked for the show looked at my release form and asked me where in Arizona I was from. I told him where and that I went to U of A and he said "no way! me too!" Michelle asked if he graduated with a film degree, and he was like Yeah! Media Arts! and we said, us too! It was cool to see a UA Media Arts grad working in the industry. I asked him if he was a PA (Production Assistant) because this guy looked really young, and he answered coldly, and a little bit offended "No, I'm a Release Coordinator." Oops. My bad. But ok..."Release Coordinator?" That doesn't sound much cooler. That sounds like a job you give to a tiffed kid who's mad about having to help his mom grocery shop. "Oh how sweet! Are you mommy's little helper today?" "No! I'm the fruit juice and pudding consultant!"

Well we finally went inside and I was surprised by how small and low key the restaurant was. You order your food and Pauly D's job was to basically hand you your drink/harass you. He was definitely entertaining though. Sammi was the only one actually working making pizza in the brick oven. They call you for your food (Starbucks style!), and I didn't hear my name the first time it was called so Pauly yelled "CAITLIN COME GET YOUR FRICKIN PIZZA." And that was my exciting celebrity times for the day. 

The pizza was delicious. Definitely the best I've had in Italy so far. I find it a little sad/ironic that the best pizza I've had in Italy was made by Sammi "Sweetheart" from Jersey Shore. 

After all the Jersey excitement and a welcome return to American culture, I reengaged myself with Florentine culture by having the best gelato of Italy so far (made by real Italians this time).

 Then it was time for shopping! Florence is known to have the best shopping in Italy, mostly because it is the leather capital of Europe. My goal was to find a sweet deal on a leather purse, but unfortunately none was good enough for me to let go of my money (although the bags are fabulous and much cheaper than the US for the most part). Shopping was pretty unsuccessful for the three of us but it was fun to see all Florence had to offer. It also started pouring rain, which was a bummer. 

I was planning on meeting up with my friend Catherine who is studying abroad in Florence, my phone was dying and I wasn't able to access the data part of it (for Facebook) but luckily somehow we were able to talk on my phone before it died. Unluckily, it died right after I talked to her and we could not find each other like we planned, I don't really know Florence so I couldn't explain where I was and we just didn't cross paths. I was depressed and didn't want to give up, but we had a train to catch so we had to move on. When we got to the train station, we learned that the train was actually an hour LATER than we thought, so we didn't need to be in a rush at all. We decided to pass time at an Italian train station delicatessen, McDonald's, and ended up running into two other girls from our program. It was random but nice to have a group to share a compartment with and make the time pass back to Orvieto. Once we got back, around 10, the funiculare, a cable car that takes you from the bottom of the cliff to the top, was closed for the night. So we asked a bus driver if he was going up, he said yes but was kind of noncommittal. But eventually he drove us up the hill (really fast and scarily) and once we got there we asked him how much the ride was and he said, "No charge, just for you." America really needs to embrace freebies for girls. 

This was a long blog but I hope you enjoyed it! This week is more school fun, but our next trip is to Siena on Wednesday.