Or, I have a cold. I noticed on thursday that my throat was hurting and I immediately started taking cold medication to try and fight it off. It didn't work. That may have possibly been my own fault. I took it easy Thursday... I went to bed early and slept for 12 hours. On Friday we didn't go out, we just hung out in our apartment. Saturday may have been my undoing though. I went on a hike and then I went out dancing. Yesterday I woke up and I was more stuffed up than ever and I am pretty sure I had a fever and I spent the whole day resting.
I think I broke the fever though, cause I am feeling better today. Not super better, but better.
Friday I went with my roommates and some other people and we climbed to the top of Il Duomo. It was amazing! The climb was pretty strenuous. But it put me up close with the painted ceiling, which I spent FOREVER looking at. Then we climbed even more and we were on the balcony of the dome. All of Florence was visible, and the countryside surrounding it. It was unreal. I didn't have my camera because I hadn't known I would be going from school to the duomo, but Kevin took a picture of me. I'm going to try and post pictures tomorrow.
That night the guys came over and we all just talked for a really long time. It was nice.
Saturday we took a bus to a town called Fiesole just outside of the city. I think it must be where the super rich people live, because the food was expensive and these people all had BIG American cars. In the city, the biggest car you see is a Jeep Range Rover or Liberty, and the rest are all smartcars and mini coops and other cars of that design. That's what makes sense, because the streets are so narrow. (Somehow the buses can make it through.) But out in the country they all had Nissans and trucks and other big cars. Who says Europeans don't have big cars? Probably just Europeans and environmentalists. They're lying.
Anyway, we went on this hike up Mount Ciceri, which is where the Florentines used to get the stone to build the city. It was hard and a little nerve wracking, because I was so concious of the roots and the angle of the ground in relation to my ankle. We saw some of the caves. Lorenzo, the program director, was leading us and so he knew where to go. We couldn't go inside the cave he took us to, but he told us that before they put up the "don't enter" tape, that people used to go there with guitars and start a bonfire and just hang out. "It's a really nice cave," according to him.
We pretty much hiked up this entire mountain and we saw Florence. It's not a very big city, but it's pretty spread out. According to Lorenzo, you can walk from the east side to the west side in an hour and a half. The Duomo overpowers the city. It is so gigantic in comparison to everything else.
After we climbed down again, we went to an old monastary that's closed now. There are Roman ruins of an old theatre which I saw from afar. Then we went to a pizza lunch. The coke was 4€ and the pizza was supposed to be a spicy sausage pizza... I really wanted it to be way more spicy. I don't know why, since I normally try and avoid it. But I put spicy olive oil on it and peppercorns and it was just not spicy enough.
That night we went over to the guys' apartment for a little while before we went out. We went to a club called Glamour and just danced and had a great time. It was really a lot of fun. At one point I couldn't breath though. A lot of Italian guys try and pick American girls up at bars and clubs. When I sat down cause I couldn't breath, this guy came and put his arm around me and tried to talk to me. He may have been sincere, but I doubt it. At another point I was just waiting for my roommates to come outside and these guys tried to circle up and hit on me. I didn't look at any of them and just said, "Viavi... or Via Vi." I'm not sure which, but apparently it means "Go away" and they did.
We got home at 4 30.
We all woke up around 1, and I was sick as a dog. I'm jealous of my roommate Renee, because she had whatever I have, only she had it for a day, not 5. Yesterday I finished Jane Austen's Emma and today I'm going to start Northanger Abbey. 3 books in a week. Good thing I found an Anglo-American bookstore.
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