As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts, I lived in Florence for 3.5 months in 2012 while studying abroad my junior year of college. While we were planning our 2.5 week European Adventure, I knew I wanted to go back to Florence to see my old apartment, my old classrooms, and just see the city again.
While I lived in Florence those 7 years ago, I always felt I was so happy that I chose to live there over a place like Rome, which back then I felt was just too big and too much of a “big city,” or Venice, which I felt was boring and freezing in February. Going back to Florence 7 years later, I suppose I’m still happy I loved there - it’s a smaller, quaint city, and I always felt safe walking around. I never had to take a bus or a train to get anywhere, but now visiting as a tourist, I/we found it pretty underwhelming. There wasn’t much to do and there were a million cafes that sold the same mortadella and cheese sandwiches. We actually went back to the apartment to sleep for a few hours one day.
I still think it’s a great city and I’ll always cherish the memories I had there while I was studying abroad - all the friends I made, the art pieces I created, the mediums I experimented with in the art studio. Florence is really where I found my style as an artist. All of this said, I don’t feel rushed to return any time soon.
The best part of our trip was eating at this amazing little deli/restaurant called “La Prosciutteria” which we went to 2 nights in a row, on both occasions ordering a different kind of beef tartar platter, and then ending our last night having dinner and going to a club with some new local friends we met at a bar across the street called “Love Craft,” another spot we went back to 2 nights in a row. This made our 12 hour travel day (to Switzerland) the next day a little difficult, as we stayed out until about 3 in the morning!!
