Day 20: I want to go HERE!!!

Day 20 - A picture of somewhere you'd love to travel

Florence, Italy

Here is the funny thing out of this, I have actually already been to Florence, Italy. Back when I was in college (my senior year), they offered traveling courses during our Jan Term Session. (Just in case you wondered, I went to a private college in California..and yes it was religious affiliated. Thus when all the rest of the state schools were on vacation break..which was normally long...we had about 2.5 weeks off for Christmas break and then went back to school for a month.) 

Jan term was the time frame where a student could take a fun, easy and laid back class (get an easy A) and still manage to party their ass off. Yes...party one ass off happens at all colleges, but I would say more so private colleges. And normally the parties are just as wild as an Frat or Sorority party (since my school did not allow such groups to exist). It was also during Jan term that they offered travel courses, imagine going to a different country for a month to "learn". 

When I saw they were offering an Art, History, Religion Course in Italy during Jan Term, I just had to go! Of course the way it works out, is they raffled off the coveted student places (as they only allowed 20 students into this class). I was very lucky that my parents decided to give me my graduation present early and were willing to pay for this class (if I got in)...as travel courses were additional money compared to the normal semester tuition!

It worked out that my name was pulled (and to my horror, my roomate at the time name was not pulled. Trust me this caused a huge issue and before I left to go home for Christmas we had a HUGE blow out). 

Thus, Starting January 3, 2000 I started my month long schooling and adventure in Italy. We originally started in southern Italy, Rome which we stayed (and traveled in local areas) for a week. The next big city we stopped at (and stayed the longest at...14 days) was Florence. 

Now, if you have never been to Florence before it is a huge and beautiful city set off that the Ponte Vecchio runs through. Now imagine staying in a hotel to where you open up the terrace windows and look out onto the bridge that crosses this huge river!!! Florence was the hub of the Renaissance in Italy, the arts flourished there.   

The food to die for and the shopping was quite nice as well. I enjoyed all the sites, smells, tastes, and in particular all the culture (whether is was in a church or in a museum). 

I would love to go back, I hope that I can share this experience with my mister. As I have such fond memories going while I was in college...I would love to see it as a "official" adult!!!