Florence

There are some trips that feel like a miracle they make it out of the group chat, and this was one of them. Abbey, Libby, and I spent weeks trying to figure out the best time and flights to visit Natalie in her grad school home of Florence, Italy. Miraculously, we made it.

Day 1: The start of cappuccinos and croissants for breakfast everyday. We walked through town to pick Natalie up from class, had brunch, walked across the Ponte Vecchio, and through the Boboli Gardens.

Day 2: Natalie needed to study for a midterm, so the three of us decided to get out of her hair and do a day trip to Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre means “Five Lands” and is five towns in the coastal hillside of western Italy. We took trains between each town, with the exception of Corniglia to Vernazza, which I hiked between. We loved being close to the ocean, and the towns reminded me a lot of Positano. I’m glad we saw them all, but if I were to go back I would choose one to stay in for a few days as the day was a little rushed. The views from the hike between the villages were AMAZING! It was about a 14 hour day, but so worth it.

Day 3: We got up early to get into the Accademia Florence which is the gallery with the Michelangelo’s statue of David. The Man of Sorrows painting really struck me. We spent a lot of the day resting in Natalie’s apartment with the windows open, listening to the sounds of the city. Later in the afternoon, we got tea and Natalie showed us some cool stores. Bread, cheese, and became our usual lunch.

For aperitivo this day, we got espresso martinis which has been on Natalie and I’s bucket list to do together for – no joke – about two years. We never got around to it in college but I can’t complain because Florence was as good a place as any to check this off the bucket list.

We then walked to a popular sunset spot before heading to dinner. We found out boars are kind of a thing in Italy, and Libby loves them so we made her touch a famous boar’s snout for good luck.

Day 4: This was a slower day and the best night of the trip in my opinion. We got dinner on the less touristy side of the city and then went to meet some of Natalie’s grad school friends in a pub. Her friends were from all over the world and super sweet and stylish just like Natalie. Earlier in the week, we crashed Natalie’s Bible study she hosts at her house through Cru, and it was really cool to hear about how people live out their faith in a foreign city. It made me understand why people love to study abroad so much and how people make a place so far from home feel comfortable.

Dinner was the best meal I ate the whole trip, maybe in my whole life – gnocchi and tiramisu.

Day 5: We went to a museum where they recreate paintings out of stone (incredibly impressive), went to a local perfumery, and the activity we had been looking forward to all week: a wine tour. Florence is in Tuscany and we knew we wanted to spend some time in the countryside so the wine tour was perfect! We loved it and it’s not lost on us that the tuscan countryside looks suspiciously similar to our Appalachian mountains at home.

Day 6: Our last morning, Libby and I went to the Medici Chapel. Churches like this make me wish we put more effort into building our modern churches. We also commemorated the last morning of Italian cappuccinos.

We were supposed to leave Florence on an evening flight this night, but it was canceled due to storms, beginning yet another crazy, exhausting travel day. We missed our connection off our redeye on the way into Florence due to delays and customs, and so it took us 3 flights total to get to Florence. Then, we stayed an extra night in Florence on the way out and had to get up at 4am to get to the airport and get on our first flight (Note to Self: nothing in Italy runs early in the morning). Overall though, I’m really proud of how we perservered and “packed our good attitudes” as we started to say haha. Altogether, we stopped in Luxembourg, Copenhagen, and Zurich. All places I would visit on another trip, all places I was desperately hoping to get out of as soon as possible on this one.

I tend to experience anxiety when traveling to new places, so a girl’s Europe trip felt way out of my comfort zone. Yet, even through the horrendous travel days, the Lord continued to show up and I began to be reminded yet again how he keeps us safe while pushing us to what we think are our limits. My first time in Europe in 2019, it felt off-putting how slightly different everything was, how very obviously not-America it feels. This time, the quirks of Europe began to feel more familiar, and just like that my comfort zone expanded a little.

When I think of this trip to Italy, I’ll remember how excited I was to just get to Natalie and see her city. I’ll remember how everything was blooming and how it was almost a year after graduation we found ourselves together again, in a much different place both physically and personally, yet still friends. I’ll remember the calm pace of life and how things about the Italian culture remind me of my family and especially my Poppa. There’s a familiarity in the warmth of the Italian people. There’s a feeling of belonging I can’t quite put my finger on. In churches with fundamentals I disagree with, there is a reverence that we need but lack. And as always, I’m reminded people are people everywhere, and for all our differences we are more the same than we realize.