Encore Une Fois :(

I'm back in the Jersey! Now this makes for an awkward situation because I want to write about how WEIRD America is, but I still have to finish up my Italy posts. Hmm. Well, I'm never one to leave a job unfinished, so I'll write finish up rest of Italy! I hope I remember it all.

So the second day of Florence was an eating fest! We had heard that there were the two most amazing sandwich shops EVER down the street from us, so we hopped on over. First it was to Oil Shoppe where we got an mushroom truffle grilled cheese, which was deliciously cheesy. And then we shopped (of course), and then went to the OTHER sandwich shop called Antico Noe to compare the two. This is where I had the most amazing sandwich of my life. It was sausage with spinach and cheese and an unidentified pickle type of thing on a perfectly crunchy baguette. GOODNESS!

Ahh... I'm usually not a fanatic for sandwiches, but this one was perfect!

Then we went on the hunt for the store that supposedly sold the best gelato in Europe (now that I look back on it, how the hekk did we eat so much?!), and we FINALLY found it! IT
WAS
AMAZING.
I will never forget that place. Oh my gosh. I had the tiramisu gelato, and it was the most heavenly ice cream I've ever had. Nothing will ever compare. EVER.

Tiramisu and pistachio. Both were amazing, but that tiramisu! kfjdjldsfldslfds

And then after immense amounts of drooling, we decided to be somewhat cultured and go to the Uffizi Art Museum--did you know that Italy holds 60% of the world's fine art, and Florence holds about half of that? So we had to go... but we kind of raced through so we could get gelato again HAHA
And this time I got chestnut, which was surprisingly delicious, with another healthy helping of tiramisu. Goodness.

And the next day, we headed off for Venice! It was my least favorite city of the three. It's filled with tiny little streets, so the map is so hard to read. They say you're supposed to allow yourself to be lost in the city, but I love maps and knowing where I am at all times, so that was really hard for me. It's kind of a spooky city to me--we were there for a really foggy string of days, and it was so eerie looking over the Mediterranean and only being able to see a hundred meters in front of you. And there are masks everywhere (it's a tourist thing) with tiny little alleyways everywhere... the accumulation of all those things just created for a spooky image.

But we had the best pasta of our life there (goal 4--complete!) at a little restaurant next to our hotel. It was black tagliatelle with scampi. Goodness! So delicious.

We might have thought it was better than it actually was because it was the first time we had a real meal in awhile haha too much gelato...

And with Venice, we weren't really sure what we should be seeing, so we really just wandered around the city. It created lots of shopping and eating.

There were a lot of stores selling masks! They were really pretty--I wanted to buy one, but I had a feeling the feathers and glitter would go crazy in my suitcase. This store claimed to have supplied Tom Cruise in his movie Eyes Wide Shut.

And I also had the most amazing tiramisu (goal 3--complete!) from a little cafe we came across.

And we had the BEST coffee ever at this coffee bar we stumbled upon. It was so cool! It's literally a bar where they sell coffee and pastries instead of alcohol, and people we swarming the place and fighting for the attention of the bartenders to get some coffee.

Laura and I felt so Italian drinking our cappuccinos here :)

And we somehow found our way to the San Marco Piazza, which was nice. I feel like I've seen so many piazzas by this point that it's kind of hard to differentiate them!

And I'm mixing up my days and not really remembering when we did what. Strange to think that I was just there a little more than a week ago!

Pretty huh?

So on Friday, we were supposed to leave for Brussels, and after a cup of coffee and a sip of grappa (goal 6--complete! et le fin!), it started to snow really heavily, and after hours and hours of waiting around, our flight got CANCELED! We got a flight for the next morning, but we stayed the night in the airport--what an experience! We slept on conveyor belts, and as those filled up (you had to be quick to get those spots!), people were littered around the airport sleeping on the floors. But it was really funny actually! Everyone was laughing at this crazy situation and taking pictures of people sleeping on the ground.

Thumbs up for sleeping on the ground in the airport!

So homeless hahahaha

And we even made friends with this Australian man (who offered to buy us a hotel room for the night... we kindly turned him down hahaha but I think he meant it in a genuinely nice way) and three Dutchies. It seems like misery brings us all together :p

And so we finally got home the next afternoon, and unfortunately I got stranded in Brussels a couple more days than anticipated after my flight was canceled on the following Monday. But now I'm home and safe! Hallelujah!