Vulnerable

March 25, 2018 (Age: 17) [Part One]

Dear Diary,

The previous entry was really an awful way to start off a new journal and a terrible explanation of my first day in Italy. It is quite obvious that I was very tired and was beginning to fall asleep as I was writing.

Last night, since I was tired, I didn't write. It is currently 8:30 in the morning and I'm on the bus.

Yesterday was actually a really good day! We all woke up at around 7am. Breakfast was really good. I ended up having a croissant, some fruit and a yogurt. Once breakfast was done, we left our suitcases in the hotel and went to a tour around Florence. We used these things called whisper headsets. A way to describe them is that they are like walkie-talkies. The tour guide would speak into a small microphone and the 25 students would be able to hear him/her. A good chunk of our morning/afternoon consisted of a walking tour of Florence. It is such a stunning city! It truly is!

Oh! I forgot to say that quite a few of us girls were getting cat called. Quite a few of us (including myself) were being whistled at and such. It was weird at first, not going to lie. In Canada, people usually don't do those kinds of things. Well, not that I've encountered at least. Once we finished the walking tour, we went to some view point that overlooked the whole city of Florence. Oh my god, the view was stunning! I took plenty of pictures. Once we were done at the viewpoint, we drove to San Grimignano. Long story short about that place, it looks like a medieval castle. The views were also stunning there too.

For museums, they had a "Torture Museum". I didn't go in it but from what I was hearing, they seemed to be pretty fascinating. In San Grimignano I had gelato. Gelato is Italy's version of ice cream. Holy crap, it was AMAZING! The kinds that I got was organic mango and white chocolate. The white chocolate truly tasted like white chocolate and the mango actually tasted like a mango! A way to describe Gelato would be like its like frozen yogurt (but so much better). The flavors are so much richer and each flavor actually tastes like what they claim. Once we finished there, we ended up heading back into Florence for dinner. For dinner, we ended up walking to a restaurant where we ate spaghetti (which was amazing!), potatoes, and sausage.

Oh! Earlier in the morning and after we did our walking tour of Florence, we went into this leather shop and they showed us how we can tell the different between real and fake leather. Since we were travelling as a school, we got a 10% discount and with any leather purchase, we could get it engraved for free. I got Shawn and my dad an Italian leather wallet. I got Raya and Emily their gifts too. I got them Italian bracelets.

After dinner, we went to the hotel to call it a night. I didn't write because I was too tired and ended up getting distracted by social media. Ended up posting some pictures of my day on Instagram and contacted my family through our Facebook group chat. Mom and Dad are in Las Vegas and poor Jaclyn is still in the city. For myself, I've gotten myself a shirt and a sweater. 250 Euro is not enough. Hopefully I can make this last but I think I might just squeeze past.

Later in our journey I am heading to Venice, Assisi, Verona and Rome. Gosh, why is Italy so expensive?! In Italy, there are a lot of beggars that would try to get you to buy things or will try to get you to give them money or food. I've been asked, but my tour guide says that we need to give them a stern no.

Oh! On day one of our trip, we got to see the Statue of David! He is actually a lot bigger in person. But it is still a magnificent piece of art to see!

As for today, we are on our way to Verona then into Venice. I'm curious as to if Venice will be similar to the Sly Cooper version of Venice. I hope so! Jaclyn would flip! Our tour guide is also giving us tons of maps and stuff. So when I can get home, I can keep all of this to make a scrapbook with.
Hopefully I'll write tonight when my day is done.

Sarah