Vorrei, vorrei, esaudire tutti i sogni tuoi

Robbie encouraged us the first day to wake up each day with a song on our hearts, but he helped us out with that one today. Not only did we listen to Don’t Worry Be Happy, but we also started learning some Italian. “Vorrei” was our word of the day and our assignment was to order a cappuccino at Mario’s. Of course, learning always occurs better with a song, and thus ensues the title of today’s blog. Translated, “vorrei, vorrei, esaudire tutti i sogni tuoi” means “I want to fulfill all of your dreams”. I won’t overdramatize things and say that Florence is fulfilling all of my dreams, but it is certainly a dream to be here!

Today was a day of walking…okay, every day is a day of walking here, but today we walked just shy of 10 miles, and I don’t know about you, but I dare say that is quite the jaunt. We started in the Scandicci market, upon which we indulged in our first gelato of the summer. I went with a cone of biscotto e stracietella and mamma mia, was it delicious!! I will be eating a geLOTo of cones in the next few months! From there, we went to Mario’s food truck and tried cow stomach, yes, cow stomach. Would I want to eat it on the regular? No. Was it worth trying? Yes. I’ll just leave it at that. A stop at Mario’s (not food truck Mario, caffeteria Mario’s, don’t get them confused, there are few similarities between cow stomach and a cappuccino) where we ordered cappuccinos in Italian and had a jolly good time. This concluded the Scandicci portion of our day and we hopped a bus to Florence.

First stop in Florence on today’s visit was the San Miliato church. The first of many we will frequent, San Miliato came complete with a beautiful view of Florence (see today’s picture) and countless selfie opportunities–except let’s be honest, every location is a great selfie stick opportunity. From San Miliato, we trekked down to the Pilazzale Michelangelo where we saw another breathtaking view of Florence, frequented some souvenir kiosks, and strolled through an iris garden and a rose garden. We saw from afar and also walked across the Ponte Vecchio, the oldest bridge in Florence, and stopped by the piggy market where I rubbed the pig statue’s nose for good luck (pictures to come to Facebook sometime in the near future). I opted to stay in Florence for the evening, and ate dinner with a big group at a quaint little restaurant…I took a picture of the name of it, but currently cannot recall. I ate a generous portion of tortellini and had a thirst quenching peach tea. The waiter/owner of the restaurant–whose mother opened the shop many, many years ago–spoke wonderful English and was as charismatic as they come! As a welcome to Italy, he gave our whole group free dessert, some sort of sugar-covered donut type thing with chocolate or custard on top–both were to die for, I ate multiple. Satisfied with our much-needed food break, we hit the streets again and perused some markets before making our way to the tram station and trekking back to the villa. We timed our walk up the hill impeccably, as we enjoyed the sun beginning to set over the Italian countryside. My feet may currently throb with every step that I take, but today has been wonderful and I look forward to a day of rest and worship tomorrow!