Day 117

--Day 117 of 119 days. Do you realize that this means I only have two more nights in Firenze? The thing is, I realize it, I keep reminding myself of it, try to remember every detail I can, but it still hasn’t hit me. I’m not expecting that punch to the cheek until I am home for a little while. But, in the mean time, I am going to take my sister, Michelle’s lovely advice that she gave to my other sister:

“You don't think about the future. You live in the present like every day is your last. You take a million pictures and write down all the little things that made you fall in love with your experience. You are living the beautiful life...so give it everything you got.”

I have been keeping this in mind for the past few weeks (especially after I received the quote). After fetching our bags and making the trek from the kind family’s apartment –the family who held our bags while we were in Greece –to our hostel (and praying my arms were a wee bit stronger), Nikki and I were in need of a shower. We soon ventured back into the sun.

On the way to lunch, we found a black and white photobooth that we had been meaning to stop in, especially after watching the film Amelie. Here are the photos, my oh my.. =)

me in the photobooth

photograph by Nikki

Nikki e io

photograph by booth 

We also stumbled upon a market of vendors, who were selling Sicilian arancini di riso (aka my Grandma’s delicious rice balls!) So good, but Grandma, yours were definitely better! And for lunch, we had our last Gusta Pizza. Sidenote: as you can see, Nikki and I are making our rounds to our favorite places to see, eat, visit, etc.

Sicilian rice balls! Nom!

photograph by Nikki

We visited the Pitti Palace to go into the Galleria D’arte Moderna, which I had not visited yet. It was great to get to see yet another gallery in the immenseness of the palace, and to see more modern art as well! As usual, I took down some notes of names of artists and pieces I liked for various reasons. Nikki and I (I apologize for saying that so many times by now! Haha but we are havin’ a grand old time) went to Volume caffé, another one of my favorites. We had cappuccini and hung around drawing, writing, and making nonsense for a while. 

notes and things from the gallery of modern art

the moon & the sun

For dinner, we went to the delicious osteria (restaurant) that Meredith introduced us to last week. Again, another delicious sharing of dishes, and complimentary champagne tonight! What lucky gals! We sat on the wall near the Arno eating some gelato from another one of our favorite gelato places, and eventually wandered back.