01 Jun Soaking It All In
As my hands sat in the eggy mixture that just could not be smoothed into a silky dough void of lumps, I missed the professors’ discussion of where our Walk Florence Assignment could take place. Planning on trusting my friends who surrounded them soaking up every word, I continued to listen to other students bicker in the kitchen deciding what to do with the food remaining that needed to be made. Luckily, I had trusted the right people, and we set out mid-afternoon today for the Boboli Gardens about a twenty minute walk away from my San Lorenzo Apartment. Upon arriving, I’ll be honest, I hadn’t expected much. I had heard that they were beautiful, and it was definitely something that I had wanted to see, but I was kind of just along for the journey, oblivious to the magnificance that I was about to experience. As we purchased the tickets and headed over to the grand entrance, I had no idea that such an expansive garden could be waiting for me on the other side. My camera was out and ready and as soon as we emerged the beauty overtook me. Allison, Rachel, Ian, and I explored deeper and deeper into the nature awaiting, and once we came to the first gorgeous glittering pond, we found a seat in the shaded grass and literally just relaxed for an hour and a half. We talked, we laughed, and just enjoyed each other’s company. People watching was also a grand experience and you could easily tell who was a tourist and who was a local, mainly by the volume of their voice and their level of PDA (Italians are strangely lax with this I have noticed). As I looked out and could see parts of the city from a beautiful height, I experienced one of those moments that reminds you why life is so special and all you need is great friends who care about you, the sunshine and the breeze, and a view to remind you that the world is meant to be explored, and that is just what we aimed to do as we sat there and soaked it all in.
