One hell of a day in Italy

Hey there! This week I bring you a story about one of the most intense days I had in my life. Me and my mate were going for the second time in a row to Italy as it's definitely one of our favorite destinations in the world. The year before we went to Rome and Florence, so this time we decided to explore this beautiful country a bit more and do a bit of travelling around several cities. Our plan was to go from Rome to Milan by stopping at the most substantial amount of cities we could afford in a week. And it couldn't be a better adventure than this.

Our first day was completely spent in Rome. We knew Rome quite well by now, so we were just wondering around through this amazingly historical city, contemplating its beauty and imagining times past as we both admire history. But it's on our second day that this story takes action. We woke up still in Rome, as we were supposed to, and after a small breakfast we took an early train heading to Florence. By now nothing extravagant happened as we did this exact route an year ago. Three hours later we arrive at Santa Maria Novella, Florence train station. From the station until the city center is quite close so we decided to walk. I must be honest with you, Florence is definitely my favorite city in Italy. Strolling through the massive intersections of streets. Contemplating those amazing plazas filled with monuments or historical building like the Palazzo Vecchio or the Piazzale Degli Uffizi. Crossing the Ponte Vecchio with the Arno river on your sight or even going up the hill to the Piazzale Michelangelo to take the typical Florence photo. All this makes me leave reality and enter a kingdom of dreams where everything is perfect. And don't even let me start with the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. The symbol of Firenze, this cathedral is simply the most beautiful monument I had my eyes on. It's the definition of perfection.

Anyway, time was passing and lunch time arrived, as our bellies clearly mentioned. We were next to the Palazzo Vecchio when we decided to look for a restaurant. We went up one street, turn left on the other and guess what we found. The same restaurant we had been one year ago. A restaurant that we didn't even remembered the name. Actually, we didn't even realize it was the same restaurant until we walked inside and sit down. You can imagine the surprise look on our faces when we notice it. The restaurant is called " Pizzeria O'Vesuvio" and I definitely recommend. I don't know if it's still the same, it has been 3 years since this story happened, but it was managed by a family from Napoli and their pizzas were amazing. This event set up the mood straight away. We had a bit of time to kill before our train to the next city so we decided to go to a pub for a pint. On our way out of the pub we heard and felt a big explosion. My mind was freaking out already. Is it possible that Florence is under attack? There have been some terrorist attacks in Europe by this time and a touristic city like Florence would be a perfect place for one. As this thoughts crosses our minds we start noticing people gathering around in a corner of the plaza we were in, so we decided to do the same. There was a perimeter set around a small luggage and both army and special police were there. But everyone was calm and simply doing their job so I believe it was or a police training or just a suspicions package. We even tried to check on the news if something showed up on the following days, but nothing.
After this occurrence we walked to the train station and we got a really fast train to Pisa. It was already getting dark when we set foot on this small Italian city so we dropped our bags at the hotel and we went as fast as we could to the most famous monument on the city, the leaning tower of Pisa. The city itself is very calm and quiet, with not much to do, and the monument is not that impressive compared with other famous monument in Italy. On our way back to the center, we took a street called Via Notari and we noticed that a small square on our right was full of people and music was blasting. We decided to take a look and we found ourselves in la Piazza delle Vettovaglie, a small market during the day but a place to gather during the night. We were surrounded by bars and young people like us. Obviously we had to join the party.

We got a beer, we got a place to sit and we wanted to go slow as our intentions were not to get drunk. After all, the day of tomorrow we would travel to Genoa and we would have a long journey ahead until we reached our destination. But you guest it right, we didn't take it slow. One after another, what started as just a pint and two friends hanging out, quickly transformed into a group of university girls taking down pints with us. At a point, during this night, my friend even started serving costumers for the bar we were getting our drinks. Everything was going reasonably okay until my friend disappears. At first I didn't care so much. I got another beer and I just hang with the group we were with. But the time was passing. First thirty minutes, and I start to get worried. Then one hour, and half the group goes home. Thirty minutes more and the rest calls it a night. And now what? The plaza is almost completely empty, I'm alone in a city I scarcely know and my friend is missing. At that point I didn't knew if I was more worried about his safety or angry at his reckless behavior. I decided to eat a take-away pizza and wait thirty more minutes, if he wouldn't show up I would go home. And that's what I did. I must admit, I was drunk and a bit concerned about my safety so I believe going back to the hotel was the best decision to make. But where was the hotel. I had completely no idea. I just knew I had to cross the bridge to get there but after that, nothing. It was exactly on the bridge that I found my friend. Sitting down on the side, he was asking people, using a mixture of Portuguese, English and Italian, their phones so he could call me. After that, everything turned into a blur of thoughts. I remember we argued, that we made truce, that we reached the hotel and we went to bed. But it was the next morning that revealed the damaged we created. The afterwards of a music festival looks more clean than that room. I believe I speak for both of us when I say that we truly feel ashamed of the state we left that room. But there was nothing we could do and we had a train to catch. So we grab our bags, we walked until the train station and we left Pisa behind, and with it one of the most intense days I had. But thank God there were more, way more.

With that said, I shared one of the most important stories of my life. 

I'll see you next time and Ciao Ciao!!!