We started off the day by getting up at 8 to catch the train at 8:50 for Arezzo, which is about an hour outside of Florence. Shockingly enough, getting a train ticket was pretty easy. Those Europeans and their way of making things easy.
Arezzo is this beautiful little town which has a really cool antiques market the first weekend of every month, which is one of the reasons we decided to go. It's beautiful. It's old and small and full of neat stuff and there's this huge park on the top that offers an incredible view and wow. I didn't think I would love it as much as I did. The market had so much cool stuff too. I'll probably go back, it's so worth it. AND WE SAW A SURPRISE PARADE. Literally, we were walking up this street looking at the vendor stalls and we went to turn down this other street when we noticed this guy dressed in Renaissance garb but we figured, "Eh there's always one." No. We turn to walk down the street and it's full of at least 30 people in Renaissance garb carrying drums, horns, banners, fake swords, the whole nine yards. And then they started marching. So we followed them for a bit before we got distracted. It really made me nostalgic for marching band, something I haven't felt in awhile. But when it was good, it was really good and I really loved it. Anyway, after getting distracted, we wandered around the main square for a bit then Alex and I went up to the little park thing (our eyes having been intrigued by greenery and old walls) and were rewarded with a beautiful park with an incredible view. It also reminded me of how much I miss nature and stuff, so it was really nice to be around trees and grass. While we were up there, we saw the parade go by again. We're still not sure exactly what it was, except really cool. After the park, we met back up with the other girls and meandered out of Arezzo to get the train to Cortona. I was sad to say goodbye but I'm pretty sure I'll be back.
Right then, off to Cortona. Train was again, surprisingly easy to navigate so one train ride and one bus ride (thanks to a very nice bus driver who let us on for free when we couldn't figure out where to buy tickets) later, we were are the bottom of Cortona. And literally, it was all uphill from there. Cortona is beautiful, even in the cold pouring rain like when we were there but it is a hill town if I've ever seen one. First, we hiked up to the main square and stopped for lunch where we got pizza and hot chocolate. We ended up lingering for awhile to avoid the worst of the rain but eventually we just decided to brave it. So off we went to a great lookout location, where we took some pretty incredible pictures. That's the beautiful thing about hill towns - you can see everywhere. I'm sure it's even more beautiful in the summer. Then we began the long, long, long, uphill hike to the church at the top. Every time I thought it ended, I was wrong. Oh so wrong. Eventually we made it to the top and the church was beautiful, especially the inside. And I'm sure there would have been some incredible views had it not fogged over major league right at that moment. Regardless, it was a very accomplished to get all the way to the top and I can only imagine what it would like on a clear sunny day. After a quick rest stop in the church, we made our way back down the main square and got our bus tickets and some chocolate to eat on the train. Then the fun really started. First, we went to the wrong bus stop, only to see that the bus didn't come for another 90 minutes. Then, once we found the right bus stop, all the while trekking up and down hills mind you, we still had 75 minutes left. We got about 10 feet up towards the main square, found a street with cover from the rain and sat down and ate our chocolate. Confession? It was really nice. We of course, finally made it back to Firenze with zero problems and have had a lazy night in. I don't exactly trust my legs to do much walking tonight haha.
And all that was just one day. GAH.
Ciao!!
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