Katherine Rodriguez

I got to my hotel in just 20 minutes from the airport. The cab fare was 21 euros. I gave her a 40 needing change and she handed me back the other 20 saying 20 was fine – I’m officially not in NYC anymore.

I left my hotel, the Hotel Lungarno, around 3PM with no agenda, except to let the streets (more like alleys) of Florence take me anywhere and everywhere. Turns out – it’s easy to get lost when you have no GPS and barely any visible street signs. I no longer have the comfort of knowing I’m going north if I’m on 14th St. walking towards 15th St. All I know is that if I find this naked dude again, I’m home.

First things first – Florence fashion… No, first I need a cappuccino since it is 10am in NY after all. The cappuccino was delicious and overpriced – I felt like I was home. Now, fashion…it’s cheaper to buy things here, right? Riiight.

I’m obviously going to buy everything from LUISAVIAROMA for work attire.

I could say the Catholic in me pulled me towards the Duomo, but it’s so friggin’ big you don’t really have a choice but to come across it. I’m pretty sure Atheists stumbled upon this beast of a cathedral.

And then, there was this guy…

He was pretty deep. I almost cried. But, I’m also really exhausted.

The dark circles under my eyes are evidence of a chick who flew across an ocean and over the Swiss Alps on the red eye to Zurich to finally land in Florence, Italy. I’ll smile after I sleep…

Here’s the view from if you were actually standing on the Ponte Vecchio…

A couple hours later, I found my naked dude and the world was A-OK.

Now it’s time to eat my first Italian meal in Italy!

(Mission 1: Accomplished.)