Il Finale Perfetto: Snow in Firenze!

     On Friday December 17th, the day before we were scheduled to leave Florence, I woke up to a BBM message on my phone. It was from my father and the message read: "Wake up! It's snowing!" Still half asleep it took a few seconds for the words on the screen to register, but as soon as they did it was like a light bulb going off in my head.... SNOW IN FLORENCE! I leaped out of bed, my heart beating with excitement, and ran to the closest window. I couldn’t help but think that our last wish for snow might actually come true! Once I reached the ledge my excitement was immediately crushed. All I saw was a cloudy sky and bundled up Italians walking down the street below me. There was no snow in sight, not even a snowflake. Disappointed I walked away and re-read the message my Dad had sent me. This time I noticed a second half: "Expecting 4-5 inches of snow today!" Now even more depressed I crawled back into bed hoping that my Dad wasn’t just teasing me and that in a few hours I would wake up to falling snow.
     When I woke up a few hours later I immediately began making my way toward the window. I walked down the hallway, into the living room where 4 of my roommates were sitting, and before I could even make it to the window I could see tiny white flakes falling from the sky. It was snowing! Although it wasn’t much, being a southern California girl and living in a city where it doesn’t snow made it quite exciting!
     Around noon Stesha, Cami, Emma, Shannon, Claire and I bundled up and headed to Ganzo for lunch to use up the last of our free meal vouchers. It was our first time outside since the snow had started falling. Although it was snowing very lightly, just seeing tiny little snow flakes fall onto my black jacket was so exciting!

    After we had finished eating lunch we were sitting at the table getting ready to leave, when I leaned back in my chair, looked through the window and saw that the little flurry of snow had turned into a blizzard! It was pouring snow outside! Hardly able to contain my excitement I ran outside before everyone else and took a little video:

So excited for snow!

Right outside Ganzo

     Once it started snowing it didn't stop. It snowed pretty heavily ALL day long. Here are some pictures I took when I wandered around Florence later that afternoon.

12/16/10 -Santa Croce and the Christmas Market

12/17/10 - Santa Croce and the Christmas Market

Arno River with the Ponte Vecchio in the background

Buses and taxis stopped running

     As the snow continued to fall and showed no sign of stopping we all began to get a little nervous. 5 of my roommates were scheduled to fly out of Florence the next day, I was scheduled for an early morning train ride to Rome, and Caitlin was supposed to be leaving for Venice that night to catch an early flight the next morning! But, with the amount of snow that had fallen and the fact that telephone lines were dead and no buses or taxis were running everyone was concerned about getting out of Florence.
     The first issue we had to deal with was getting Caitlin to the train station to make her 5:30 train to Venice. She started calling taxi companies a few hours before she had to leave, but had no luck finding any that were operating in the snow. She even tried calling a private driving service, but to no avail. Eventually we came to the realization that she was going to have to walk. With all the luggage she had we knew it would be impossible for her to get to the train station by herself so Stesha and I offered to help. We dragged (not rolled-way too much snow for any rolling to be happening) 4 suitcases/duffel bags through 4 inches of snow about a mile to the train station... and all the while it was pouring snow. It was an adventure to say the absolute least lol. Needless to say we were covered in snow, and drenched in sweat. I found the whole thing absolutely hilarious and couldn't stop laughing at how ridiculous it was. It was so ridiculous that I had to capture the moment during one of our many breaks along the way. Here we are in front of the duomo. We thought it would be a perfect place to stop because we could admire the duomo in the snow as well as the beautiful Christmas tree to our right.

Caitlin carried 2 duffel bags, Stesha dragged a suitcase,
and I dragged the MONSTER suitcase in the front of the picture.

Despite carrying 2 heavy duffel bags through the snow,
Caitlin is all smiles! Look at the beautiful snow covered
Christmas tree in the background!

    
     After about 45 minutes we finally made it to the train station. Stesha and I said our last goodbye's and then headed back to the apartment... this time with a lot less weight. Thank God! On our way back Stesha treated herself to a much deserved cannoli, and then we took a few pictures of one another in front of the duomo. They turned out absolutely amazing. Here is the picture of me (great photo taking skills Stesha!):

It doesn't even look real does it???

      After taking a few pictures Stesha and I split up and I wandered around to capture the magical scene of a snow covered Florence. First I took some pictures of the Duomo, then I made my way to Piazza della Republica where I admired the carousel spinning in the snow and stopped at my favorite cannoli spot for my last cannoli and cappuchino. After savoring my cannoli and cappuchino and committing their amazing tastes to memory I headed back to my apartment, all the while taking in the beauty around me.

Piazza della Republica

I walked by this unique wedding dress shop all the time. I always admired
the beautiful dresses in the window, but never stopped to take a picture
until this night. Something about the beautiful white dress, the angel
wings, the warm yellow lighting and the snow falling silently in front
of the store made it so peaceful and magical and just beautiful.

The bikes were buried in snow!

These kids and their father were rolling a HUGE snowball
through the street by my house. They were so cute!

Via Pietrapiana (my home) covered in snow

     A few hours after I had gotten home I got a phone call from Caitlin. Her train had been cancelled and she had been waiting in line for a taxi for the past few hours in order to get back to the apartment. During that time only 2 taxis had shown up so she eventually decided to make a second trek through the snow with all of her luggage. Thankfully it had stopped snowing by then and Shannon and Claire offered to go to the train station to help Caitlin. Although they didn't have to deal with a downpour of snow, they did have to drag the suitcases up 9 flights of stairs... I'm not sure which is worse lol.
     Once Caitlin got back home it was a continued frenzy of trying to figure out how everyone was going to get out of Florence. Were flights going to be cancelled? Were taxis and buses going to start running again so they could get to the airport? It was a nightmare for the 6 of my roommates, that I was glad I did not have to experience. If worse came to worse I would have to walk to the train station with all my luggage, or I might have to take a later train to Rome. Granted both would suck, especially the first option, but I wasn't leaving until the 20th (2 days later) so I didn't have nearly as big of worries as they did.
     At around midnight I said my final goodbye's to all of my roommates (they were all leaving extremely early in the morning and had decided to pull an all nighter) and went to bed. Shortly after I went to bed my roommates began calling taxi companies knowing that it would be very difficult to find one that was operating in the snow. At around 2:15 in the morning they were finally able to get a hold of two taxis to take the six of them to the airport. Although they weren't originally planning on leaving until 4:30am they knew that this would probably be their only opportunity to find a taxi. By 2:30am they had all left, leaving me alone in a dark, empty and silent apartment...