As our final days in Florence approached, my roommates and I couldn’t help but constantly reminisce on all the memories we shared and the crazy ups and downs we experienced in this beautiful country we can now call home.

With the stress of finals and packing our lives up we had remembered our silly bucket list that we made in the beginning of the semester. The contents of which contained visiting some of the famous museums in town and also the American dive bars heavily frequented by other study abroad students. We managed to get 80% our bucket list and boy was it sad taking it down from out refrigerator on move out day.

A view of my bridge, aka Ponte alle Grazie, and neighborhood from the beautiful FUA patio

Besides our silly list, some of the last few moments we had in Florence included finally visiting Palazzo Pitti and Giardino di Boboli. My roommates and I took advantage of the free admission Sunday and waited in the pre-rainstorm heat to get one last look at the art collections and take in the last views of the crazy Renaissance ceilings.

A peek at the gorgeous ceilings and art inside Palazzo Pitti

After making our way through the decorated palace, we found ourselves at the bottom steps of the gardens. We were not aware of how much trekking was involved to get around and with the ominous weather threatening our every move we opted for a short cut that led us to an incredible view of the city, almost as beautiful as the one Piazzale Michelangelo offers.

The beautiful view we stumbled upon in the Boboli Gardens

Speaking of, we made sure to hit up Piazzale Michelangelo one last time for sunset, and although the arduous hike never got easier, the views only got better. The weather had been pretty rough during our last week but this sunset was almost like a goodbye present for us. We all sat there saying goodbye to all our favorite landmarks and just basking in the last moments of sunlight.

Ponte Vecchio taken from my favorite viewing spot that I miss dearly

After our last dinner in town we visited our favorite gelateria one last time and strolled our away across Ponte Vecchio, to Piazza Della Signoria, and lastly to the Duomo. Our last night couldn’t have been more perfect. The next morning we didn’t say goodbye to Florence or each other, but rather ‘ci vediamo presto!’

An incredible goodbye sunset we were graced with

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Lidia is a spring 2018 SAI Florence student from the University of Central Florida.