Florence

For the first free weekend, I traveled to Italy with my roommates. We had quite the experience. Our relevantly inexpensive hostel was amazing and overlooked a Bazaar and an amazing view of the city. Our first meal after unpacking was at a cafe just below our hostel & we were so excited to have PASTA in ITALY :)
We saw people yelling down the street with signs, I leaned over the girl sitting next to our table to ask if 1) she spoke English and 2) if she knew what was going on. Interrupting Jennifer's lunch break from her clothing boutique summer job, turned out to be a blessing. She helped us figure out where to go for night life, where to go for the best gelato, and she even offered to go barter for us in Italian for these satchels we had eyed at the open market. She explained that they might try to up charge us for being tourist & insisted we allow her to come. 3 matching Italian leather satchels later :) we had exchanged numbers with her.