Jess and I woke up early Monday morning to get ready to catch our train to Florence. Ash was staying back to wait for Dionne who was flying into Rome later that day and then take a train to Florence later. Jess and I, usually the ones that are early and know our direction, walked to the bus stop. We got on the bus and realized that is was going in the wrong direction than the train station and had to get off and find the other bus. that took a little time and we were already running a little later than we should have. We got to the Train Station with about 25 minutes until our train left. We stood in line for a while to get our tickets and then realized that we could get them from the kiosks, much faster. Jessica's worked fine but mine wasn't working, so I had to go back to the ticket counter. The line was really long and the train was going to leave in 10 minutes, so I decided to deal with it on the train and just left. It took us 5 minutes to find where our platform was, and we ran to the train. With 3 minutes left until the train left, I got my ticket figured out and we boarded the train. Unfortunately our seats were in Coach 9 but because we hurried on to the train we were only on Coach 2. That meant that we had to drag our huge suitcases through the different coaches, through first class, to get to our coach. It was definitely a pain!
We both were able to sleep for a little bit and before we knew it, an hour and half later we were in Florence! Our hostel was not too far from the train station but still took a lot out of us when we had our huge suitcases. We finally find our hostel, lug our suitcases up 3 flights of stairs, and find out that they overbooked the hostel and that we would have to stay at a different one a few doors down. So Jess and I had to bring our suitcases back down and over to the new "hostel." Jess and I were not too happy at this point and when we walked into our new hostel, we didn't get any happier. It was a lot worse than the hostel we were supposed to stay at and we were just really upset at this point. We were a little stressed out at this point, so what is better than a little comfort food. We got all our stuff settled and went out into Florence to find some food.
We got to explore Florence for the first time and at first we weren't too impressed. But after walking down the tiny streets and getting a feel for the city, we came to like it. We found a cute little restaurant and we both got a plate of pasta, three different kinds actually! It was so so good and made us feel a lot better! After lunch Jess and I went to an internet cafe to try and get a hold of Ashley and Dionne, because none of our phones were working. We found out that they were going to stay the night in rome and we were a little bummed, but it was alright. We walked back to our hostel and both took showers. We went out again to explore and ended up getting a little lost but in the end we did a little sightseeing without really knowing. We ended up in Plaza Santa Croce and in front of Santa Croce Church. We didn't walk in because we wanted to find the river and the famous Ponte Vecchio. It is Florence's most famous bridge that is lined with shops that have traditionally sold gold and silver. The view from the river was gorgeous and Jess and I took a few pictures as the sun was glowing in the background.
We were feeling a little tired so we walked and found a cafe for a cappuccino. While we were there we met some boys from the States that were studying here in Florence. We noticed them because they were wearing large greet hats for St. Patricks Day and we wanted to know where to get them. They told us that there was a pub down the street that was giving them away when you bought a glass of green beer. In the spirit of St. Patricks Day, Jess and I headed to the pub and got ourselves a glass of green beer. It didn't taste different at all, just green. we finished our beer and headed back to our hostel to get changed for dinner.
Jess and I were planning on going out after dinner because there was supposedly some fun bars but we didn't quite make it. We found a nice place to eat and we both finished a pizza, a salad and a glass of beer to ourselves. It has definitely become the norm while we were here in Italy. After that big meal we both had a food coma and decided to just stay in for the night, so we walked home. When we got home we met our other hostel mate, who ended up being a guy from the Ukraine, which was a little awkward but we dealt and just went to sleep because he was only staying one night.
Tuesday March 18th
We woke up hungry like usual at around 11am and ready for some lunch. We walked around until we ended up in front of the Church of San Lorenzo. It is a red brick dome that looks like the Duomo's little sister ( I talk about shortly) is the Medici church and the burial place of the family's founder. We found a restaurant near it and sat outside. The waiter we had was really outgoing and talked very good english. We split a pizza and salad and a coffee to keep warm. After lunch we walked around the plaza that was full of little markets that had leather everywhere. We a did a little shopping because everything was so cheap and such good quality, we couldn't help ourselves.
It was a little chilly out but Jess and I decided that we wanted to go and visit the Boboli Gardens. It is located behind the Pitti Palace that has many gallery inside, but we were into the museums and just went to the gardens. The gardens were so green and lush. It had the best views of Florence from one point and on the other side it was the country side. Whenever I get to see the country side it reminds me of home and I get a little warm fuzzy inside
We stayed at the gardens for a good 2 hours before we were both tired of walking up and down hill so we went back to our hostel. I finally got a hold of Rachel, my good friend from SDSU that is studying in Florence, and we decided to all met up for dinner. We met her in front of the Duomo because it is a easy meeting place and easy to find. The Duomo is Florence's Gothic cathedral that was built in the 14th Century. The neo-Gothic facade is covered with pink, green, and white Tuscan marble. It looks really nice when the sun hits it during the day. After a few minutes of looking around for Rach I found her and we both screamed and jumped on each other. Rach is one of my really really good friends from college that I lived next door to in the dorms and I love her to death, I was so excited to see her! We walked back to her apartment and got to see my other friends from home too! It was a good night with good friends. We gathered everyone and went to dinner with all of them. We went to a "apertivo" restaurant that sold appetizers. If you bought a glass of wine for 5 euro you were able to eat as much of the appetizers as you like, so we did, and we filled our tummies with pasta and bread.
After dinner we went and got some gelato and back to the Duomo to meet up with Ash and Dionne who had finally made it to Florence. Jess, Ash and Dionne wanted to go out but I decided to stay in with Rach and the others to catch up. We went back to their apartment and stayed up late talking. It was so so very nice to be with familiar faces and such good friends. It made me miss them a lot but I knew in no time we would all be reunited again. After exchanging stories for hours and hours I decided to just sleep there and we went to sleep because they had school in the morning.
Wednesday March 19th
I woke up with the girls when they were getting ready for school and left to walk back to the hostel around 930. I got a little lost on the way back but it was such a nice day out that I really didn't mind and I needed a little time to myself. Ash and Dionne weren't awake yet, so Jess and I went to grab a quick bite to eat before we went out for the day. Our goal for today was to go to the Accademia, the gallery that held the famous David by Michelangelo. The line wasn't too bad when we got there and in about an hour we were entering the gallery. We walked around the gallery but all we really wanted to see was the David. We saw it from a distance and both of us didn't realize how big it was. It is huge and so so amazing. The sculpture is made out of one piece of marble and signifies the beginning of the Renaissance. On a religious note, David's large and overdeveloped right hand symbolizes the hand of God that powered David to slay the giant. Which then enabled Florence to rise above its neighbors and flourish during the Renaissance. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the gallery but I was able to capture a few good pictures without anyone noticing, as well as some pretty funny ones from some interesting angles.
Before we went back to the hostel we walked around the little markets and bought some more leather products (gifts and such) and grabbed some more to eat. We must have been really exhausted from this entire trip because the minute we put our heads on the pillow to wait for Ash and Dionne to get back, we were both out. Two hours later we woke up and felt a lot more refreshed. We went to the internet cafe for a little bit but we were all hungry so we went to have some dinner. We once again had Chinese food. I don't know what it is about Italy, but they have some good Chinese restaurants. We all stuffed out stomachs and went back to the hostel to attempt to go out. Well we didn't make it, and decided to stay in and get some more rest for our next stop, Venice!!
Just one more entry to go until my Italian Adventure is complete!
