Eurotrip: Florence

Florence. I totally could have spent more time here. So freakin cool! As I said, we got up early (6:30) to catch a waterbus to the train station to catch our train to Florence. It had been cold and rainy in Venice and when we got into Florence, it was warm and sunny. Felt so good! We got in around 13:00 and met up with our CouchSurfer, Lorenzo, and went back to his apartment. It was so cute! Jana and I slept on this little pull-out couch that was not meant for two people. It was worked out though. We met his roommate, Luigi, and I laughed at how italian their names were. We walked across the River Arno and explored that area of town, even though it was late and none of the touristy things were open. We just kind of peeked in at things. We drank wine on the steps of Piazza Pitti, walked all the way up to Chiesa di San Miniato al Mante, a church at the top of the Florence. And it is a long walk to the top of Florence. Good exercise I suppose, although my feet were really mad at me. We looked over the city at Piazzale Michelangelo, where a bronze copy of the David is. The view and the David are amazing! Both things were so cool. The view was one of the most amazing things I've seen in a long time. We ate dinner near the Ponte Vecchio, the only original bridge to survive the bombings of WWII. The food was again amazing and Jana fell in love with the three Italian boys who sat next to us. That actually happened alot on our trip. After dinner, we went to iL Latina, the restuarant where our CouchSurfers worked, and got a free dessert (this orange schapps and biscotti) and hit on by all the workers there. The restaurant had these hams hanging from the ceiling and people would buy them and cook them...or eat them....I really had no idea what was going there. It was odd. Luigi walked us home and we went to bed exhausted, as usual.The next day we got off to later start. We first walked to the Dom, which is such a cool church! So pretty. It was raining outside, which was less than fun and made taking pictures a little hard, but still amazing. We then walked to the church San Lorenzo and by the Medici residence, where we found this really odd little toilet exhibition. I was intrigued and confused. After that, we hit the Academia, where the real David is housed. Such an amazing experience! It was...mind blowing, how stunning this thing was. Michaelangelo was a god. Or one of the world's best geniuses. Or both. I also happened to get a picture of it, which was not allowed. The guards suspected me but I didn't get caught so it's all good. So ridiculously cool.


Our last day in Florence was really sad. :( We really only saw a tiny fraction of the city and I would love to see more. We walked to Piazza della Signorio, where all sorts of cool originals statues are. The David used to be there but then it got struck by lightning in 1532 (I think that's the exact date) and was damaged so they moved it inside, restored it, and put a copy. The amount of crazy cool statues there kind of blew my mind. We walked over Ponte Vecchio again and got our stuff from Lorenzo and Luigi, got lunch with them, said goodbye, and went on to Rome. :)