Firenze

Ok, so when I last left you, I had just arrived in Florence at our hostel which we absolutely loved! It was so friendly, but I think I talked about it last time. Sorry! Oh, and I forgot to post this picture last time - we rode on a double decker train to get to Florence! After Laura and I checked into the hostel, we wandered around the streets of Florence and found a HUGE cathedral that was made in green, white, and pink marble! It was beautiful...quite an interesting style. Called the Duomo, it was easily visible from many parts of Florence, so we used it as our "compass" to figure out where we were and what we were doing. It did help a lot that it was close to our hostel too!

The first day in Florence, Laura and I joined with the free walking tour the hostel offered of historical Florence. Our lovely English-speaking tour guide, Elisabetta, took us all around Florence. She gave us some information about some of the buildings we had seen the night before, and took us to a few palaces that were built in the middle of the city as well. The palaces were different in that the outsides were really kind of ugly, because they were built to be solid fortresses of protection from any invaders, so there were only very tiny windows on the bottom floor, with the windows getting bigger as they went up. We also saw a puppet show in one of the squares we stopped in for a short break. They were so good! Here's the fiddler of the "music group" standing behind the piano!

After the tour was over, we went to the train station and hopped aboard a train bound for none other than the city of Pisa! We got there and all I can say is, it really does lean! I was surprised by how MUCH it leans! We bought tickets to actually go up the tower! I didn't know that they allowed people up there. There are stipulations - they only allow 30 people up at a time, and I had to check my purse at the baggage lockers. They only allow people and cameras to go up. We took some corny pictures while we waited for our turn.

The trip up the tower was amazing! It was so neat to actually be inside and have to watch your balance while you walked up. The steps were worn where so many people had gone up, and it was of course leaning on the inside too. There were lots of steps but I finally made it to the very top! Laura was a bit scared....she's not too fond of heights, so she stayed on one side tightly gripping the railing. I walked all around and took pictures - here's a self-portrait! The tower is actually part of a group of buildings - the cathdral is behind the tower and the tower was actually made to be a bell tower, but was built on sand and began leaning soon after its construction.

It was so cool to be up in the tower...I took WAY too many pictures the whole trip! Just like the Eiffel Tower in Paris, it's the main attraction, so you HAVE to take lots of pictures of it! Laura and I found a cute little cafe to eat in the outside area. We sat down and ordered some Italian pizza, and were approached by a man selling knock-off Rolex watches. He proceeded to ask us where we from, followed by lots of guessing. Laura responded "no" to each guess, but he persisted.

"Sweden?" he said.

"No," Laura replied.

"Germany?"

"No."

"Australia?"

"No..."

"England?"

"NO!"

He just wouldn't stop! He wanted to sell us men's watches, and after Laura informed him she didn't have a man to buy a watch for, he said, "You have no man? Why you have no man? You nice lady!" Then he left and brought back his friend for her! Poor Laura couldn't get the guy to leave her alone. Finally I said, "Look, we just want to enjoy our dinner." He must have gotten the hint because he left.

We enjoyed our dinner there (huge portions we couldn't even finish!) and noticed the clouds getting pink and purple. It was time for the sunset! We paid and ran back to the tower and got to see an amazing sunset behind the Leaning Tower! Here's one of the best pictures I got.

We went back to Florence on the train and relaxed. We wandered around Florence and went back to our hostel a little later and went to bed, ready for another fun day!

The next morning, we went on another tour of Florence, this one about the "off the beaten track" sites in the city. Our new friend Lindsey was on this tour as well as the one yesterday. She was one of our roommates in the 8-girl dorm room at our hostel. She was a college grad traveling around Europe on her own for a few months and we enjoyed her company! The tour was given by Constanza, another English-speaking Italian who showed us some interesting places, but it wasn't nearly as good as yesterday's tour. But I still saw some cool things - like this little car for one! It's only got three wheels! It definietly reminds me of Luigi from "Cars!" I hope Carter, Hayden, and Wyatt like this picture - I was thinking of you when I took this! Oh, and here's me enjoying a DELICIOUS Granny Smith Apple from a Florentine fruit and veggie market!

The rest of the day was fun...Laura, Lindsey, and I went to the Piazza Michaelangelo where you could see an AMAZING view of the city of Florence. Here's a big picture of the Florentine countryside! Notice the blooming tree and the vineyard or orchard in the foreground of the picture! It was SO beautiful out that day, and it was so warm! I even had a chance to do some cloud watching and I saw Italy! (I took a picture of it too!)

After we left the piazza (Lindsey stayed there for the afternoon) with plans to meet up with her later for dinner that our tour guide the day before had recommended for good Tuscan food. We went to find the David statue, only to discover that the museum was closed on Monday! We walked around more, found the Jewish Museum that was also closed for repairs, and walked back to the Duomo. There we were sitting down to rest for a little because our feet were incredibly sore from all the walking. There was some graffiti on the bench so Laura touched it first to see if it was "fresh" wet paint, and when we started to sit down, we heard "No!" behind us and we stood up quickly. There were two teenage looking boys back there laughing at us, who quickly let it be known that they were interested in Laura! "Antonio" declared he was 22, and his friend Fabio claimed to be 18. (Yes, he really said his name was Fabio!!!) Antonio asked Laura if she liked him, even asking for a kiss! After he figured out she wasn't interested (who would be after knowing him for only 2 minutes!), he and Fabio left dejectedly. We laughed and laughed, then took off to the market. We had seen our neighbors from London the day before in Florence who advised us to do all our "souvenir" shopping there in Florence because Rome didn't have much. We went off shopping and ran into two Americans, Jimmy and Jeremy, from our hostel who wanted to know if we knew of anywhere good to eat. They agreed to meet us at the same place we'd planned to meet Lindsey, so we finished shopping and headed there about an hour later. The five of us met and took off to the restaurant, the "Anita Ristorante." It was delicious! I had some pasta and chicken in lemon sauce. It was all so good, and the waiter was funny too! He reminded me of a skinny Mr. Bean, which is funny because we were in Italy, not England! Anyway, I enjoyed our dinner and left feeling full! Tuscan food is good!

The next morning, Laura and I joined Jimmy and Jeremy for breakfast, with two friends they had made, Stuart from New Zealand, and Cam from Australia! After breakfast we all traipsed to the Uffizi (oo-feet-zee) Gallery to see the David! It was amazing - so big! It's crazy to think how many hours Michaelangelo spent on the statue, making sure there were no mistakes and that David had the perfect proportions and muscles that the ideal and "perfect" man would have. Stuart noticed that David's pupils were, as Stuart called them, "love hearts" instead of circles.

Laura and I left there and went to the church at Santa Croce to see graves! Yes, I know it sounds strange, but there are quite a few famous people buried at that church - Gallileo, Dante, DaVinci, Machiavelli, Rossini, and Michaelangelo! Here's the outside of the churhc on the right.

Cam joined us at the museum, then the three of us went to the train station where we took a late train to Rome! This is where we encountered, as we liked to call it, the "Hostel from Hell." More on that in the next post, which is soon to come!

I'm still looking for people to leave me comments! What do you think of my adventures? Are you looking forward to hearing about Rome? Do you like the pictures?