July 29, 2013

Monday, July 29, 2013

                Neither Shawn nor I got a lot of sleep last night – there were some rather inappropriate goings-on in the middle of the night in the adjacent tents!  And because of our 5am wake up neither of us were feeling too hot…more sleep tonight should help!

                It was dead easy to find our way to the train station, so we ended up getting there really early!  The great bonus about that was that we got to have our first attempt at ordering a hot chocolate and croissant at a typical Italian “Bar”.  It was chaotic even though it wasn’t busy.  We had to go and attempt to explain what we wanted to the cashier in order to pay first.  Then we took our tickets to the serving counter, which was hard to access because most people who ordered their coffees stayed put at the counter to drink them.  We paid or hot chocolate but there was an issue because apparently they had already stopped serving them a while ago and the server got mad at the cashier!  We ended up with some nice hot milk with chocolate sprinkles on top to go with our chocolate croissants!  Definitely an experience.

                The high-speed train to Florence was lovely and went off without a hitch!  I slept most of the way…surprise, surprise!  We arrived in Florence around 9:30 and found the bus to get to the hostel.  We dumped our bags there and got a map of the city before proceeding to walk down the hill and back into the City. 

                We walked around the entire city pretty much today.  From the hostel, which is located up on a hill with the most amazing view of Florence, we walked down through a park towards Ponte Vecchio, right in the heart of the touristy stuff!  It is this really cool bridge that is lined with expensive jewelry stores.  Nice to look at but too expensive and too touristy!

                We basically ran right into the Galleria degli Uffizi.  Funnily enough, it is right in front of this gallery that there is the replica of David…but it was so busy and packed full of people that we didn’t even notice.  The Uffizi is one of the oldest of the major museums in the world.  Originally the building was the seat of the magisterial and administrative offices.  In 1581 Francesco I decided to use the rooms to display his family’s art.  From 1865 to 1871, when Florence was the capital of Italy the building was the seat of the Italian Parliament.  Today it is the gallery as well as houses the Town Hall.  The outside of the building is really interesting because of all of the famous statues and bronzes in the Piazza outside including Putto with Dolphin (that I actually recognized) as well as the Rape of the Sabines (it was carved from a single piece of marble and is thought to be the first piece of European sculpture to be created so that it can be seen perfectly from all sides).  We decided not to pay to go inside, however.  We are going to the Galleria dell’Accademia tomorrow to see Michelangelo’s David, so that will be our Florence museum visit!

                By this point we were both pretty hungry and decided to do the touristy thing and have lunch in the piazza della Signoria where these statues and Uffizi are located.  However, when the waiter told us (quite rudely) that we could not split a pasta dish we got up and left.  So irritating!!  Instead I tortured Shawn as we meandered through the streets searching for a reasonably priced lunch.   I did feed him – sandwiches – eventually, however.

                After lunch we walked over to the Cattedrale di Saint Maria del Fiore which is absolutely beautiful from the outside.  It is huge and made of green and white marble.  I was really impressed with it!!  We did not go in today, however, because the line was huge to get inside and we are both getting quite sick of waiting in lines!  We did find a great place for ice cream instead, though!

                We found this cute little piazza where we just had time to take cover from the torrential downpour that occurred about 2 seconds later!  We then walked back through the streets taking pictures and ducking out of the rain that came and went for the next couple of hours.  We did stumble across a bike rental place and I am working on convincing Shawn that we need to rent bikes for Wednesday!!               

                Around 3pm we made it back up the hill to the hostel to check in and have a much needed nap.  Our hostel is very nice, but a bit more rustic than the one in Rome.  This one is built on the side of the hill, so the view is to die for!  And it is sure nice being able to walk downtown so quickly.  There is no pool, however!  And there is no granite in the bathrooms either.  It is definitely not shabby and I am still impressed!

                We have a beautiful patio at the hostel so we brought all of our electronics up to the patio to charge them whilst enjoying a nice happy hour!  We eventually shared a pizza and some coke….both of which were excellent.  Pizza and ice cream are not going to taste the same once I get home!

                After dinner we went for a walk up past the lookout!  It is perfect and so beautiful!  We are actually making a point to stay awake long enough tomorrow night so we get to see Florence at sunset and at night – because it looks beautiful!

                Early to bed tonight!

-Allison