Florence...

The next morning I headed out pretty early to get to Florence. Looking back I wish I could have spent a bit more time in Venice, but hey, that's in the past. Anyway, on to Florence I went, the train ride was beautiful. I completely understand why Italian painters paint what they do, it's because that's what they see.

Once I got to Florence, I wandered around for about an hour or so because I could not for the life of me find the hostel. I was starting to get really frustrated because people kept telling me to go the wrong way, but I finally got there. Also, I must mention that the people of Florence are rude in my standards, but I understand it's a cultural difference. If you walk down the street, which are already very tight, they will not move over, they'd rather run into you than move to let you by. This made me more frustrated. By the time I found my hostel I was not in a good mood, so I decided to stay there for the night. I met this English girl in the hostel and we went out to dinner where we ate how the Italians do. First they start out with a pasta dish, then move onto the meat and vegitable course, then dessert, and to top it all off you have a shot of this lemony pineapple thing. It was an interesting meal. After this I went back to the hostel to sleep.

The next day, I had decided that I was going to go to the Academia where Michaelangelo's David stands. I had to wait in line for about an hour. The line is squished down one of the streets along this amazing wall. Everyone for many years past have written all over it, graffiti really, but great graffiti. Most said either where they were from or how long they had been in line. Lots were in languages and characters I could not read. There was also a lot of gum stuck all over the walls, which I tried my hardest to avoid. When I was near the front of the line I saw one of my professors from back at Michigan, who I had happened to think about earlier because we had discussed Michaelangelo's David in his class. I went over to say hello, and we were both utterly surprised to see the other. Anyways, when I got into the museum I tried to look at everything in there and not just focus on getting to David. Too bad that's what ended up happening when I stepped into the room with the sculpture. I have been told many times before that the statue is huge, much bigger than you expect, and that it's exquiset, but I was getting slightly bored with seeing marble sculptures. I walked into the room, and saw the sculpture and my stomach quite literally dropped to the floor. It is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen before. I was totally mesmorized with it. I can't explain it but just think that everyone should go see it in their lifetimes if they have a chance. I didn't want to leave. But alas I had to.


This is a just part of the wall that I talked about.


This is the replica because you're not allowed to photograph the real one. I just want you to notice the people standing around it, as a scale of how large it is.

I then ventured out into the city, which I must say I was not very fond of. There were people everywhere and I have already discussed how rude most of them were. Florence has nice things to offer, but once you're in the buildings, not really outside, in my opinion. I decided to go to the Palazzo Vecchio to go on this secret rooms tour which was great. We got to see the interworkings of secret passages, rooms behind paintings, stairs that go nowhere, and rooms that seem to have no doors at all. I am glad that I chose to go here, it made me appreciate Florence more. This is also the place where the David originally stood guarding the doorway, but was moved and a replica replaced it. I decided to stop in a cathedral just because on my way back to the hostel. It was actually pretty amazing. It's directly across from the huge doors called the Gates of Paradise. That night I went to dinner again with the same English girl from the night before, it was great, then we decided to go out to a pub/bar somewhere, and where did we go? Of course, the only Irish Pub in town...HAH! It was funny, I was probably the most Irish person in there. Relaxing way to end it. I also found a wonderful bicycle bell on the ground and fully intend to equip my bike with the find. The next day I packed up and moved on to Rome.


This is from my secret rooms tour. There was a huge room filled with all these old maps, so I found Ireland of course.

*A few things I will miss about Florence: Michaelangelo's David, and the people that ran the hostel, they were probably the most friendly people I have every met.