Wednesday April 8th, we woke up early and got on a train that would take us to Florence. We arrived around 10:30 and we able to walk to our hostel from the train station. I wasn't very impressed by what we saw to be honest. The city looked a bit run down and dirty, but that could have been because we were on the outskirts of the city to get to our hostel.
The place we stayed in was called the Dany Hostel and it was run by a lovely lady named Laura who had converted half of her apartment into a hostel where she worked during the day. She had two very cute kids who were 4 and 6 (I think) and were watching Peppa Pig when we arrived. Because check in wasn't until 1, we left our luggage and took off to explore Florence.
We walked along the busy streets admiring the different shops of souvenirs and clothing until we reached the Florence Cathedral.
Across from the entrance to the Cathedral was the Baptistery. The doors are beautiful sculptures of bronze made by Lorenzo Ghiberti and were dubbed by Michelangelo the Gate of Paradise.
We continued down the street to find some lunch where we were recommended by Laura and some friends who had previously studied in Florence. The shop was a tasty panini place run by really cute Italian guys and because it was only 11ish, the line to get food wasn't very long! All you had to do was pick your meat, your spread, your vegetables (Which I got very few of), and your cheese!
As you can see these paninis were quite large and they were only €5!
Of course our next stop after lunch was to find some very tasty gelato in Florence! Thankfully, we were given another recommendation by Laura and more friends and headed along the river to get some sweets!
Once we hit the gelato shop, tragedy struck. One of my flatmates placed her phone on the counter in the gelato shop and it was taken by a man who came in the shop. Needless to say, it ruined her Italy experience. But the rest of us still got gelato while we tried to locate her phone on the find my iPhone app.
Without any luck, we headed back to the hostel to check in and take a break.
Eventually that break turned into nap time for most of us.
Except for yours truly once again. After nap time was over, we went in search of dinner! We decided to try another pizza that had been previously recommended to us, unfortunately it was clear across the city. So we put on our walking shoes and headed out.
The pizza was pretty good, it was oven baked and had all fresh ingredients. But I must admit, I have been spoiled by homemade pizza by my next door neighbors and more importantly my own mother. So no pizza was going to live up to those standards, overall, the pizza in Italy fell short while I was there. Hopefully if I go back when I'm older I'll be able to find better places to eat!
But we took our pizzas to go and sat on one of the bridges over the river and enjoyed the beautiful weather and the Florence environment. After dinner it was time for dessert!
We headed back to the hostel and settled in for the night!
The next day (April 9th) we headed back to the Cathedral and got a ticket to see everything within the Cathedral: The Baptistery, the Clocktower, the crypts and the Dome.
Our first trip was inside the Cathedral, which was very very large, but not decorated inside. It was clear that most of the money had been spent on the outside. Our next stop was the crypt underneath the Cathedral. My roommate's, who had lost her phone, hip was bothering her, so she just stayed in the Cathedral and read Harry Potter (not a bad alternative!). The crypts weren't all together exciting, they held some of the original tile mosaics that covered the floor, along with grave stones and support systems that held up the Cathedral.
Our next venture was outside and around the building to the queue to get into the Dome. That was a very long line, we had to wait for about 40 minutes to make it into the building because they would only allow a certain number of people up the stairs and to the top. I found this out later, after we had climbed almost all the way to the top, the entrance and exit were the same staircase! So at times you had to wait squished against the wall to let people pass. Needless to say, I was very claustrophobic and almost had a panic attack.
Thankfully we made it to the top and and I could breathe normally! And the view was breathtaking!
The city was quite beautiful from such high a view! But after spending 10 minutes or so at the top, we decided we had left our friend reading Harry Potter long enough in the Cathedral.
It was time for lunch after our long staircase journey (It was seriously long. My guess was it was at least 20 stories) and we headed back to the panini place and this time the line was quite long.
You can see how busy the shop was from my picture!
Afterwards we didn't go get gelato surprisingly! We headed back over by the Cathedral and went inside the Baptistery, it didn't take very long because it was only one room, but the decoration was beautiful.
We headed back to the hostel to wait out sunset! We wanted to go to the highest hill in Florence to get a beautiful view of the entire city at sunset (we barely made it!) We were not the only people who were there! There were quite a few Americans who had also decided to bring something to drink and watch the sunset over the city. In fact. I felt that most of the city was full of American student who were studying abroad. Most often than not the people that we passed in the street were college age girls speaking English. It was a very weird feeling.
We hung out on the steps of the hill for about two hours until our bellies started rumbling to remind us that we had yet to eat dinner. So we left to search for dinner. It was not an easy feat! It was quite late at that time and not a lot of places were still open. We finally found a place which we didn't review on trip advisor (BAD MISTAKE) and sat down and ordered food. All 6 of us were very very disappointed with our meals. The food was lacking flavor, some of my food was still cold, they didn't have any tap water to give (?What the heck?) and on top of that we were charged a service fee when the guy barely did anything!!! We were all pretty pissed about that, but thought that the night should end on a good note since it was the last night I was going to be in Italy, so we went back to a gelato place we had passed earlier in the day. After getting our dessert, we headed back home.
Friday morning the 10th, was my last day in Italy. So before we left the hostel, I made sure that all of my belongings were packed up and I checked out of the hostel. Thankfully, Laura let me leave my luggage so I didn't have to lug it around the city while going to museums.
Today was the day we had bought tickets to see the David and another museum (some other Gallery). From our hostel it was a quick walk to the museum were David was held!
He was definitely so much bigger than I was expecting! I can't believe that he's one piece of stone! In case any of you are wondering, the reason that he has a piece of wood behind his right foot is because it helps the statue balance out. Without it, he wouldn't be able to stand upright!
Our next stop was the bell tower to finish our tour of the Cathedral! All of us prepared for our daring climb except for TP who once again returned to HP who she waited for us to go up and come down. Thankfully, it wasn't too crowded coming up and going down, so I didn't get claustrophobic! While it was a much shorter climb to the top than the Dome, it still stunk climbing all those steps (I'm just terribly out of shape!)
We then took off to find a market where we could get souvenirs for ourselves and for our family members/boyfriends. I really enjoyed at looking at all the cool items, however, I did not enjoy getting accosted by the men who were in charge of the stalls.
The second you showed any slightest interest, they would approach you or grab something from their stall and shove it in your face! Um hello, if I wanted to buy your stuff I would stick around!
Although, most of us ended up buying something from this super cute old man who was selling glassware painted with lemons and all sorts of flowers! I bought some stuff to take home with me! Afterwards, we went inside the market, where there was air conditioning and food and got some lunch! (And dessert for me!)
After stocking up on souvenirs we went to the next museum which had both paintings and lots of sculptures! To be honest, the only one I was really interested in was the Birth of Venus!
While there were a lot of paintings to see, I became bored quickly and tried to rush through to the end as quick as possible. Thankfully, I was not the only one who felt this way! With a quick stop by the Carabinieri station to file a report for a stolen phone, we then headed home so that I could make my way to the airport and the long trip home I had ahead of me.
After saying my goodbyes, it was an easy two bus trip to the airport where I waited for an hour and a half to bored the tiny airplane to Barcelona. Thankfully, I was able to catch a small nap while I waited for my plane AND I got the entire row to myself on the plane!
I think Father in Heaven knew I wasn't going to be able to survive the trip home without the ability to layout and take a proper nap on the plane. After landing in Barcelona at 10:30 PM (the same airport I had been in previously) it was time to find an outlet (which are hard to come by in Europe, surprisingly) and take a nap! By the time I had found an outlet and someplace to lay out I was pretty awake, so I watched two episodes of Doctor Who until 2:30 where I then slept till I was rudely awoken by a airport employee who wanted to check my boarding pass. Thankfully, after they left me alone I slept again until the noises of the airport waking up woke me up! I made it through security without a problem and sat down to read at my gate after grabbing breakfast at Starbucks.
At 6:25 I boarded by plan to get home to London, it was a short trip which I mostly slept through and we landed at 7:45. I had plenty of time to get home from the airport and shower before going to pick my mom up from the Heathrow airport at 1:30!
That'll be my next blog post! I would say I'm sorry for all the Office and Parks and Recs gifs, but I'm not really:)
I wonder if all these memes or whatever they are called will print when you print off your blog or if they will be blank!
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