We arrived in Florence in the evening and checked in. Went out to find some food, but nothing was open since it was so late. So, we got some ice cream for dinner instead. Yum! Keith commented that he has eaten more ice cream in the past couple weeks than he has in the past year. Payton and I both agreed.
The next morning we got up and walked around the city. Saw a crazy looking church, took some photos. Saw another church, took some more photos. Walked through some plazas where every inch of shaded space was occupied by bodies - it was a hot day. Caught a glimpse of Il Duomo, but could not head there yet, we had to make reservations for our trip to Geneva. Ah-ha, make them early. We have learned! When we got to the train station we found that there was no overnight train to Geneva, good job Eurail website. Instead we had to book our train a day later and stay an extra night in Florence. Once the trains were squared away we talked with the hostel to make reservations for an additaional night.
After that we found a place to get some food. My slice of pizza was 1/4 of the whole pizza. Delicious. Then walked over to Il Duomo and snapped some more pictures. Decided to tour it later and walked over to Palazzo Vecchio and saw the copy of David. The real one is in the Galleria dell'Accademia, but we did not go see it. Then we walked down to Ponte Vecchio, the Old Bridge, and assaulted it with photos. It is the semi-covered bridge that was used by the Medici family and housed many of the time best goldsmiths. Walked over it to see what the shops had to offer - jewelry galore! Walked down the river for a bit and skipped our way back to the hostel for dinner. They had a buffet style breakfast and dinner every day, which was actually really good. You could tell that it was a real person cooking for people, not a machine in a restaurant cooking for customers. After dinner we met a couple of other travelers from New York and England and played cards. Got eaten by mosquitos, then called it a night.
We awoke early the following morning and went to Giardini di Boboli, the Boboli Gardens, Siciliano would be proud. But they were not as well maintained as we were hopeing, Siciliano would not be proud. Walked the entire garden. Sweated our bums off. Then took a nap in the shade by the Neptune Fountain. When we woke up we headed to see the remainder of the garden and saw the first statue of a fat person we have ever seen. It was pretty funny.
Piazza Michelangelo was our next destination, which was on top of one of the adjacent hills. It was a trek. And it was hot. But, there was an ice cream place at the top! We saw another copy of David, this one was bronze, and enjoyed the view over Florence. After the walk back down, which was much easier, we found a place to have a snack. Not very good. The pizza was watery...? and the latte was burnt. Bleh! Then we headed back to our hostel to get some good eats. Amazing, as per usual. And after dinner we pretty much crashed.
On the morning of our extra day in Florence we headed to Il Duomo to climp up the cupola. Paid €8 to climb 463 steps. It was a little pricey for the view (which was very similar to the one at Piazza Michelangelo), however, we got up to the top right at 12:00 and every church bell in the city started ringing. That was pretty sweet. It is also pretty cool to look out over all of Florence and see terra-cotta roofs everywhere. After heading down we caught a peek at the interior of the church, kinda plain, then headed to Palazzo Vecchio for the artwork. Towards the end of the museum we stopped in a small room to watch a little info movie and almost fell asleep. Got scolded by one of the clerks and headed out. Searched for a place to eat and found a hole-in-the-wall restaurant. Which I believe has had consistently the best food on the trip. Random side note: try not to eat at fancy restaurants or readily visible places in Italy. Chances are the employees are stuck up and will try to screw you over, like we were, or the food is awful. The smaller places that you need to search for are SO much better.
After our delicious meal, where we stayed past closing and the owner actually let us, we headed back to the hostel. But not before getting dessert. Keith had a soft cheesecake with fruit sauce and Payton and I both had chocolate cake. It was delectable, a little dry, but scrumdidilyumptious. When we got back to the hostel we napped for a bit. Got up and met the other people in our room; found out they were from England, Washington, and Maryland. The chick from England asked if anyone needed to do launry and we got four of us together. €9 to wash and dry is a little pricey. After laundry I stole Payton's beard trimmer and got rid of my scratchy beard - was not going to clean-shave again. Then hit the hay, because it was an early start to catch our train to Geneva.
Got up in the morning, packed up, and headed to the train station. Waited around for our platform to be called; Keith got two croissants for breakfast, one with chocolate and one with marmalade. Tastey. I had a banana. It did the trick. Then boarded the train and headed to Geneva.
We were not in Geneva for long, just one night, so that post is coming soon. Then it will be Paris after!
steinkraus.
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