Firenze aka Florence

Entry 7:

Last night I discovered that the hostel serves a snack around 6:30 pm everyday as well. Its always nice to have free food as things can get expensive. There I met a group of people who included an American girl named Amanda who's here for 10 days and a Kiwi named Anna [pronounced Enna] and along with the two American guys we trekked to Piazzale Michelangelo which is on the other side of the Arno river up the hillside and affords fabulous views of the city. We went at dusk and the sun set over the buildings. We bought 3 bottles of wine between the 5 of us and I brought a baguette and brie that I had bought earlier to share. It was a lovely evening all around and though there had been a forecast of 80% rain, we never felt a drop.

Today we got up early, i mean 7 am early, and headed to Galleria dell' Accademia for when it opens. Lines in Florence are notoriously long and we wanted to arrive right at 8:15 when it opened. Well we arrived on time as it was down the street from us but we still had a 30 min wait. This particular gallery is so busy because it houses the infamous David by Michelangelo. I have to admit it was gorgeous and much more beautiful than any other statue I've seen though if you asked me to put my finger on what exactly made it better, i wouldn't be able to tell you.

After that Anna and I headed towards the Galleria Della Uffizi which is home to some of Italy's greatest Renaissance art including the famed Birth of Venus painting by Botticelli. There was also work by Michelangelo and Da Vinci as well but i must admit aside from the Birth of Venus, little has stuck to my brain. Uffizi is also notorious for line ups down the street and around the corner. We paid a little extra to reserve a specific time and so were able to avoid standing in a lineup. In the time between getting our tickets and when we went in, we took a detour over to a bridge where the side were lined with beautiful and very expensive jewelry shops. Then we wandered over to a cafe to get a quick bite before heading back to the gallery.

I'll be honest, I didn't remember what the birth of venus looked like but as soon as i walked into the room it was in I knew. Funny how that happens. The gallery was great but it didn't take long to get fine-art-ed out. Def. worthwhile though i kinda wish the David and The Birth of Venus had been in the same museum. Admission prices here are steep!

From there we headed to the train station to book our trains out. Anna is headed to Nice, France before moving on to Morrocco for a tour (volcano ash permitting) and I am headed to Venice tomorrow. After that we came back to the hostel, put in some laundry and took a bit of a nap. I do hate being in the hostel during daylight hours but to be fair, by 2 pm I had already been touring and walking around the city for 6 hours. I gave myself a break. So now I am trying to wrap up a few loose ends here in the city before I head to Venice tomorrow. Later today a few of us may head out to get to get Florentine Steak which apparently has a reputation of being very good- who knew??

Still love the comments you post- keep em' coming (thanks mom!)

Enjoy the sunshine!