Firenze

We had yet another travel day (which meant my parents in ASM: automatic stress mode, lugging around entirely too much luggage, and the inevitable heat associated with walking with your entire life strapped to you or dragging behind you) and we were off to Florence!

I was looking forward to this city for a few reasons. Number one, Laura, my teammate and good friend from Gonzaga was studying abroad in Florence and number two, it was the first time we would be out of a big city and have a chance to relax a little bit. When we got there we had a little bit of an issue finding our hotel. It was near the train station, but we took a wrong turn somewhere and had to backtrack a little bit. We got there and were welcomed by our guesthouse manager. He helped us settle in, told us a little bit about the city, and sent us on our way.

We met up with Laura (which was SO nice!!) and we headed to the outdoor market that mostly consisted of scarves and various leather goods.

We planned to head to dinner, which was across the town from our hotel. In the meantime, we accidentally stumbled into pretty much all of the sights of the city. We came to the Piazza del Duomo and didn't expect to see anything that significant on our little walk. It was awesome! A huge white, green and pink church with an adjoining dome. It was impossible to take pictures that did it justice, but we tried!

This church really was impressive, and eventually Laura and I tried to climb the dome. It was a fail because the line didn't move an inch in a long long while. Anyway, we took in the sights and then headed to dinner. We had overdone the pizza in Rome, and now I was looking forward to some delicious pasta. We also couldn't pass up an appetizer that is specific to the Florence area. Don't ask me what it's called but to sum it up, it was pretty much doughballs, cream, and prosciutto. Sounds awful, but it was delicious!!

we also couldn't resist some fresh bruschetta. 

Dinner was delicious, and it had good conversation. It was nice to catch up with Laura and it was fun to have someone join our party.

The next day we woke up and headed to the Ponte Vecchio to cross the river and head to Piazza San Michelangelo, which gave us a great view of the whole city. On the way we came across some cute little stores (we're suckers for little artsy things), and in the meantime we came across these clever street signs:

We thought they were fun, but didn't really think too much about it. We continued the hike up to the piazza, and were rewarded with an awesome view! This was finally the chance to see the magnitude of the Duomo.

There were a few vendors up there selling all of the typical Florence souvenirs, and of course we grabbed a couple. We stayed up there for a little while, and then headed back down. As we were making our way back to the Ponte Vecchio, I spotted this little tiny gallery that looked very intriguing. My parents were up ahead so I called for them to come back, and it turned out we just so happened to stumble upon the studio of the street sign maker! He had a few other projects he was working on, and some little things for sell, but more importantly he had a collection of signs and sketches for future designs. We thought it was awesome, and took a picture (I loved how the reflective signs went crazy with my camera flash)

Eventually we made it back across the bridge, and then it was time to meet up with Laura (by this time she was finished with her classes for the day). Next on the agenda was to go see the David statue. We waited in what seemed like an endless line, and finalllllllly made it in. I hate to say, but none of us were "museum people", so we pretty much breezed by everything on a mission to find the statue (although we did take a minor pitstop in the musical instruments section). We snaked our way through the museum and then turned one corner and AHHHHHHHH: there it was! Down the end of a long hallway was Michelangelo's statue of David. It was truly a work of art. Laura told us that she learned in her classes that it was considered to be such a success because of the detail in his eyes and hair. Once she pointed it out, I realized that it actually was incredible how much attention was paid to these features. We couldn't take pictures so we just marveled before making a pretty swift exit out. On the way we bought a postcard and called it a success. For a closeup of his face, click here and prepare to be amazed. 

The rest of our time in Florence was spent just wandering around and soaking up the energy of the town. It was much more laid-back than anywhere we had previously been and was also very relaxing, even though there was a certain excitement with people buzzing around everywhere. 

I can't end this blogpost without mentioning the celeb spotting that Laura and I had. We were casually minding our business when the Jersey Shore cast casually passed by. Of course this caused an uproar with everyone, but we were able to snap our picture (we're so cool! haha) before being moved by security.