Florence

Train time! Have I mentioned that I love trains 'cause I do. They are fantastic. You get to see the scenery and walk around and you don't have to worry about fitting everything into one tiny bag. I am definitely gonna miss trains.

Once we made it to Florence and settled into the hostel we headed to the Duomo. You just always seem to run into it and it is a mighty impressive cathedral...at least for the outside. The thing to do there, besides enjoy the plaza, is to climb a butt-load of stairs unto the top. I'm talking about winding staircases and steep steps and one point where it seems more like a ladder than a staircase, but it's worth it 'cause when you get to the top you have a spectacular 360 degree view of Florence and the surrounding countryside. Even Ally's mom, Alice, made it to the top and she is very much afraid of heights. 

Oh, helpful tip for Italy: Happy Hour. There are tons of places that if you go there and buy a drink you can help yourself to happy hour buffet food. It's cheap and it's good. They have pastas and pizzas and vegetables and breads and all sorts of stuff. 

The next day we had a reservation to go to the Galleria dell' Accademia. The reservation is a great idea especially during peak tourist season. Its like the fast passes at Disney world. You just reserve a time and if you use it you pay a couple extra euros but if you don't it doesn't cost you anything. It's definitely worth it so you can beat the queues. 

Once you get inside the first room is a bunch of religious paintings that I just am not a fan of, but off to the left there is a musical instrument room where you can see spinets, harpsichords, pianofortes, pianos, hurdy-gurdies, and piano-guitars. You get to see how some of them work and there are computers around that allow you to listen to the instruments. Rachel Collins would have appreciated this part. 

Then, as a group, we headed to THE DAVID. It is ridiculously impressive. It is gigantic and incredibly detailed. I mean that was carved from a slab of marble. People aren't just being pretentious when they say that the pictures just don't do it justice. I just stood there in awe of it. I mean, I will never do anything as impressive or jaw-dropping. I mean you could take an anatomy lesson from that statue.

After seeing THE DAVID, the rest of the statues in the museum were kind of hard to appreciate, despite the fact that they too were beautiful.

We were kind of museum-ed out after that so we walked across the Ponte Vecchio ( tons of jewelry shops) and through Michelangelo's Gardens. When you walk up that hill and into the walls of the church/graveyard you get another spectacular view of Florence and a better sight of the homes and gardens on the surrounding hills. Alice, Ally, and my mom went to explore a bit, butI just sat down on the walls and wrote. It was definitely a good place for some quiet alone time 'cause hardly any tourists made it up there. It is a bit of a climb, but nothing too bad.

Another Italy tip: Get the Straciatelle. It's a type of gelato that is like cookies -n-cream but so much better. 

The next day we went to a food market and got some dried fruits. Usually I am not a fan, but I now love dried strawberries and kiwis. Those are definitely the two to get. Since we couldn't really buy any of the other food we headed out to all the other markets surrounding it and boy did our mothers hit the leather jackpot. Supposedly when you think of Florence you think of leather. I didn't before but now I do. My mom got almost all of her Christmas shopping done, and I know Alice picked up a couple of things too. My mom even bought me a leather jacket that I am ecstatic about wearing once Arkansas cools down. We even got a really good deal on it all. 

But after their shopping spree it was pretty much time to get on the train to the Cinque Terre.