Italy hates Isabelle? (still raining....)

It started out cloudy. Was very hopeful it would stay that way but with my luck, it wasn't meant to be..... so bear in mind both Lyna and I braved the weather.

First thing we did today was to go see this guy name 'David' -silent and strong type. Heard of him? He is rather famous. =) There was a huge line up even though we went to the museum when it opened. Had to wait about 30 minutes before we could go in. (note: Isabelle thinks that museum was a rip-off charging €6.50 just to see David but Lyna thought it was worth it) David is absolutely gorgeous and yes... it is quite big. Bigger than I anticipated and no words cannot describe it. Only problem is rest of the musuem didn't offer much else and of course expect to run into sea of other tourists.

Next up was Palazzo Pitti. On the way we stopped by at famous Duomo and Cathedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore. Cathedral was huge... Personally I think that place could fit entire population of Florence but that is just my guess. If one is willing to climb 623 steps to top of Duomo one can see the entire city of Florence but you must pay €6.00. These Italians charge for everything. More about this later....

Pitti's palace when we first saw it seemed very simple and rustic. We are comparing this palace to Versaille and of course, everything look simple compared to Versaille. Inside of course was another matter. All the rooms were filled with portraits of Medici family members(used to rule Florence) and many other paintings by famous artists like Rafael and others we cannot remember. Frescoes on the ceilings were also very nice but only one room had the original. Ducal chambers were lined with very rich red fabrics and seemed more decadent than Versaille was. By the end of our tour of this palace both Lyna and I had enough of the paintings for a day. We would have like to go out to garden because it looked so nice from the window but of course that was extra ticket so we've decided to skip the garden.

We still had plenty of time left so we decided to really brave the weather and go to a place called Piazzale Michelangelo. This is a view point on tope of a little hill and wans't too bad of a walk. Piazzale had bronze copy of David (which incidentally is free) and offered very nice view of Florence. We really could see how Florence is quite pretty. It started to rain again so we've decided to take a bus.

Okay now about these Italians charging for everything. We learned this hard way! We were charged extra simply because we sat down in the restaurant. For our lunch we wanted something simple and something quick. So we went into Pizzaria and the price the counter lady quoted was â‚¬2.40 per slice. Not bad right? When we went to pay our bills the price of slice was €3.90! They charged €1.50 extra per slice for sitting down. And exact same thing happend at our dinner as well. We were charged €3.00 simply for sitting down in the restaurant. Very expensive lesson to learn and something both of us are not gonna get over anytime soon.

Extra note: Our hostel is on the 4th floor of the building and Lyna counted it has 66 steps to reach the door.