Florence

Editor's Pick Award

Our Editors awarded this travel blog entry for providing relevant information that may be useful and inspiring for other travelers.

Ok, this is a long one. Go get some coffe if you plan on reading it all now, you'll be here a while.

7^th This morning I hopped on my train to Florence with no problems. During the train ride there I found myself almost crying at times because the countryside was so beautiful. And now that I have my I-pod with me I could listen to music…oh man, what a trip.

Florence turns out to be just as beautiful as Rome, maybe more so. I once again was happy to find a clean and friendly hostel, though this one was low key in comparison to my one in Rome. I shared a room with 8 home schooled very Christian, friendly and cheerful home schooled high school girls and their chaperon. A nice mellow change since by this point I had caught a pretty bad cold.

I couldn’t remember most of what I had learned about Florence and the Medici family (who ruled the city for hundreds of years and supported some of Italy’s most famous renaissance artists such as Michelangelo) in past classes, so I bought a book and took to reading it where there were nice sunny views.

The first day I went exploring. I saw the Duomo (the huge cathedral) the river, the Medici chapel and watched the sunset from the Plaza Michelangelo which looks over the entire city. I’ll attach a picture of that one for sure.

I cooked myself dinner even though there was only a microwave and chatted with a Canadian gal who was also traveling solo.

8^th I got up early so to get in line for Ufitzzi Museum which is the most famous museum in Florence. I only had to wait about 40 minutes in line outside and then I got in free, thank you culture week, so I got myself an audio guide! In this museum I saw works by Michelangiolo, Donatello, Di Vinci (Nija Turtle flash back yet?) Bottticelli etc. as well as portrait by Goya which I recognized even the subject right away. I was proud of myself =)

After gelato which was way too expensive but taste, I headed to the Pitti Palace, which now acts as museums and gardens. I can’t imagine living in a house that big! I wouldn’t know what to do if I needed to find someone…I guess send my maid. The gardens were very pretty though quite the hike after such a long day. I was thrilled to find this statue of an obese naked guy sitting on a turtle. I had seen a picture of it before, but I couldn’t believe it actually existed.

There was also a museum of Roman erotic art that was a little awkward to look at with families of tourists. Hmmm…

While I was eating my take out ravioli in the hostel common room I got to chatting with an Irish guy named Feon who was a grade school teacher. I couldn’t tell if he was hitting on me or not (he was probably about 30, which is way too old for me) but I at least had a great time talking with him for a couple hours. I love the way that you meet people from all over the world in hostels, especially when you’re traveling solo. I think it’ll be something that I do a lot in the next few years. Or at least as much as I can.

9^th I was up early again to go to Mass in the Duomo. I wanted to see the Italians on Palm Sunday. It wasn’t as showy as I expected and since I went to a not so popular mass it wasn’t that crowded, sadly.

Then one more museum! Ahh! By this point I was completely museumed out, but I had to see Michelangelo’s David. I guess I have two thoughts on that: Wow, that’s one attractive sculpture and how many tourists have no idea what a sling shot is. Come on guys.

I walked around for the rest of the day and then watched the sun set again from the plaza above the city.

10^th The last day was by far the most stressful. I took the train back to Rome, sadly leaving my half read Medici book on it. But the nice high school girls gave me a book when they left saying thanks for putting up with them (a Christian self reflection one, but it was a nice gesture) so I read that. When I got to Termini Station in Rome I spent an hour trying to find the lockers to put my pack somewhere. I also had to pee really badly and I will not pay 70 cents to pee! No way! Eventually I got my stuff locked up and took the metro line B to the Vatican. Did you know there are only 2 metro lines in Rome? That’s so bogus! Jeff had said it was because they have never tried to get the Olympics there recently like most other European cities.

I was happy to be able to see the inside of St. Peters. I wasn’t going to go all the way to Rome and then not see it. I treated myself to an audio guide (I’m such a nerd for enjoying those) It really was impressive, though I couldn’t help but think of all the dirty crap like the selling in indulgences that went on the build it. Oh well, it was truly extraordinary.

Then I hitched my ride back to Termini and caught the train to the airport. Plane to Madrid which arrived at about midnight, 25 minutes late. By the time I got my luggage and got out to the shuttles station it was 12:45. The metros shut down at 1:30 am, so I was having a race with the clock. I ended up taking a pay bus and barely caught the metros I need to get home. I met 2 kids from the US who were studying in France and traveling for spring break. I hope they got to their hostel ok. They had to catch a 7:15 bus the next day too…let’s just say I was glad my trip was ending stressful instead of beginning that way.

Well, if you got this far thanks for reading! I know that there were a lot of unnecessary details and probably tons of spelling and grammar errors, but I refuse to edit this like a paper! It really was a trip of a life time and I can only hope that my travels this summer continue in the same way. Chao bella!