Florence
Trip Start
Jan 03, 2008
1
12
38
Trip End
Apr ????
Florence,
Italy
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Florence
! The walls, every single one of them can be written on and has been for what appeared on some of the dates the last 4-5 years. These walls are just covered with notes and art, this goes hand in hand with the whole free art mentality and the many Frescos that are soon to be found throughout Florence. While getting situated in my room, I met a guy from California, for the next several of days we experienced Florence together and made a buddy-buddy system out of it, it felt as if we traveled to Florence together and were going to leave together. That night we hung out in the common area and drank with the plethora of other backpackers and joined up with another one of our roommates from Argentina, we shared some of the best Matte I have ever had together. The roommate from California and I were set out to make a beer run for the night ahead. We found beers that were 660ml tall (almost a liter), Heineken and Stella's for 1.50 Euro each and we loaded up on those for us and our Argentinean friend. The buddy and I both forgot to bring our maps, we were just excited for our beers and ended up getting completely lost for a while in Florence, so lost we ended up opening our beers and drinking while trying to find our way home. We even scared the hell out of another lady as we were asking for directions, imagine 2 young men with beers in their hand in a dark ally with no one around coming up to this lady from either side as we approached, the side and the rear, very fast as to catch up with here - she was almost about to start running until I said the word 'station' in a very confused manor as so she would understand we were lost. She insisted we followed her as we all walked together and she walked us right next to the station - what a wonderful lady! We made it back into the hostel and greeted our Argentinean friend who must have though we ditched him, we tried to tell him the story that we honestly got very lost and had to start diving into the beer just to stay hydrated
Florence
. That night we all got very buzzed and also polished off a liter of vodka in the mix - all the backpackers in the common area were having a grand old time conversing and watching Full Metal Jacket on the television. The next morning my buddy and I fully enjoyed our breakfasts and prepared for the free guided tour of Florence that the hostel puts on every day. The tour was great, we learned about the history of Florence, the biggest influences of the city and the families with power. We got a tour of the different architectural elements, who designed the structures, where all the must see museums are and the sights of the city - the tour was a great 3 hour preparation of what to see during your stay. I wont go into full detail of everything I saw in the next several of days here because really there is just too much, it seems as if everything is important - if you ever go, spend many days there. The Duomo is the most beautiful Cathedral I have ever seen, the outside is a pretty white, green and pink coloring to it. We went to the Academia, where Michelangelo's infamous piece "David" was, which was an amazing sight to see. We actually paid 20 euro before entering for a guided tour because you learn that museums don't mean much unless you know what you are looking at. Just so happens that the only major piece to see in this museum is the David - I paid about 30 US dollars to listen to a girl speak 30min on the David, :::sigh:::
Florence
. At sunset we ran into another traveler who was from Australia and we rushed to find the nearest bus to a plaza just outside of the city to watch the sunset over Florence, Actually when I got us to the bus station, I remembered someone mentioned bus 12, and seen it approaching us, I jumped into the street, waved that damn bus down - tossed some money down and got us on to the Plaza just in the knick of time. That same night, my buddy and I just wanted to rest our feet, we picked up some more very affordable beer and watched Die Hard in the common area until we decided to pass out. Florence is a very magical place, with art impression over the city from artists such as Donatello, Raphael, Leonardo and Michelangelo (no, not the ninja turtles). The streets are magnificent and the stories about how the very wealthy had so much influence over the development of the city was so intriguing. Tours of the people's palaces, personal bridges and an aspect into their daily lives was all very amazing to me. And now I am off to ROME!
