Florence, you know how much?
Trip Start
May 24, 2008
1
8
12
Trip End
Jun 23, 2008
Florence,
Tuscany,
Italy
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Nina here. This will be my 2nd wonderful entry. I must say, I've been a bit of a deliquent when it comes to recording our adventures. I haven't made an entry to my journal since Mykonos. Shameful, I know. So here we are in Florence. It is such a beautiful city. Our hostel is the nicest we've stayed in yet, if I do say so. Free internet! Cheap laundry. Comfy beds. Clean bathroom (that one's a biggie). TV. Cute front desk boy. All the stuff you look for in a hostel.
Yesterday we arrived off the train from Venice. I made the mistake of losing track of my clutch purse for a minute or two very late at night in a bar in Venice and returned to find it, my debit card, my american express, and my 60 euros cash inside, all gone
Shopping at the market near San Lorenzo
. Oops. I really feel stupid for that one. It's all ok now, but I had to deal with the cancellation and card replacement for about 3 hours. Lesson learned. Well, after just barely catching the train to meet Megs and Erica we spent a few hours napping and reading until arriving in Florence. We walked through the streets to find our hostel, weaving through vendors and tents selling leather goods and italia soccer gear. It has now become like a song that gets stuck in our heads, but the chorus of African fake purse and fake sunglass vendors rings throughout all of Europe. "Miss Lady, Miss Lady, you know how much? Ok wait. Excuse me. Miss Lady. You know how much? For you, half price. Nice lady, for you, half price." We are still unsure of what exactly it is half of, but I guess we are just so special. Clearly, I mean, for us, half price.
Our first stop was the duomo, which is less than a block from our hostel. So beautiful. I can't believe I finally got to see the beautiful creation I did a history research project on in high school in person. That Brunelleschi, man, I give him major props. The view from the top is mindlblowing. A word I've come to use often in our travels. Really just a breathtaking 360 degree view. Did I mention the 456 steps we climbed to get there? Yeah, our rear ends are pretty much rock hard now
Sitting on a ledge over the Arno River
. I tell you, one thing we know we'll take home from this trip will be some added strength in the stair stepping muscles. We've probably climbed about 5000 by now. Anyway, after that we went to a lovely dinner at a place Megan's guide book (our savior) recommended. We stretched it our to about a 2 and a half hour meal, which is one of my favorite things to do. Enough wine and we could've made it 3 and a half, but from time to time we try to take it easy on our poor, exhausted little bodies. We did stop by a very cheesy pub called Fish and enjoyed the second half of the Netherlands vs. France game. France ate it hard. So sad. 4-1 I believe. We also were able to enjoyed the exotic dancer-like moves of a few underdressed, overly made-up, American teens in desperate need of attention. You should've seen these girls. It was a sight.
Today we wok up early and walked back through the vendors to a wonderful inside market full of fresh meat and produce on our way to the Uffizi. I hope I spelled that correctly. It was chocked full of hot art. Yeah, you heard me, chocked full. Megs, our personal tour guide and art history expert informed us of the important works as we zig-zagged through. I personally like the Boticelli works because they are so whimsical
The view from the top of the Duomo
. I just want to jump in and dance around with the subjects. La dee da, skip to my loo. You know. Anyway, after that we did a bit of damage in the stores in town then took a break to eat. Right now the girls are a a sculture museum, the name of which escapes me, and I'm taking some personal time to get in touch since I've been very bad about that and plan my travels. I have decided to take a week of time to travel alone and it's time to get more concrete on the details of that part of the trip. So I'm off to research. We called it a night early last night and hope to wine and dine tonight. It's a special restaurant Megs loved when she was abroad here, so I trust that it will be magnificent. I hope everything is going well at home and in your own adventures. I plan to be more responsible about my contributions to the blog. Until then, ciao.
Nina
