I saw Davids you know what!!!
Trip Start
Jun 08, 2008
1
47
65
Trip End
Dec 08, 2008
Florence,
Tuscany,
Italy
Sunday, October 12, 2008
I arrived in Florence via the train and pretty much it was uneventful. I only had one more day left on my rail pass so I thought I would take advantage of that and head straight to Pisa. I was going to spend some time there but everyone and their dog told me not to, there isnt enough to see and do. When I arrived after the hour long train ride they were right. If you ever have the chance to go, only plan for about 2 hours. I saw the leaning tower and yes it was defianlly leaning. Other then the tower there just wasnt that much to do. Seeing that I was getting bored I thought the least I could do was climb the damn thing. I headed over to the ticket office where I found out that tickets were 15 Euros to climb the 500 steps to the top. There was absolutly not a chance I was playing close to $25.00 to see the top of a tower. I settled on the grass with my book and layed in the sun for a few hours. I headed back to Florence about 5:00pm where I was just in time for dinner.
The hostel that I was staying at was amazing. One floor of an apartment building ment that there were only about 20 people in the whole place. It was like a little family. Franko was the manager and what a host he was. He did everything and everything under the sun to make sure the every person had the best experience at the hostel. Every night he would cook dinner for the entire hostel. You would think that I would come to Florence to eat the food and experience the wine but sitting around the dinner table, chatting with different folks really felt like a peice of home. Everyone looked forward to Frankos meals everynight. It was an event that needs to be documented. Every night Franko would round of the troops and would take us all out for a local experience on the town. Unfotually this would result in a lot of money spent and a hostel full of drunks by the end of the night.
I knew that there wasnt a lot to see in Florence other then the regular stuff. I checked out the churches and the palace and I walked up the hill to the palace gardens. The most amazing part of Florence was just walking the streets. Markets and street preformers on every corner and over all a great atmosphere. The piazzas were great just to chill out and eat Gelato. The second day I had only one goal and that was to see Michealangelos DAVID. Situated in the a small museum in the center of town I strolled over there and stood in line for quite some time. I chatted to a German couple that offered me a place to stay in Hamburg but I sadly told them I had been there already and I wasnt ready to head back into Germany. It took about an hour to get into the museum but when I got there it was well worth it.
The problem with going to see things like the Mona Lisa, Venus De Mila, and paintings that are so famous around the world is some of the time you are dissapointed when you get there. I thought for sure The David was going to be the same. When I arrived at the gigantic statue I was beyond impressed. Standing about 12 feet tall, in all his glory, I was pleasently surprised. Completed by the artist at the age of 23 it was beyond incredible thinking about what I was doing at the age of 23. I got yelled at by security twice for taking pictures but it was well worth it.
I headed back to the hostel for dinner, played some drinking games with my 2 Euro Bottle of homemade Italian wine which Franko was kind enough to grab for me and the night was set. I was off the next day to which I now know to be one of my favorite place on my trip...................
Comments
Arg
Oh... the suspense!