Florence Italy

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Trip Start May 01, 2007 Previous
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  Florence, Italy
Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Yes, I'll admit, that it IS weird that we were in Italy before, then took a ferry to Greece, then came back to Italy, but that's just the way it worked out. We took the same ferry line back to Venice (we got a room on the ship this time - certainly worth the money for the 30 hour, 2 night trip), then took a train that morning over to Florence. Florence is just like the other Italian cities we've come to - beautifully laid out in a manner that encourages neighbours to be neighbours and not strangers, situated in a picturesque valley. The whole nine yards. It was a beautiful town.

Being the penny pinchers that we are, we stayed in another campground at the edge of town, as we have all throughout Italy. Like the others, it was a decent setup, but something to be avoided if you can afford it. After check in, we made it into town, found a bite and took a wander around

01 Hercules and the Centaur

. We found that, just like Venice, it was easier to wander around then strictly try to follow a map. That night, we climbed up to Piazzale Michelangelo, which is a great place overlooking the city. From a set of steps, you can get a fantastic view of the sun setting, right over the river that cuts Florence in two.

Next day consisted of more wandering, but mostly exploring some of the city's exquisite churches. There is a Cathedral in town, called the Santa Maria del Fiore that was built in such a way that "none could surpass it" or some such thing. It was quite beautiful on the outside, and the artwork in the dome inside was stunning as well. We read that it was possible to climb the 493 steps of the dome to get a fantastic view of town. We waited in line behind a nice American family, who we spoke with a bit, then unfortunately learned it was €6 each to get up. We left the line to find something free to do, when the Grandmother detached herself from the rest of the family, walked over to us and offered to pay our way to the top. It was quite incredible of her to do that, and we gladly accepted, thanking her profusely. She really made our whole stay in Florence that much better. As expected, the view from the top was well worth the trip, and we're glad for our kind benefactor's assistance.

The one thing that I really wanted to do in Florence was visit Michelangelo's David. We found out where it was housed, but also found out that it was €10 a piece to visit it. Walking away from the sizeable queue with heads hung low, we noticed through the open exit door that you could see the statue from afar. Terri said to me "there you go, that is what people spend €10 each to see." I snapped a couple photos, while another guy standing there told us "ya, but today its free - some artist's birthday or something." Hardly believing our good luck, we got in line, and saw the greatest statue ever carved, for free

02 Neptune

. I don't really know what else to say about David than that...it really must be the best statue ever carved, because if he looked any more lifelike, he'd just step right off the base and walk away.

Day three was pretty much a write off. We checked out of our tent, but our train to Vienna didn't leave till that night, so we carted our bags down to the train station to store them, then just sort of killed the day sitting in a park reading our books. It wasn't all together unpleasant. We also had some killer gelato, and some great calzones.

So ends our days in Italy. Next stop is Vienna, Austria via sleeper train.

Stay tuned...

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03 Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral	04 Sunset in Florence	05 Heaven	06 Hell
07 Top of the Dome	08 Michelangelo's David	09 Florence at night

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