Firenze: Day 1

We woke up at 3:45 Saturday morning, hopped into a taxi, and headed to the train station. At 5 o’clock, our train left Bassano Del Grappa and took us to Venezia (Venice). From there we caught a euro rail train (the fast ones) and headed toward Firenze (Florence) arriving at 9:30. We walked straight to our hostel and dropped our bags off because we could check in until 4. First, we walked around and saw the Medici Chapels which had a bunch of side venders selling everything scarves, ties, and leather to fake Dior, Louis Vuitton, and Gucci bags and accessories. Next we headed to the Duomo. It is a huge, beautiful church building.

We walked around the whole thing then we paid to go inside and climb up to the top of the dome to view the city. We had to walk up 463 stairs to reach the top. The view was breathtaking. Firenze is one of the prettiest cites in Italy.

We stayed up at the top for a long time taking in the scenery before we decided to take the 463 step journey down, which was a lot faster than the ascent. Once down, we went to the Accademia di Belle Arti to see the famous David by Michelangelo. The statue of David is huge and really cool. We don’t know why but they wouldn’t let us take pictures of it. We were kinda confused because usually the only things museums don’t like you take pictures of are paintings because the flash exposure can ruin them. By the time we got out of the museum it was about 1:30 and we were all starving. We headed back toward the Duomo and ate at the Black Bar and had some delicious calzones then went and found some gelato for dessert. Our last big attraction for the day was the Uffizi. I really enjoyed it because I got to see a lot of paintings about the gods that I had learned about in the Greek /Roman Mythology and the World of Greece classes I took. Right beside the Uffizi was a river with bridges connecting the two parts of the city. We played around there for a bit and took some pictures. Finished with our site seeing for the day, we went out in the town and went into the shops. After a while, we went back to the first side-vender market and ended up buying a couple of things which included Firenze leather wallets, ties, and some scarves. Tired of walking, we went back to our hostel to check into our rooms and put away our purchases. The place was really neat, for a hostel. Compared to our one in Roma, it was a 4 star hotel. The room was nice, big, and CLEAN! The bathroom was big and had built in appliances, like hairdryers. The entire place, except our rooms, had paintings of the most famous things in Italy all over the wall. There was also a courtyard in the middle of the hostel with statues and such adorning it.

After resting a bit, we then proceeded to a restaurant to have dinner. We ate a really cool place that was a mix between a restaurant and a sports bar. They had a couple of huge TVs that had a soccer match on display. So naturally, we watched the game while we took our time eating. It was probably the first time that we had spent longer than 20 to 30 minutes in a restaurant. The rest of our night consisted of us going back to our hostel and chatting it up before turning the lights out and going to bed.

P.S. If you haven't noticed, we have FINALLY got our pictures up on the blog. A special thanks goes to Vonda because without her help I would have probably never figured it out. My (Cody) pictures are the only ones that you will see when you click the link at the moment. I should have the pictures from Kyle's camera up by Thursday, hopefully. Once they give them to me I will have to upload them on my computer and then add them to the web page. So for future reference, if you are wanting to see ALL the pictures you will have to revisit the link a few days after it is made because the pictures from Kyle's camera will always take a day or two longer to get added. Hope you enjoy them!!!