Rainy Day Rome

Well I got back to Rome for one day.  This was just a stop over before I was to fly to Athens.  When I left the train station is was funky weather and was raining.  I decided to check into a different hostel than where I had stayed my previous time there.  This new place was called Alessandro Palace and Bar and it was a ton better!  I didn't have a reservation but they had plenty of rooms.  I got there a couple hours before check in and they wouldn't let me go up to the room right away which was kinda sucky.  Instead I just hung out in the bar area and played around on the internet.  Got to talking to an Irish couple who were really cool.  They were there on their honeymoon.  They like the atmosphere of hostels so they decided to stay in one, but they got a private room of course!  Finally 3:00 pm hit and I went up to my room.  It was an all girl dorm (ugh.)  I only say ugh, because if you've been following my previous journal entries you'll know I had a crummy time at the one I got stuck in, in Milan.  Anyway, it was me and 3 Asian girls, 1 Canadian girl, and then some chick that got in late night so I never really met her.  I made my bed and lazed around for a good portion of the afternoon.  I then decided to do some laundry which I hadn't done since I left Paris.  Hey, I still had clean underwear and that's all that matters!  My other roomies from the last time I was in Rome had told me about a place that they took their laundry to get done.  All you do is drop it off and then in about 2 hours you go back and pick it up, they do it all for you and even fold it for you.  So I decided to do that cause I couldn't be bothered doing it myself and trying to figure out an Italian laundry mat.  It only cost me 6 euros in total and it was well worth it.  Only thing is that they didn't end up folding it for me but oh well, I had a fresh set of laundry done!

Later that night the hostel I was staying at did a free pizza party starting at 8pm down in the bar area.  It was all you could eat for free until the pizza ran out.  I had every intention of going to the pizza party but then when I walked down there I looked inside and it was jam packed!  I wasn't really feeling sociable either, (weird, right!) and I also figured the pizza would be pretty plain and standard i.e. Margarita with only tomato and cheese.  Booorrriiinng.  So instead I went around the corner to Mama Angela's where I had eaten at once before when I was there just a few days earlier.  I got the Shrimp Risotto and they weren't lying when they said "shrimp" as that's all I got....1 shrimp!  It was like they used it as a garnish.  And to top it off it wasn't even out of it's shell!  I played around with it for awhile trying to get it out of the sucker and never did succeed!  So there you have it ladies and gents, shrimp risotto with no shrimp actually ingested!  After dinner I went back to the hostel with every intention of going back up to my room but I got to chatting with the Irish woman again and she wanted me to help her finish her bottle of wine she had bought at the bar.  Crikey!  Of  course I gave into peer pressure and helped her finish off the bottle of wine...and not just 1 bottle, I'm pretty sure we split around 3!  Her husband also plays guitar and he went upstairs and brought his guitar back down and sang us a few songs for some live entertainment.

Naples, Italy...Home to Pizza (and organized crime!)

The train ride to Naples was a quick one, only about an hour and a half to get there from Rome, just long enough for a nice little nap!  Once in the train station is was a bit tricky to get over to the hostel for the fact that you had to then get on the metro and change 2 times.  Either way I made it without too big of a hassle.  It was really hot that day and I was sweating pretty profusely (ewww) so one of the first things I did was take a nice shower!  But first, upon my check in at the hostel everyone was really nice.  The receptionist dude told me about a cooking class they were having that evening and if I was interested I just needed to sign up.  I then caught an Australian couple talking about how fantastic it was and that I should definitely sign up for, they had already done it several nights in a row!  Of course after hearing their rec I decided to sign up, sounded like a fun way to meet people as well.  We then went in search of some fruit for Brett and also some wine to drink later at the dinner.

Brett grabbed a whole pineapple to munch on later and we both grabbed a bottle of wine each for only 2 euro's a bottle, maybe even cheaper than that, I can't remember!  Once I got back to the hostel I met my roommates!  3 Australians which was comprised of 2 girls, Erin and Alex, and a guy, Liam!  I love them so much, they were such a fun group and I picked up a lot of fun words they say..."brekky" is probably my favorite which is short for breakfast.  They were all doing the cooking class dinner as well.  The other 2 roommates I hadn't laid eyes on yet but the Aussies went ahead and warned me.  It was a Hungarian father/son combo.  They also then divulged to me (which has been my worst nightmare among my hostel stays), that the father snores, and by snore they mean he rattles the beds, Ahhh!  The crappy thing is that the son warned them about it when they first checked in.  "Sorry guys, my father has a slight snoring problem because his nose is messed up."  How rude!  If you know you have a bad snoring problem then you should book private rooms and not dorm rooms where you're keeping everyone else up who's paying good money to get some shut eye!  That's the worst about people who snore, you know they are getting some awesome sleep, while you're laying wide awake in misery!  Okay enough about the snoring.  So it was dinner time and we all headed down to the main kitchen area.  There was a pretty good crowd gathered around.  Tonight's dish was Pasta alla Amatricana.  Basically it's pasta with a tomato based sauce with mushrooms, onions, and bacon.  Because both Liam and Brett are vegetarian's they didn't get to enjoy the dinner but they weren't too sad.

The food turned out quite delicious and all for only 3 Euro's!  It ended up being more of a social hour though and not really a cooking class.  I'm pretty sure we ended up buying several more bottles of wine from the hostel bar and all shared them.  The main reception area closes down at midnight so once it closed we thought it would be a good idea to go on a late night walk and roam the streets of Naples.  After about an hour or so and numerous sketchy folks coming up to us we headed on back to the casa.  We still had some wine that needed to be consumed so we sat out in the hallway area on the couch and continued to laugh at the Hungarian man because we could literally hear him snoring through the walls!  I also thought it would be fun to jump in the dirty sheets hamper?

I look really ridiculous in that picture, haha, good memories!  Since the Hungarian dude decided to snore all evening, I decided to sleep on the couch out in the hallway!  It actually wasn't half bad, I just grabbed my own pillow and blanket and made myself at home!  The next morning I woke up feeling somewhat refreshed and surprisingly with no hangover.  We had all decided from the night before that we would go to Pompeii together and check out the city that was destroyed thousands of years ago by the volcano Mt. Vesuvias.  We first had to get back to the central train station and then get on the Circumvesuviana (what a tongue twister).  The stop was called Pompeii and was only about a 45 minute ride.  Wellllll typically it would only be about a 45 minute train ride, for your average person, but noooo. Somehow we all go to chatting and laughing that we totally missed our stop so we made a little detour and got off at the next one which was a little town called Moregine!

A few of the folks thought the smartest thing to do would just be to walk back to the last train stop, as it wasn't that far in between stops.  So we head out on our journey and the journey ends pretty quickly there after.  We had good intentions of following the rail way but at one point we lost sight of it and gave up.  We ended up going back to the Moregine train station and waited for the next train to come through to get us back on track.

Finally we made it to Pompeii and the sight was actually free for us because Culture Week in Italy was still going on.  All national museums and sights were free of charge during the culture week which was nice to save a bit of coin!  Pompeii was very neat and actually really pretty.  I thought it would be a bunch of dusty old ruins but it was quite green inside the gates and had great views of Mt. Vesuvius.

At one point, after walking around for ages, we decided to take a nice little nap in a park. It was nice and refreshing.  I need to do this more often back at home!

It's really amazing how well this lost city has been preserved due to the volcanic ash.  I have a ton more pictures I could post, but I'll put the rest on my facebook page.  However the casts of the bodies that were found are not to be missed, I simply couldn't leave these out.

Apparently the bodies were found in the exact positions, which is really kind of sad.  There were several small children in these casts as well.  After a full day in Pompeii we headed back to Naples and grabbed a quick bite to eat at Basilico again.  It was there that I finally had some delicious Napolitino Pizza!

Later that night there was to be some activities going on at the hostel.  The owner opens up the courtyard area to local vendors and has a sort of market with things such as bracelets, earrings, and all sorts of other jewelery and quirky items.  I browsed around that for awhile but it started to sprinkle so I headed back inside.  Also in the back bar area there was some sort of reinterpretation of "The Vagina Monologues" going on in Italian.  The place was packed!  Of course me and the roomies along with Brett just sat out in the main reception area making fun of each other's sayings and quizzing each other out about various topics.  A Jewish girl from Israel was also in on the conversation and she told me that in Israel it is mandatory for everyone to join the army, whether you're a guy or a girl, you have to put in at least 3 years of service.  The owner was also mingling around with us that night and he let us stayin the the main lobby until 1:00am  that evening rather that 12:00.  We are good persuaders.  The second night in Naples I decided to sleep in my room because apparently they were perturbed that "someone" slept on the couch the night before.  Supposedly they didn't know who it was but that they shouldn't do it again or else they would kick the person out!  I'm not sure what harm it did to anyone by me sleeping out there. I mean don't they want their guests to get some good sleep?  Either way I obeyed the rules and tried to get a bit of shut eye through each rumbling snore.  The man was actually directly below me, so if he started getting to loud and crazy I would rattle the bed from above to try to wake him up.  My motto is "if I'm not getting good sleep because of you, then neither should you!"

Ladies and gentleman, the famous couch!  After 1:00am hit and the lobby closed down, we went upstairs and tried to chat for a little while longer but it wasn't too long after that the guy working the night shift came upstairs and made us go into our rooms.  The next day I headed out fairly early to go back to Rome for one night!

Rome, Italy...Colosseum, Pope's, and Old Stuff!

Yes, In Rome!  This is what Italy's all about right?!  Found my way to the hostel pretty easily from the train station.  Checked in, made the bed, and hit the streets right?!  Wrong.  Somewhere in Florence I developed a bit of a head cold so when I got to Rome, no one was in the room yet.  I suppose everyone was out exploring, so I took advantage of an empty room and took a nice little nap.  I woke up around 6:00pm and then I hit the streets!  First stop, The Pantheon!  What is amazing about The Pantheon is that it is the most intact structure built during the Roman Empire.  It was built (or completed) around 125 AD...aka old!  I headed there first because I had read it closed at 7pm so I wanted to get there as quickly as possible.  Here it is folks, scaffolding and all!

The second picture is the dome inside of the Parthenon and the light shines through the hole.  I'm sure whoever is reading this must think I'm fascinated with dome's, especially after reading the last post about Florence! 

Onwards to the next sight...I've got places to go and people to watch!  After the Pantheon I hit up Piazza Navona which is one of the largest piazza's in Rome.  Inside the piazza there are lots of street vendors and artists as well as overpriced restaurants that will cost you an arm and a leg.  I did, however, see one of the most interesting street performers in Piazza Navona.  I thought him to be very unique!

This guy stood there in that same stance for several minutes with that little smirk on his face!  His outfit I guess is made like that as if he's in a super hurry!  Anyway I thought that was pretty cool.  Onwards to the world famous Trevi Fountain now.  It was a beautiful time when I arrived to the fountain, as the sun was starting to go down and they had the lights on.  There were heaps of people all around.  I forgot to drop a coin in and make a wish.  'Spose that'll give me more reason to head back to Rome one day!

The Spanish Steps were next on my conquest.  Good thing I had an awesome street map to get me around from place to place.  I was able to navigate pretty easily through the streets with minimal effort!  Once I got to the Spanish Steps the sun was almost completely down and I was able to grab some really pretty pictures!

One of the reasons it's called The Spanish Steps is because the Spanish Embassy is actually at the top and if you ask me, the Church at the top looks very Spanish-y as well!  I'm so intellectual, ha!  By this time it had gotten dark and I'm smart enough to know I shouldn't be roaming the streets late at night by myself.  I stopped off at a cafe for a quick bite to eat then headed back to the hostel.  I think I attempted to get on the net down at the hostel's bar but the signal was crappy and that was a no go.  Off to bed I went for the second day of exploration.

Day 2 consisted of me going to check out the Colosseum, but just on the outside.  Didn't do a proper tour of it yet.  I had some friends getting into town within the next couple of days so I thought I would hold off to see if we wanted to do any activities together.  First I walked to the Piazza Venezia (I think) and took a few pictures of that massive structure.

On my way over to The Colosseum I strolled along parts of the Roman Forum, but I'll save those pictures until I get to that portion of my trip!  So next are pics of The Colosseum!

In this last pic you can see the different layers that The Colosseum was made up of.  The outer layer is slowing falling apart.  So since this wan't the day I had planned to go inside the Colosseum, I just snapped the few outside pics.  Next up was to head over to the Capuchin Cemetery which was supposed to be similar to the catacombs I had visited in Paris.  Some 4,000 Monks had been "buried" here and their bones, and in some cases, their whole bodies were on display.  We weren't supposed to take pictures, again, but you know how that goes.  R.I.P.

After being creeped out by all the bones (actually it doesn't bother me), I'm pretty sure I went back to the hostel and did a bit of research to figure out a place for dinner.  I ended up going to a place near the Colosseum that was written up in my "Rough Guide" to Italy book.  The food was just alright, and cheap, but the host was pretty fun.  Also I sat next to a friendly American group.  They were some older folks but they were from the good ol' boy crowd.  Big moustache and beer drinkers.  Their wives were a hoot as well.  They were in Rome for a few days before taking off on a 10 day cruise. Once dinner was over and the laughter died down I headed back to get some sleep.  My first  few nights in Rome I didn't do much because I was getting over that cold I had developed and none of my roommates were much fun.  Plus my amigos hadn't gotten to Rome yet but they were set to arrive the next day I believe.  

Day 3 didn't consist of much, sadly. But I did have 5 nights in Rome so I didn't feel like I needed to be on the go so much.  It was when I was in Rome that the Icelandic Volcano decided to do it's thing.  Tons of people were stranded and you should have heard the stories that people were sharing!  I found it quite comical, but maybe that's because it didn't interfere with my plans any. People were seriously freaking out and coming up with all kinds of outrageous plans to get out of the city and back to where they needed to be!  I mean for goodness sakes people, you are stuck in ROME!  I can think of a lot more places that's worse than Rome, it's not a damn third world country!  You woulda thought these people were stranded in some remote African village by the way they talked.  Either way I knew that since planes were grounded then trains would be the next form of transportation.  I headed off to another train station rather than Roma Termini (main station) because I thought I would be slick and no one else would have thought of this. I wanted to go ahead and secure my ticket reservation down to Naples so I was sure to get there AND back to Rome before flying out to Greece.  So onward to the train station I went. Along with me was one of my roommates that had moved into our room.  She was one of the stranded and needed to get back into France to be in class.  Her outrageous route was: 1) ticket from Rome to Florence. 2) From Florence get to another little coastal town nearby. 3) Take a 15 hour ferry ride from said coastal town to a town in France. 4) Take a train from small town in France to Paris. 5) Take train from Paris to her town where her university is.  Are you kidding me? All that mess and if she would have waited a few days she could have flown.  I think some people just like the drama of the whole situation.  Anyway the line at this particular train station wasn't as terrible as the one at Termini, or so I was told.  We waited around 2 1/2 hrs in line while she talked my ear off and told me the same stories over and over! Finally I couldn't handle it anymore and she drove me to drinking.  Thankfully there was a little store in the train station and I grabbed myself a beer and continued to wait.

I just realized how terrible my posture is in that pic! Anyway, finally got the tix and went back to my hostel and tried to get on the internet for a couple of hours, that didn't work.  Basically day 3 was a bust and the only thing that got accomplished was getting the train tickets to Naples.

Day 4 proved to be more active.  My friend Brett that I had met in Florence was arriving in Rome and he had messaged me the night before saying that we should go check out the Colosseum and the roman forums.  We were to meet at 11:00 out in front of the subway station.  Well I get there a little early and at about 11:30 with no Brett in sight, I decided to do go ahead and do the tour.  It was 15 euro and it covered both sites and you got some actual history behind the two.  Here are just a few pics.

The above 2 are from inside the Colosseum. In the olden days they had the center part completely covered with wood.  As you can see above they only have in partially covered so you can see what was below.

This picture is at the very top of Palatine Hill (where Rome was created) located inside the Roman Forum.  The nice modern looking home was actually Mussolini's back in his day.  Apparently he wanted to have his house at the very top of the hill where all the important Roman leaders lived.

Not much is left of the Forum area, mostly a bunch of rubble but it's still very cool to see!  I also heard the story of how Rome got it's name and it comes from the story of Romulus and Reemus. Right about the time I got through with the tour it started raining.  I grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed back to the hostel for some dry weather.  My Australian friend Ben had also gotten into town and we exchanged a few texts and made plans to meet up later on.  When I got back to the hostel I checked my facebook and Brett had sent me a message apologizing for missing out on the Colosseum.  He had actually gone to wait in line at the train station himself to get his tickets down to Naples as well.  He didn't realize it was going to take so long and he ended up missing our meet time.  No biggie.  We made plans to try to meet up once again around 6pm outside the train station to go have dinner and walk around.  This time it was successful and we spotted each other fairly quickly.  I showed him around a bit taking him to places that I had seen my very first day.  I proved to be a pretty good tour guide and was able to remember pretty easily how to get from place to place and I didn't have a map!  After the walk we had worked up a good appetite.  We chatted with Ben through text again and he was already eating with a few folks from his hostel.  Earlier that day I had heard a couple of the people that work at my hostel (The Yellow, don't ever stay there it sucked and wasn't cheap) talking about Mexican food.  Of course being from Texas, I love my Mexican food and was due for a little taste of the good stuff.  Brett agreed that Mexican also sounded good so we headed that way.  YUM!  I had the chicken enchiladas with rice and black refried beans, which were served cold?  The enchiladas were freakin' spicy too!  I usually consider myself pretty tolerable of hot foods, growing up with my dad's cooking, he always made things extra hot.  Perhaps I've been gone too long and my palate has turned pansy on me!  After dinner we wanted to go for a few drinks and Brett had seen an Irish pub not far from our hostels.  We went there and had a beer and a half each.  We were so full from the food we couldn't finish our second!  There were a couple from Ohio that Brett got to talking to and they were fun.  The husband bought us our 2nd beer so I didn't feel as bad throwing half of it out later, hehe.  Brett walked me back to my hostel so I didn't have to roam the dark streets of Rome by myself.

Here we are at day 5, the last and final day of my Roman adventures, and to top it off I didn't even stay in Rome, I went to Vatican City....only a mere 20 minute subway ride away.  Brett and I had decided to meet each other at 10:30 in the morn to conquer Saint Peters together.  Ben also texted me early that morning and we all met up together.  What a fun day, they guys had me laughing the whole time!

We first tackled St. Peter's Basilica and it was massive and the most ornate church I've ever seen.  It really was incredible!  While we were inside we noticed a crowd of people up towards the front of the church.  Being nosy tourists, of course we wanted a look as well.  To our surprise it was the POPE!  I guess some type of ceremony was going on that required his presence!

Now you have to look closely but if you see the three candles in the background and look slightly to the left of them you can see a man with a funny tall white hat on and that's the man himself!  I didn't have out my 200 zoom paparazzi lens that day, so this is the best I got!

Once we roamed around St. Pete's for awhile we took a lunch break and then headed to check out the Vatican Museum which is where the Sistine Chapel is located.  No visit would be complete without seeing the famous ceiling that Michelangelo painted in the Sistine Chapel.  Again my old and expired student ID came in handy.  It was 15 euro to enter the Vatican Museum but since I had my card it was only 8...score!  This museum was absolutely massive and it took us forever to wind in and out of the long hallways filled with paintings and sculptures.  We kept seeing signs "Sistine Chapel this way" so we knew we were heading in the right direction but at times we were starting to wander!  Alas we made it to the chapel and it was packed.  There were a ton of museum curators shhhhshing people for them to be quiet and making people take off their hats.  Mostly I think they were making sure no one took photos but yours truly of course had to get a shot!

Look towards the top of the photo and you can see the famous painting where God is reaching out to Adam and they have their arms extended.

After a full day of walking around, we grabbed the subway back to Rome.  Not before filling out a few postcards though and sending them from Vatican City, which is technically another country!  We all decided to go have dinner together.  Where did we decide to go eat you ask?  The Mexican food place again of course!  It was seriously that yum and plus Ben hadn't gotten to eat it yet.  Dinner was great, we really loaded up on the food.  Ben ordered a chimichanga, I got the quesadillas, and Brett ordered a vegetarian burrito.  When our food was brought out, everyone started digging in. And then another plate arrived after we all already had ours and were a good bit into the meal.  Ben's chimichanga showed up!  So what was he eating? He got a random beef burrito and had forgotten what he had ordered.  It was all pretty hilarious and the manager ended up letting him have the chimichanga as well at no extra cost.  Somehow Ben managed to put down both of those plates of food, he was a beast!  

Somehow after all the food was consumed, Brett managed to order a piece of pecan pie for dessert.  I didn't try a bite myself but he said it was pretty good.  After dinner we went back to the same Irish pub we were at the night before.  Put down a few glasses of wine and called it a night.  Had a train to catch the next day to Naples!

Florence and Pisa, Italy...Tuscan Fun!

Arrived in Florence early afternoon and checked into my hostel called The Academy which was is probably the nicest hostel I've stayed in all my travels thus far, but a little stuffy to be honest.  There were no bunk beds which was nice and in between each bed there was a little divider which was nice touch so people aren't staring at you in your sleep!  We also got these little lamps that we could turn on when we got home at night so we didn't have to flip the main light on and wake everyone.  Thought those were interesting little tid-bits to share.  Anyway, on to more important things.  After I checked in and got situated I decided to head to Pisa right away because it's only an hour on train from Florence and since it was Monday and most museums and sights are closed on Monday's I figured it would be a perfect day to go check out the world famous leaning tower.  Boy was it the perfect day!  The sun was shining and only a few clouds in sight.  When I arrived at the train station in Pisa, they had a map and you literally just walked straight down the main road outside of the train station and you would get to the tower.  I walked over there with a girl and her parents who were from Thailand and also a nice girl from Hong Kong who was travelling by herself.  The tower is free of charge to get into the square where it's located but they wanted a whopping 15 Euros to climb it and get to the top!  Obviously I opted to skip the climb.  And of course I got the obligatory funny pics that everyone always takes with the tower.  Here are a few...

When I returned back to my hostel they were doing a snack hour.  The receptionist had whipped up some sort of pasta that we could snack on for free along with some red wine that tasted more like sangria.  I chowed down on that and struck up a conversation with a guy who was also staying in my hostel (and my same room) named Steve and he was from England.  We chatted for a good bit and then decided to go out for some drinks.  We went to one bar first called Lochness because if we name dropped the lady at our hostel we got discounted drinks.  Then we moved on to another bar to meet up with some friends I had made in Venice.  Casey, Emily, and Ally.  Had a few drinks there and then called it a night.

The next day I kinda roamed around on my own which was good.  I believe the Steve guy went to Pisa which freed me of him for a day, whew!  I went and checked out Pont Vecchio, which is an old famous bridge with lots of retail.

Also bought a few postcards and stopped off at a restaurant to fill them out while I had a cup o' coffee.  Next I was headed over to the giant Duomo in Florence, but I got side tracked and ended up going into the MAC store and bought myself some perfume.  I ran out before I left France and was in desperate need of some "smell good" with all the walking I have been doing.  I happened upon a neat square area where there were a ton of statues (mostly replicas).

Once again, I was headed to the duomo, but as you can see I can stray pretty easily from my main task.  Here are a few pics of the Duomo, shortly before my camera died on me and needed a re-charge!

Surprisingly I didn't go up the tall tower pictured above.  If you've been keeping up with my blog you know I love to do anything with heights and if it gives me a picturesque view then it gets double the points.  Next it was time to go into the cathedral and snap a few pics.  I'm pretty sure it was free of charge, there wasn't much of a line (thankfully)!

What is most famous about this particular Duomo is the Dome.  It is the world's largest brick dome, I think?, and it actually has a double shell and is painted.  More about the dome to come.

Right after I got a few pics in my camera decided in needed a re-charge.  I headed back to my hostel, plugged that puppy in for a bit and then took a nice nana nap (a term I picked up from my Aussie friends)!  A few hours later I awoke, showered up, and headed to the kitchen area just in time for some more of the free pasta and wine that the hostel provided.  This time there were more people and the pasta went quick which meant I didn't get as much as I wanted and still needed dinner.  That night Steve the British guy, and I went out to dinner.  We got a rec from the lady at the front and headed out to have some pasta.  We split a bottle of wine, I got a pasta, and a caprese salad.  Then as we were asking for our check the waitress asked us if we wanted dessert.  We hesitated and basically told her "that's ok," to which she translated that we did want dessert.  So when she brought it out we thought, "oh, this must be on the house since we didn't order it" but NO, we definitely got charged for it!  I mean if we were gonna get charged for dessert, at the very least let us choose what it is!  Either way no biggie.  Steve and I then headed to a jazz club we were also told about.  It was on the streets near the jazz club that I got chased by some half dog half rodent looking creature.  In all honesty I think it was just a mangy looking dog but it was creepy!  We got to the jazz club and they wanted to charge us a membership fee of 5 Euro, BUT it was good for a whole year!  Uhhh, thanks but we will only be here 2 days!  We passed and called it a night.

The next day was museum and tourist day.  Once again I was with the Steve guy and we headed over to get lunch at The Oil Shoppe.  It is the best little sandwich joint I've encountered in awhile!  Loads of choices to choose from and super cheap. After lunch it was onward to The Academia where Michelangelo's "David" statue is housed.  Of course I got in for a student price and of course there were no pictures allowed...which means Jaclyn gets it set in her mind to snap a photo anyway.  And so I did!

Once again pictures do no justice to a fabulous piece of artwork like David.  The detail is incredible, showing veins, leg muscles, etc, and the statue itself is enormous!  I have decided I am more of a sculpture fan than I am of paintings.  There was another area of sculptures inside this same museum and we browsed around those for a bit and then headed out.  Next up we had a quick coffee and then headed to the entrance where you can climb the dome of the Duomo!  This cost about 8 euros but it was worth every penny and every ounce of sweat I shed.  That was a ton of steps my friends.  Little narrow hallways as well.  Not for the claustrophobic that's for sure.  Once you reached the top the views were overwhelming!

Thankfully we got to the top when we did, because on our way down it was packed!  I would not want to be stuck in those little narrow passageways waiting!

After climbing the dome of the duomo, it was yet again to do some more hiking.  I had heard the views of the city were really pretty from the Michelangelo Piazza so Steve and I decided to head over that way.  It wasn't near as tiring as climbing all the steps, but I did stop occasionally to take a breather and grab a photo.

Once we got to the piazza, the views were very pretty, but you just weren't as high as the duomo takes you.  It was at this point I would have liked to have filled out a few postcards but Steve, the guy I was with, prevented me from doing so.  Sometimes I enjoy having someone to go see and check out sights with, but at other times I prefer being by myself.  This lets me do things at my own pace rather than worrying about others and what they want to do.  I think I did manage to get one postcard filled out and then we headed off to grab a scoop of gelato, which cancelled out all the exercise we had previously done.  After the gelato, we parted ways.  I was checking out of the hostel that I had been staying in and switching over to the one I had originally wanted but they had no availability.  This new one was called Archi Rossi.  I was finally able to break free from Steve, he creeped me out a bit.  Just some of the things he would say were a bit puzzling and odd.

I found my way over to the Archi Rossi with no problems and it turns out it's basically next door to the train station which would be nice when it was time to head out.  I made my bed and relaxed for awhile at the new place.  Later that evening I went down to the cafeteria area where they serve food to grab some dinner.  They had all sorts of menu options to choose from.  Pasta, Pizza, or Salad for only 2.50 euro!  It was a steal AND they gave you a giant plate full.  It was in the cafeteria area where I ran into Ben, an Australian guy that stayed at my same hostel in Venice.  We chatted for awhile and he told me about his late night from the night before and how he ended up with a ladies jacket.  Apparently his got stolen so he just grabbed a random one himself, and it ended up being a girl jacket!  He told me to come up to his room and try it on and if I wanted it I could have it.  After dinner we headed upstairs to check out this famous stolen coat.  It was there I met his roommates Brett from Ohio and Bryan from Chicago.  Bryan was in Florence on some type of med school conference.  I decided to keep the jacket and took it up to my room and got changed and ready to go out.  The three guys and I decided to go for a few brewski's around the corner at a micro brewery.  Once we got warmed up with the beers it was party time so we set out looking for a dance club.  On our way we asked a ton of locals where to go and they pointed us in the direction of a club called 21, which by the way was no where near the average age of the patrons.  It should have been called 17!  It was here 21 where Bryan decides to buy us all tequila shots.  And not just 1 but about 5 a piece!  Yowzers.

Above is Ben, Brett, and Bryan.  The 3 B's!  We danced the night away and had a great time at the club, surprisingly I felt fine the next day, but I did sleep in quite late so maybe that had something to do with it.

That is my last and final tequila shot!  At some point in the night, Brett, Ben, and I decided to head home. Somewhere along the way we lost ol' Bryan.  Everyone else checked out the next day.  Ben was headed off to Cinque Terre and Brett was going to Pisa for a couple nights.  I still had one more day in Florence which proved to be pretty unproductive.  I slept in, as I previously stated, then when I got out of bed I walked over to the Oil Shoppe to get one of their fabulous sandwiches.  FAIL.  It was about 3 in the afternoon and they had a sign out in front of the place that said they ran out of bread!  How does a sandwich joint run out of bread, are you kidding me!  That is like a butcher shop running out of meat.  Oh well.  I walked back the same direction as my hostel and stopped off at the street market and browsed around instead.  I bought a couple of leather bracelets and a cheapo magnet for 1 euro. The rest of the day/night was pretty chill. Didn't do a whole lot.  I think I updated the blog a bit and got a good night's rest before heading off to Rome the next day!