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!
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