Destination IV: Florence, Italy

Sneaky picture of Bottichelli's "The Birth of Venus" kept inside the Ufizi...

Sneaky picture of Michaelangelo's statue "David" kept inside del'Academia...

View from Ponte Vecchio...

Street artists in Florence using chalk to recreate "The Girl with a Pearl Earring"... It was incredible!

View of the Duomo from the Piazza del Duomo...

The garden in the center of Capella dei Principi.

Medical manuscript in the Medici library...

Inside the Medici Library...

Our train arrived at the Florence central train station right around 22:00, and lucky for me there was a pharmacy inside the station... that was open! My toe wasn't really hurting or anything, but I was getting a little tired of my redneck-version band-aid. We headed towards our hotel, and we were a little surprised by how close it was. The hotel was AMAZING! It was on busy little side street right in the heart of Florence. Everything was less than a 10 minute walk away; how convenient! After having our room upgraded, for free, we walked down the street and enjoyed our first gelato! I went for mint and Kenneth chose something fruity... from that point on, we were hooked. We went back to the hotel and went straight to bed. That was probably one of the longest days I have ever experienced... three cities in one day, WOW.

The following morning we woke up and headed to the Medici family library and Basilica of San Lorenzo. I really enjoyed the library. The library houses nearly 11,000 manuscripts and 4,500 books; most of the collection is reserved for scholars though. They had tons of medical manuscripts on display that were super cool. Kenny and I both really enjoyed looking at them. After the library we headed over to the Basilica of San Lorenzo... Most of the important members of the Medici family are buried there, and it is one of the largest churches in Florence. After seeing the church we headed out to the Piazza San Lorenzo and perused the booths for souvenirs. Then we were off to the Duomo... It was sooo big! We got in the humongous line to go up in the tower and enjoyed another delicious gelato, this time it was caramel. After waiting in line for a while and not getting anywhere we decided to forego going up into the tower and to just go inside the church. It was huge inside and fun to look at... Afterwards, we headed to lunch at a place called the Oil Shoppe... (my roommate's boyfriend studies in Florence and recommended it to us.) It was really good; it was kind of like the Florence version of Prague's Bohemia Bagel (my favorite place to eat if I haven't already mentioned that!) It was filled with "local" Americans... I am assuming mainly students. After lunch we went to the Ponte Vecchio. The Ponte Vecchio used to be lined with blacksmiths, but now it is lined with jewelry stores; I basically fell in love with cameos. Too bad I have the most expensive taste ever, and all the ones I liked were in the €200 range. So, after spending the day out walking around and exploring Florence we decided to head back to the hotel. On our way back we made a quick stop and picked up a great bottle of red wine and some lemon Schweppes. My new favorite drink! We were so exhausted that we decided to take a nap... three hours or so later we dragged ourselves out of bed to go and get dinner. We ate at a cute little restaurant on a hidden side street, and that is where the theme of our trip began: Kenny's being jealous of my delicious meal choices. I had lasagna, a delicious salad, and, of course, bread with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Yummy!

The next morning we woke up and got ready to head to del'Academia... we got there around 10:00 and already the line was wrapped around the building. After waiting in line for two and a half hours it was time to go inside and see Michaelangelo's "David". I don't think there are any words in our language that give justification to the wonder that is "David". The statue was very large and very beautiful. We spent quite a while starring in awe and soaking it all in. It is very cool to see something so famous up close and personal. As with most places in Europe, photos were not allowed, but Kenny and I used our secret agent moves to snap a few photos. After del'Academia we had lunch at a nearby pizzeria, and, as usual, it was delicious. From there we headed to the Uffizi, which is Florence's most prestigious art museum. We only had to wait for one hour to get in. I had no clue what paintings made the Uffizi so famous; I was quite delighted when I found out that it housed "The Birth of Venus" by Sandro Botticelli, which is one of my favorite paintings of all time. Yet again, we snapped some secret photos. After enjoying some more gelato, (cookie and stratiachella) we headed back to the hotel to grab our bags and hit the train station. And then there was Rome...