Flying through Florence

April 12th, 2010

We woke up early and went to our included breakfast which was croissants and nutella...yum. First we went to the Duomo. We paid 8 euro to go up into the dome but it was so worth it. 463 stairs and you could see the whole inside of the dome and all the incredible paintings. Then we walked the rest of the way up to the top, on top of the dome where you could see all of Florence. It was gorgeous. The green mountains surrounded the city of red roofs. So pretty.

After the Duomo we walked down the Italian street to the Vecchio bridge. It was so pretty! Just as I always imagined it. We bought our first gelato on the other side of the bridge. It was the best stuff I've ever tasted! Right after that we were looking at post cards and we heard a girl behind us say, "Hi." We turned around and there was Anne Solyst, a girl from Concordia. She had lived on Valeria's and my floor our freshman year! She was late to class so we didn't talk to her long but it was need to see a familiar face in another country!

We then walked down to the Palazzo Pitti where we were hoping to see the Boboli gardens but it was 10 euro and we are all broke with all the fun we've had so we decided not to go. Instead we bought another gelato and ate it in the Piazza de Pitti. Yum!

Since we couldn't see the Boboli gardens we decided to see if we could find some other gardens close by. They were too expensive too but we got a beautiful walk up and down a hill that gave us a good view of the city. The road we were on took us straight to the Piazzale Michalangelo. We had to walk up a lot of stairs of course but the view from up there is gorgeous. We could see everything we had visited that day. We shared a hot dog up there and then we headed back down to the market we saw the day before. I bought a beautiful picture of the bridge, an Italian flag and a shirt I had been eyeing before.

We came back to the hotel to look at our good and rest a while before going out to dinner. When we were looking for a place to eat 3 Italian guys dressed in suits stopped us and asked us how to find the Duomo. We pulled out our maps and were about to show them when they said they were just kidding. They just wanted a reason to talk to us. I was watching my back and ready to bite and kick if they tried anything, because I always hear about those really wealthy, nice looking men who ask for directions and then shove you in a can and you are never heard from again. But they honestly just wanted to talk to us. They were quite funny telling us all the places we could eat and then they said good night and gave us bisous (which they to backwards, opposite cheeks from the French) and went on to find a place to eat. And of course we got gelato after that. 3 gelato in one day! Means we were having a good time.