a day in Florence

Today = Yesterday

Today was our full day of sightseeing in Florence, and I must say, this city is gorgeous. You truly cannot appreciate Renaissance art until you’re here, actually looking at the statues as you’re learning about the history. The day started off with our entire tour group taking a photograph at Michelangelo’s square, which overlooked Florence and had a replica of David. PREEEEEETTTTTTTTTY view!

Afterwards, we headed towards where we kinda were for dinner last night, and then took a tour of a leather factory. I ended up buying a leather travel journal, mainly cuz it looked classy and I wanna be cool. Haha. =P Had a bit of free time before our guided tour, so Chris and I walked around the streets, cameras in hand. We stopped by this little café to have our first cappuccinos in Italy, standing at the bar like most Italians. It was pretty good, after we added a LOT of sugar. Afterwards, we went to take pictures of the stuff we couldn’t photograph the night before, like statues and whatnot. We even saw a music video being made, and I think we were in one of the shots cuz we were right behind the group, taking pictures of statues. Woohoo! Still gotta find out which group it is, though.

Hahahaha, a LOT of us were laughing at this statue! "Love slave!"

Thank God our tour group doesn't look like this. (O_O)

Our guided tour was pretty cool; we heard the history about the Piazza della Signoria and the statues in it. Eventually we ended up in the Duomo, where there was this amazing fresco on the dome. It was hard taking pictures of it, since it was so high up…either it would be blurry because the flash would be off, or it would be dark because the flash was on. Yeesh. Our tour ended and we had about an hour and a half to kill before our reservations at the Galleria dell’ Accademia, where the original statue of David is. Bought postcards&stamps and had lunch. Checked out the gallery, which had a security checkpoint before entering. Ugh, I’m so sick of metal detectors and crap! Grrr! We went in with Denise and Matt, and the four of us walked around for a bit, admiring the dart before we came upon David. There was a sign that said cameras were forbidden, but of course, I had to take a picture. The problem was, there was some person who took a picture at the same time I did, and their flash went off the second my camera went off, making it hella obvious that I took a picture! Chris was like, “DUDE, what the heck?! Turn your flash off!” I was like, “Uhh…it WAS off!” Then this security guard lady came up to me and started talking to me in Italian, and I think she was telling me that photography wasn’t allowed. =P Oops. Oh well…at least they didn’t kick us out or make me delete the picture! We got through the rest of the gallery with no other troubles, and Chris and I separated from Denise and matt. I called my cousin, Danie, when we got out of the gallery. She’s here in Florence for a study abroad program, so we decided to meet up. We visited her at her apartment, which was very close to the Duomo, and hung out for a bit. She had to get ready for class, so Chris and I decided to go climb to the top of the Duomo…

Danie & me

CLIMBING TO THE TOP WAS CRAZY. 460+ steps to the top! And Chris was freaking out because he’s scared of heights, and I was freaking out because the stairway was this narrow, winding, stone prison that was like, a thousand years old. Hello, claustrophobia! (O_o) So we got bottom of the dome part, which was about halfway up…it was a better view of the fresco, and once again, Chris freaked out because he looked up and saw the part of the ceiling that was depicting Hell, and looked down and saw the church floor…so he didn’t know which was worse. Haha oh man…if I wasn’t so freaked out myself, I would have laughed at him. Haha just kidding. =) So we FINALLY made it up to the top, and the last few sets of stairs were seriously so steep that it was like climbing a ladder. The view made up for it, but the wind scared the crap out of us…and of course, Chris freaked out again and held on to the railing like no other. We got some fellow tour people to take our picture, and surprisingly, CHRIS LOOKS NORMAL! HAHAHAHA oh man. “I paid 6 Euros to experience paralyzing fear?!” HAHAHAHAHHAHAHA Why yes, yes you did. =P We spent a few minutes at the top, taking pictures of another breathtaking view of Florence. We went down, and this time *I* was freaking out for two reasons: 1) I’d rather go up than down, and 2) I was hypoglycemic from the climb up. NOT a good combo! Plus, I was getting super dizzy from going down the winding stairs. Gahhhh…ended up having to buy a Fanta when we got out. Oh yeah, and Chris freakin’ farted in a thousand-year-old church! ARRRRRRRRRRRG! “Hey, when you gotta fart, you gotta fart!” says the farter. “This is God’s way of punishing us for taking elevators ever since we got to Italy!” Yikes.

View from a random hole on the way to the top

After getting over shaky legs and insulin shock, we went back to the leather store where I bought my travel journal so I could get it embossed with my initials. Red leather looks really cool with gold leafing, fyi. =) Walked back to the bus, went back to the hotel, took a nap, and then met up with everyone again for dinner.

That was the best dinner EVER. We drove out about 45 minutes, up a hill, to this restaurant. There was another tour group there, but the atmosphere was such that it didn’t seem just like any old restaurant, but more like a banquet where everyone knew each other…there was a guy playing the piano, and he was totally hyping everyone up. Plus, the food was DELICIOUS! To make a long story short, food coma can be overcome by a shot of extremely strong alcohol made by bored monks (yes, I said MONKS) and a short of extremely strong Italian espresso. Holy crap, I was so hyper that my eyes were chinky! =P I have some stupid ass pictures of Chris and me looking like we’re running away from shadows, but those will probably never see the light of day. Muahahaha!

I love Florence. That is all. =)