Florence

This hostel I am staying at is a little different than the one I was at in Roma. Some of the girls I am sharing a room with are in bed it seems like ALL the time. Every time I come back to the room, either in the afternoon or evening, they are sleeping. They are here backpacking around Europe after their college graduation, which I got from them when I saw them awake at night. It's very strange to me, even when I love sleep so much, that they would sleep their day away here in Italy. I understand you may have a hangover or whatever, but heck you're in Italy, go DO something! I'm sure gelato would be great for a handover...I've never tried it for that reason, but I'm sure it couldn't be bad! Anyway, so today I got up early to meet another student from the University of Buffalo since she had bought our reservations for the Uffizi. She had emailed me the day before saying the train she had originally planned on taking was canceled, so she had to book another one and would be late. Her train was suppose to be there at 8:15, which is when our reservations were. So, I waited, and waited...and eventually gave up waiting as I assumed something must have happened to her train here, I left at 11am to go see more things around the city, as my time is short. To say the least, I was super upset. I couldn't even get my reservation, since it was technically under her name. I was out of luck, and out of time. I walked up towards the Piazzale Michelangelo, which I've been told has a great panaromic view of the city. I walked up, and accidentally went to the Chiesa di San Miniato al Monte, which is actually a bit more of a walk up than the P. Michelangelo. I eventually found my way there though. The P. Michelangelo has one of three sculptures of David in the city of Florence, made of bronze in this case. The others are found in the P. della Signoria and Galleria dell' Accademia (the original marble sculpture). Took my pictures, and headed down as it was approaching 1:30pm when I had reserved the time for the Galleria dell' Accademia. I tried waiting for Miranda, as I had her reservations as well, but she never showed, so I went in. This museum forbids pictures of all the art in the gallery, so, I have no pictures besides the one I took before I got yelled at (I actually didn't know before going in there, that you could not take pictures). The David is the main site to see here, there are also a number of Gothic/Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque works here, as well as many plaster casts/busts of other sculptures. I then headed back to the hostel, as I wanted to try making reservations for the Uffizi for Friday morning. Ends up...they do not have a pay phone! So, I tried using the one in the Piazza. First off, it was the wrong number to make reservations, so I had to write down the number. Then two, I could hardly hear a thing as motorcycles and cars were whizzing by me. So, I gave up, as I couldn't hear what it was saying, and so I will just have to go really early to wait in the queue (line). I wandered my way down to the train station, looking to buy a bus ticket round trip to Siena for tomorrow. I also had quiet a trip trying to find a headset for the cell I bought for here...blah
I also stopped by one of the markets, the San Lorenzo market. There are SO many leather and shoe stores here. If I had a real job, I would actually buy more stuff. But alas, I only got talked into buying two Italian leather belts. There was a gorgeous thigh length leather blazer I wanted...the lowest the guy was willing to give it away for was €220, which is about $350. I told him I would have to think about it. Otherwise, he had a lambskin blazer, same style but different color, €170. It was hard to walk away from those...
I went back to the hostel, and took a siesta nap! Then went out to eat to another Trattoria, not as good as the one I had yesterday, but it was ok. Nothing has been bad so far food wise, there's just been good and REALLY f***ing good. I was sitting next to a couple from Germany, and started talking to them about half way through my meal. They spoke pretty good English, so we had a good conversation and good time the rest of the night. We closed the place down, drinking the rest of our wine and they got me this drink called Ramazotti, which is a very sweet drink, they called it a girly drink haha. After that, they asked me to join them for more drinks at another place, so I did and we stayed there and finished another bottle of wine. They were very nice, and even walked me back to my hostel. Tomorrow, Siena.

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