(Day 3) Toppling towers and David

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I know...it's been ages since I've been on here to write more about our trip. Let's see what I can remember 2 months later 😊

So, I believe that I left off with our last night in Cinque Terre. The next morning we got up, ate breakfast, checked out of the hotel, and caught the train to Florence. We had to change trains in Pisa anyway so we just allowed for a little bit longer of a layover there so we could pop over and see the tower. You know which tower I mean right? The Leaning Tower of Pisa 😊

Thank you Rick Steves for including information in your guide book telling us that there's a bus you catch from the train station out to the tower! We asked around at the train station and discovered where to catch the bus and where to buy the tickets. We weren't the only tourists waiting for that bus so at least we knew we were in the right place 😊 Since we had our backpacks with us on the train from Cinque Terre and had nowhere to drop them off, we took them on the bus with us. We definitely looked like tourists ourselves lol.

The bus took about 20 minutes or so to get from the train station out to the tower. Once we got there we did what everyone visiting the tower does...took pictures of us holding it up! EVERYONE was doing it...it was so funny. I also, for some reason I'm still not sure of, bought a little silver metal tower for our bookshelf at home. I really don't know why I bought it...it's cheesy and typical tourist trap souvenir stuff, but it just seemed like the thing to do at the time. Maybe I'll get an Eiffel Tower the next time I'm in Paris...

So, after about 20 minutes at the Tower (long enough to take pictures, buy my tower and a postcard for Grandma) we found the bus stop to take the bus back to the train station and got back in enough time that we only had to wait 5 minutes before the next train left for Florence. The whole thing barely took more than an hour. How's that for a quick side trip?

Once we arrived in Florence we found our hotel. It wasn't NEARLY as nice as our Cinque Terre hotel. This one was more in keeping with the budget hotels that we usually stay in. It was tiny, in a not-bad-but-not-great part of the city, and was only 60 Euros a night. But, it was a clean, safe place for us to sleep which is our main two requirements. Florence is a walking city. Public transportation is limited but the city is compact and easy to get around in. Even so, plan on walking a lot more here than a lot of other cities if you visit. However, this is far from being a bad thing. Florence is a spectacular city and you don't miss any of it if you're walking through it. One of the first things that Matt and I did was head over to see Michaelangelo's David. I had read that it's best to reserve a certain time for your tickets rather than just show up. The lines can get a little bit extreme in high season. I had booked our tickets a few weeks before for 4:00 that afternoon so we started heading in that direction and got some lunch on the way.

David is indescribable. I've discovered since living here that I enjoy marble sculptures of people. Not just their heads but their whole bodies, so I wanted to see David for that reason and also because this is really the only chance we'll ever have to see him. Even Matt was impressed. He was beautiful (I've found out since that they've recently restored him, lucky us!) and so much larger than I realized he was going to be! Michaelangelo originally sculpted him to go up on top of a building, around the edges, with other sculpted figures that he was also supposed to do. When he finished the first figure, David, it was agreed that he was too beautiful to put on a building and he was given his own home closer to Earth where he could better be admired.

We later walked down towards the river and Ponte Vecchio (it means Old Bridge). It's a pedestrian bridge and, during the day, there are shops open on it where you can buy gold in every size, shape, and form. We heard music coming from the bridge and decided to check it out and saw someone sitting and playing with their guitar case open and everyone sitting around eating take out Italian food. So, Matt and I went looking for some food, which we found along with a small bottle of wine, and came back. By the time we got back though, the singer was gone. We sat on the bridge and ate anyways and then went looking for more stuff to see.

Near one of the museums, the Uffizi Gallery, is a square called the Piazza della Signoria. Matt and I discovered it while we were walking because we heard more singing. This guy was great and he sang until 11:00 and was planning on coming back the following evening. After he finished we went to the piazza because, for being so late, it was pretty well-lit and busy. There were several statues outside in the piazza but with a roof over them to protect them from the weather. While we were looking at the statues and talking about them we noticed a couple that was eating sushi. Now, I love pasta as much as the next person but that's all there is in Italy. We had days left of our trip and were already getting a little tired of it. We heard them speaking English and stopped to ask where they got the sushi from. Turns out they were American exchange students studying in Florence for a month and were just coming up on finals so they knew all the good local places. They told us where to find the sushi, told us some history about the statues we'd just been looking at, and recommended a restaurant for the next evening. Now, I told you we don't usually do restaurant recommendations but this place sounded so unique we just had to try it. The restaurant was called Aqua al 2 and they had blueberry steak. We were intrigued. The girl we were talking to was from Iowa (near Aunt Marylynn, actually), said she didn't even like steak but she liked this. Well, I don't eat steak but I was game anyway so we went back to the hotel, got on the internet, and made reservations for the next evening. Then we called it a night and got a good night's sleep.

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Photos

Michaelangelo's David
We weren't supposed to take pictures but Matt managed to sneak a few in :)

The ugly white guy
That's what the Italians call this statue. It's a modern statue imitating the style of the old ones and isn't done very well at all.