run down of florence

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Florence had been the favourite city of many passerby backpackers so I guess we were eager to see what the fuzz was about. It was a short 2 hour journey from Rome but at this point in time we had really had it with being nomads..living out of our backpacks, packing and repacking and lugging the damn thing around!

We cabbed it down to our accomodation - Leonardo's hostel where we were welcomed by this smart arse italian dude by the name Leonardo, not surprisingly! As we still had half a day ahead of us we decided to venture into Ponte Vecchio, a scenic bridge and shopping disctrict for tourists we were told. In place of souvenier shops, stores were lined in less than affordable bling bling jewellery. Priya having taken a fancy to one of the shimmering bracelets enquired after the price only to realize it was grossly out of our budget! Strolling around the streets of Florence we weren't overly amazed by the surroundings, infact less than impressed! We came across a phony statue of David (the original sculpted by Michealangelo located elsewhere but unfortunately did not have enough time to visit)

The next day we made an excusion to see the infamous Leaning Tower of Pisa, accompanied by our new hostel mate from Boston, Lisa. It was truly remarkable to see a building still surviving inspite of it's shotty architecture. We declined to pay 15 euros equilavent of 30 AUD to get q view from top of the tower which was barely 5 storeys high!

Later in the day we visited the Uffizi gallery which displayed works by the famous Michaelangelo, botticelli, rafaello and others (excuse my spelling) but the highlight of the tour was the exhibition delving into the mind of Leonardo..we were able to get an understanding of the mathematics involved behind the vitruvian man..also incredible to see the accuracy and preciseness of Leonardo´s drawings of the human anatomy..

On the way back we made another stopover at the street stalls where Priya took a fancy to buying a pair of sunnies. As she was modelling her glasses, the shopkeeper wrapped up the stall, snatched the sunnies out of Priya's hands and disappeared into the crowd (no way to treat a customer!) Anyway we later realized that he was fleeing from a couple of cops (as a result of florence's strict anti-piracy laws)..

and thus ended our adventures in florence..

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