http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Florence/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Europe , Italy , Tuscany , Florence en-us Thu, 10 Dec 09 07:21:44 +0000 Thu, 10 Dec 09 07:21:44 +0000 Day 33Aug 3nd Remember that date. This is the day I succumbed to the overwhelming pressure exhibited by a hoard of felines and grabbed my rattling pig by the snout bashed itsrsquo head open and scraped out the stuff inside in exchange for fine Italian wares. The day started out as any other. Woke up fell back asleep and woke up again a little later. Dribbly shower. Look for friends t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Florence/blog-459463.html Day 32Aug 2 The morning fare. The sunrise surprise. The daily disappointment. Today I treated my palate to a scrumptious dish of bread and hot chocolate. Sitting down with the rabble I reached across the table and served myself a crusty bun. Unfortunately the crusty bun was crusty on both the outside and on the inside. A petite portion of marmalade was provided to aid in softening up http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Florence/blog-459461.html Day 31Thursday Aug 1 1997 Staring at the ceiling. It was 6 something in the whatever. The Chinese dudes in the cots beside me were still asleep their snores reverberating off the walls shook my cot. Once again with the dawning rays of the sun I opened my eyes and immediately succumbed to the unyielding Venetian heat. No mas...I give up. I just couldnrsquot bear another day there http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Florence/blog-459460.html Unfortunately I wasn't able to go home for Thanksgiving this semester being in Italy and all. The Wells program sponsored a Thanksgiving dinner for everyone though since we all couldn't be with our families and homesickness is starting to set in. It was at Accademia and our advisor and his wife ate Thanksgiving dinner with us. It was weird to have school on Thanksgiving and not celebrate it unti http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Florence/blog-458177.html Here I will write something about how horrible Florence was but how awesome the people at Festival Della Creativita that we met were. Shout outs to Mike from Vancouver and Peter and Abby from the NL. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Florence/blog-456537.html Dias 64 a 67 Devido a um erro em minha mensagem pelo couchsurfing repentinamente fiquei sem lugar para dormir em Florena. Havia mandado meu pedido com a data errada e quando no dia anterior enviei uma mensagem confirmando minha chegada para o dia seguinte meu anfitrio disse que havia me esperado trs dias antes. Expliquei meu erro mas ele no poderia me hospedar no sbado apenas a parti http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Florence/blog-450305.html Florence is a very walkable city with lots of great Gelato places. But don't go to this one. It's next to the Loggia in the Piazza Della Signoria. See the picture. We got ripped for 10EU per cone http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Florence/blog-449495.html A couple of weeks ago we went to the Boboli Gardens which is connected with the Pitti Palace but we didn't go into the palace that day. We stopped to get a few sandwiches and ate them in the Gardens. The Boboli Gardens are open and uphill so it was a little hike to the top and along the way there are paths to either side to explore further. A person could spend all day in the Gardens exploring st http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Florence/blog-448689.html Florence ItalyMonday October 26 2009As I sat on the steps of the Duomo in Pisa and watched the people milling about the leaning tower I started thinking about engineering. You see the leaning tower of Pisa wasn't designed to sit at that angle but through a series of engineering mishaps and miracles it has ended up that way. What started out as a simple bell tower for the town's church turn http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Florence/blog-448456.html ciao everybody It's my last night in Firenze Florence for all you gringos... Just kidding and I finally have time to write an entry. Thankfully this hostel has wifi but only on the first floor. But hey works for me. Actually the hostel itself is an interesting story. Ah yes Interesting story 6 and yes I know it's ridiculous to try to keep track because obviously I have more than 6 in http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Florence/blog-448433.html We've been in Florence for the last few days and I'm sad to leave this morning because it means biking every day again. Not that the biking itself is bad just that our lack of planning causes a panic every day at 4pm about where we're going to stay that night. It always seems to work itself out though.Florence was really nice though it rained yesterday. We visited the statue of David what a te http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Florence/blog-448040.html Florence This album is a combination of photos from two of my different staystrips in Florence. The first was from from August my first month in Italy when I lived in Florence while I was taking the certification course to become an English Teacher in Italy. I didn't take a whole lot of pictures during this time because I was too busy with the class. The second set of pictures is from when http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Florence/blog-447496.html From Shell Florence was yet another surprise. Very clean very easy to walk around the historical centre not too packed this time of year and some great museums if you time it right.Timing it right requires what you might expect checking the opening hours and the standard days of closure. But it also requires investigating additional things like are there alternating closure times and dat http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Florence/blog-447004.html So I think I've got this thing figured out but still need to work on how to get pictures loaded up. Haven't really taken a lot yet but I plan on taking a bunch this weekend. Arrived safely although without my iPod I left it on the plane from Phillie to Amsterdam. Ridiculous thing was before I got on the plane I bought a chargerspeaker for it Anyway I'm in class most of the day. I should http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Florence/blog-446954.html Florence ItalyMonday October 19 2009My Adventures in Italian Cooking have come to an end and it was a fantastic two weeks. Some new lessons learned including the secret to making pasta simple and good. I hope to never purchase pasta again. In the course of the week there were many new dishes learned some new compatriots met in the class some new stains added to the apron and even a litt http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Florence/blog-446358.html FlorenceSorry for the delay in updates Its been a while since Ive stayed at a hostel with free internet and the internet cafs in Italy were really expensive. Got a little bit of catching up to do so here are some of the highlights from my first trip to Tuscany...MarketsAs soon as we Katie 2 guys we met in Rome that have become our travel buddies and me dropped our stuff at the hostel in Flor http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Florence/blog-446078.html David The perfect specimenWe both awoke for no reason at all at 2am with the lightening still going on from the thunderstorm of last night.The flashes werenrsquot local but coming from over the distant hills and it illuminated the walls of our bedroom.Perhaps it was the relatively early night we had had going to bed after the movie finished before 10pm.We both did get back to sleep and in fact http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Florence/blog-445571.html After visiting relatives in the Abruzzo region of Italy we took the bus back to Rome at 15 Euro each then the train to Florence at 42 Euro each and arrived in the late afternoon. We stayed at Hotel Bigallo on the doorstep of Duomo. The Hotel and the rooms were beautifully decorated and clean and gorgeous however small. We had a job to have our 2 suitcases there but we re arranged the furniture http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Florence/blog-444015.html Hello everyoneI have been horrible at keeping up I knowhellipsooo I will write now to kind of explain where I have been. I have been here for a little over a month and it has been fabulous. With our program we have gone to Siena and Venice. I absolutely loved Venice. Then with a few friends I visited Cinque Terre and Almafi Coast both of which were amazing experiences in their own right.Cin http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Florence/blog-442891.html Vandaag de stad Firenze verkend. Ponte Vecchio Uffizio ... Prachtig In de late namiddag hebben we een bezoek gebracht aan Pisa. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Florence/blog-442746.html