Europe 2008 - Day 19

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Sorry we got caught off from the phone last night mom. Since chris and I booked all of our hostels through hostelbookers.com, they sent us a free phone card. The only problem was, when we finally connected, it told us that we had 6 minutes of time remaining. I also tried on Sunday at home, confused..and left a message thinking it was a workday for you guys. I called work on Monday too and left you a message there. I will try to connect again in Rome before the cruise.

So, for our second day in Florence, Chris and I woke up really early to beat the entrance line up into the accademia, which is where Michelangelo's statue of David is. We were told line ups can last as long as 3-4 hours and in order to beat them you have to be there for whe it opens. It was pretty spectacular to see and so were his other statues of four slaves, and the paintings that are there. After that, we headed to the Duomo, or the cathedral di santa maria del fiore. First the cathedral was built, and then the dome was added. We climbed 463 steps inside the dome to michelangelo's lantern to see an amazing view of the city and surrounding mountains. After that we went to check out Ponte Vecchio - which is the oldest bridge in Florence. There are jeweller vendors all along, in place of the houses that used to be there. After that we walked up to piazzale michaelangelo, which we thought was going to be a nice park filled with lots of green space. It turned out to to be a big slab of concrete with souvenior stands all over, coach buses, and tourists taking pictures of the view. Oh well. After that we browsed around the shops. The shopping here is very nice! With very nice prices! We also had some gelati, at a place recommended by our hostel. We have continued to go there every day we have been here. They have every flavor your could imagine.

After a long day of sightseeing, we came back to the hostal and crashed. WE have both been fighting colds on/off for the last week and need to catch up on sleep.

The following day was late to begin with as we both needed sleep. We went and checked out the Palazzo or Palace of Florence where ages ago, important city functions were held. Further the Palace has been used as the Mayors office up until the late 1950s. The rest of the day was relaxed as we both decided to put sightseeing aside for some shopping, food and ofcourse, Florentine gelati. Florence is an expensive city, however, we handled it well as we were able to locate restaurants with price fixed menus ranging from 10-12 euro that included three courses. The weather has been perfect - cool in the mornings and hot in the afternoon.

We are sorry of the lack there of pictures, uploading them is terribly slow!

We are now heading to Rome for three days before the cruise, so we will update everyone from there. We are staying at a local Bed and Breakfast located near St. Peters Basilica.

Ciao Jenna and Chris.

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