Day 11: Florence Sightseeing

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Begin with a walking tour to see the Piazza della Signoria, the Duomo and Santa Croce. Shop for leather and take in fabulous views from Piazzale Michelangelo. This evening, an opportunity to enjoy the colourful Florentine nightlife.

Woke up this morning feeling great - not even tired as I usually am. Had breakfast at the campsite before heading into the city on the coach. Met our guide at Sante Croche, the church where Galileo and Michelangelo are burried. He showed us the street that Michelangelo grew up on, then walked us around the main square where Michelangelo's David originally stood and a replica now stands. Went into the cathedral at Piazza del Duomo and saw the massive fresco painted inside the dome. There was a 24 hour analogue clock which I thought was cool, which counts the time from sunset, and is adjusted every 9 days to compensate for the change in the length of the days. Met back up with Amanda at Leonardo's leather works for our leather demonstration that really didn't demonstrate much, they just told us that the ohly way to tell if something is genuine leather is by feeling for the suede on the back. The florentine boxes were really cool, but very expensive, as was the silver.
After the demonstration we got given maps and had 4 hours the explore the city. Wandered around with those catching the train in the morning to Rome looking for a travel agent so they could buy tickets for the Eurostar. Julia and I went to a pizzeria where you pay by the kilo and had some great funghi pizza sitting in the sun on the steps of Piazza del Duomo. Made our way to Accademia to see David. It's so amazing to see it in real life, it's perfect. The deatil in it is amazing - muscles, veins, eyebrows, even fingernails. There wasn't much else to see there, but seeing the sculptures by other artists makes you realise just how good Michelangeo was. From there we wandered through the markets, and bought our 'ciao bella' shirts and stuff. We met up with heaps of the others at Santa Croce so we could go in as a group to see Michelangelo's tomb. There was heaps of construction going on inside, so Galileos tomb was obscred, but we also saw Donatellos. Waited on the steps outside in the sun to meet up with Amanda so we could go home.
Had an hour and a half to get ready for dinner, so we didn't have to rush for once. Left the campsite at 6.30 and drove to have our group photo taken overlooking Florence. Headed off for our optional group dinner at a little Italian place which was beautiful. We had 4 courses - breads with mortadella and pastrami; the best spaghetti bolganaise I've ever had and bow pasta with pesto; chicken caccitore with potatoes, salad and ravili; and then some jellyish chocolate mousse custard thing for dessert. The food was amazing, and we also had Chianti, a local red wine. After dinner we walked to the train station to meet up with the others, the headed off to Space Electonica Discoteque. We got given our drink cards and headed inside to the empty karaoke lounge. Jana and Carson sang a few songs, they're great performers. Everyone got up and sang and danced, then they decided to have a break from karaoke, so we headed upstairs to the nightclub. It was really dodgy up there, full of 16 year olds. Went back downstairs for karaoke, then caught a taxi home with Melissa, Briohny and Josh at about 1.

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Photos

Michelangelo's David
Replica in the main square, where the original once stood

Santa Croce
Contains Michelangelo and Galileo's tombs

Optional Dinner
George, Cara, me and Kristy

Comments

[Kris]

did you guys notice that the Sante Croche is a Catholic church (Gothic style windows) and it has the Star Of David at the top.. kinda weird considering the star of david is a jewish thing.. I thought it was interesting