Might now be obsessed with Florence PART ONE


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Europe » Italy » Tuscany » Florence
February 7th 2012
Published: February 7th 2012
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adorable hostleadorable hostleadorable hostle

waddupp TV with english movie channel!?
Hello, readers! I am back in Perugia from my wonderful adventure in Florence. I’m thinking how I should blog about this: I tool 142 pictures and have 4 day’s worth of things to talk about, but don’t want to make this extremely long and bore anyone. We’ll see how this turns out I guess. Maybe I’ll make it a 2 part thing if I really end up writing a lot. Work with me, peeps.

So. On Thursday the 2nd ( Groundhog Day!) the 3 of us, me Carrie and Abby, had class til 6:45, but had a 7:39 train to catch to Florence. The Archaeological Discoveries class that I’m in with Abby brought us to this museum about a 15 minute walk from the school, so we knew we were going to cut it late if we didn’t ask to leave early. Luckily we did, half an hour early, but I mean that museum was no fun and it was a blizzard outside. Anyway, we all met at home, grabbed our already packed backpacks and headed to the MiniMetro to take that to the train station. We validated our tickets and had 20 or so minutes to spare!

The
delicious breakfastdelicious breakfastdelicious breakfast

no table charge!
train passed through little towns that were just pummeled with snow. I wished the whole time, while munching on snacks provided by Carrie, that there would be no snow in Florence. By the time we got there, it was around 10:30pm. The hostel that we booked was just around the corner from the station so that worked out great. The Hostel, Luna Rossa, was in the same building as a hotel, Hotel Ester. I’m not sure how that works out, but that was the case and the hostel was so much better than I expected, even though we read reviews online and knew what amenities we would be paying for. I didn’t think it would be so homey and comfortable! We had a big double bed, a single bed, flat screen TV, computer with internet, private bathroom with shower, and a balcony. Oh and not to mention, working HEAT. The guy that owned the place was young and after he showed how to use everything in the room, we asked him of where a good place to eat would be that late at night. He said he would call a friend and ask if they were still open, then told
Fake David!Fake David!Fake David!

legally taken, fake David.
us that if we went there we would get free water and wouldn’t have to pay a table charge since we were staying at that hotel.

La Divina Osteria on Via Guelfa, 3 blocks down, was absolutely delicious. We ended up coming back again! It was clear that they were in the process of closing, but let us stay and enjoy ourselves even for dessert. I had homemade fettuccine with pesto and cheese over it, Carrie had eggplant tortellini and Abby had gnocchi. We loved everything. It seriously was one of the best things I have eaten, especially since being here. For dessert I had a crepe with Nutella and white chocolate over it, Abby had a crepe with something else over it and Carrie had a pear and chocolate cake! We went back to our room after that and slept in like 28 degree Celsius all night : )

The next morning, we woke up before 10 because I planned this day to be “hopefully not boring museum day!” I used to complain to my grandpa that my dad would always make us go in museums whenever we went anywhere when we were younger, so I felt hypocritical planning these visits out, but I felt like they were necessary! We had breakfast at Caffe Degl’Inocenti, about a block down, and ended up loving that place too. We didn’t have to pay a table charge at that place either since we were hotel guests. They had adorable pastries, some with fruit and some with chocolate, delicious donut-like things, and great looking cornettos. I had a fruit tart and a cornetto with chocolate and a cappuccino maxi! After that, we made our way to the Galleria dell’Accademia. I booked our tickets over the phone 2 days before, after reading Rick Steve’s advice to make reservations a month in advance. Little did I know, it is clearly the “off-season” for tourism so I guess I wasn’t that cool for doing so.

Our entry time was for 11am and we were there right on time. In the museum, they weaved you through a few room to look at random things, almost making you wait to see the main event: David! There was a music room that had all these instruments and pianos from the Renaissance and courts of France and England (I think). Eventually though, we did enter a long
dinner the first nightdinner the first nightdinner the first night

honestly delicious
room, turned a corner and there he was! In all his nude glory, David was at the end of the room under a dome of windows, being his huge giant self while everyone stood or sat in awe around him. I was so happy at this point! I feel like this statue is one of the most important/recognizable/historical landmarks in all of Italy that’s on the cover of every “travel though Italy” book. I couldn’t believe I was seeing it in person! He was so much taller that I thought he would be. My roommates secretly snapped some illegal pics but I knew there was no way I could hide my neon pink camera from the secret security women, dressed in casual clothing and just sitting so you would never expect it when they scream “NO PHOTOS!” at clueless peeps who whip out their cameras in front of everyone. We noticed that rooms that had marble statues in them, including the giant room where David was, had an odd temperature and almost a wet feeling to them. It was so different to be in that atmosphere. After walking all the way around him and taking 100s of mental pictures, we walked through the rest of the museum and made our way out to the gift shop, where we bought David memorabilia and had our picture taken by the cashier guy. We noticed that rooms that had marble statues in them, including the giant room where David was, had an odd temperature and almost a wet feeling to them. It was so different to be in that atmosphere. I was glad the girls liked this museum! I hoped it wouldn’t be boring and I thought it was a perfect size and wasn’t overwhelming or repetitive in any way.

Next we had a reservation time at 2pm at the Galleria degli Uffizi. I picked to go to this museum too because , I mean, Rick Steve’s (my new best friend) gave it 3/3 triangles in his book (Accademia got that too)! He says it has the “greatest collection of Italian paintings anywhere,” and my aunt and uncle suggested that I should really go, too. This museum was hard to find and hard to figure out how to get in. Once we did get in, we had to climb up 2 huge flights of stairs that lead us to this huge hall lines with statues and paintings. The ceiling was my favorite to look at, it was in sections, each one was different, and they were all so detailed. I snapped one illegal pic because I liked it so, so much. The museum led us into different rooms that were sometimes brightly colored, but just lined with such ridiculous art. A lot of it was religious art, lots of weird art, and lots of art I didn’t love. It became repetitive after a while, and we kind of rushed through it since it was so big and kind of boring. We walked the whole museum and it was so big we got lost trying to get out. By the time we finally got through the maze out of there, we ran across the street to eat something at some Ristorante where I had pasta in spicy sauce and Carrie and Abby had pizzas. (cont. in next entry)

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