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Published: December 20th 2010
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omg it's David!
not the real one of course We arrived in Florence after nightfall to slightly chilly weather. We're starting to notice a change in the weather, the beginning if autumn is upon Italy!! We're staying at a massive hostel/hotel in the center of town. It seems a bit much with so many guests but they have a free pool, sauna and Turkish bath which (in our opinion) more than make up for the un-personal feel of the place.
We had one idea of what Florence would be; museums. We spent our first day wandering the streets armed with a map and a bunch of 'points of interest'. There are a lot of really cool statues in the city! We visited only one museum, which houses the famous sculpture of (the real) David, along with some amazing paintings and a few unfinished carvings by Michelangelo. I tried to be a sneaky monkey but got caught with my camera on my phone by one of the ninja-like Florentine guards wandering the museum keeping people like me in order. Good news, people love David and he's been recreated twice, we went and visited the other marble counterpart that was open for photos and continued on our walk, finishing
at the river looking out on the famous ponte vecchio bridge. It was the only bridge in Florence that was not bombed to smithereens during the war. The bridge is now covered in houses-turned shops from one end to the other and back again. It started raining in the afternoon and we decided to head back and spent the evening reading and drinking wine with some crazy Auzzies we met in the bar.
The next day we had a super slow start and didn't really start moving until past 2. It was still raining so we had an errand day and got our laundry done at the local do it yourself, and did the 'romantic tourist' thing of locking our padlock onto the chain overlooking the ponte vecchio
We caught a train early the next day so we could cross one more city off our list; Bologna. Home to either Bolognese sauce or Baloney, although I think it's the first because we had pasta for lunch that was out of this world amazing!! We spent the morning and early afternoon playing our favourite game, 'can we get lost' while enjoying the interesting architecture and
many arches in the city. Feeling quite satisfied with what we saw we caught our last train ride in Italy to Venice, one of the most romantic cities in the world.
We managed to find our hostel (with moat!!) easily considering how confusing the city is to walk around; bridges, small alleys and random walkways abound!
Venice is our last Italian city, and last destination before we head to Norway. our budget is quite small for Venice, so we have decided to skip the paid tours and boat rides and have made a last attempt to "get lost" this time with wonderful results. Once you manage to wander away from the tourists drags of the city you stumble upon a hidden gem of a city. We found absolutely beautiful, charming little 'streets', secret and hidden gardens, interesting architecture and remote little waterways filled with locals scooting about in boats doing their daily business.
Our last day in Venice was spent reading in the sun in one of the many squares on the steps of an old well, before wandering until we found a little canal hopper gondola! The regular ride was €50, not
something we were willing to fork over for a boat ride the €0.50 we paid to crossover the canal was oh so la mio so romantic!!
We have an evening flight to Oslo from the smaller airport in Venice, serviced mainly by Ryan air (an inexpensive Irish airline servicing Europe). I'm starting to get a bit nervous about the cold but excited about getting to air out the rucksack for awhile.
Our travels are not done yet; we're planning on touring Norway a bit before settling in for the winter!!
To Oslo we go!
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