We woke up bright and early (6am) on Friday morning and had a delicious breakfast of biscotti and coffee. Then we hoofed it over to the train station to board the train that would take us to a bigger train station in Rome and then we could board our train to Florence. The train ride, when all said and done, is about 2.5 hours, maybe a little less.
When we arrived we hustled off to our hostel. Funny story. We wandered for a little bit, and then stepped to the side of the street to whip out our maps and try to figure out where the hostel was located. We then proceeded back down the street, from whence we came, only to realize the unmarked green door we stood in front of while reading our maps, was the door to our hostel. After depositing our bags and checking in, we hit the streets of Florence (not Amelia Bedelia style) to see the sites.
Florence is a darling town. It is large, but much smaller than Rome and very quaint. Instead of small cobblestones lining the street, trying to get you to sprain an ankle, Florence has larger stones that lie in a much smoother fashion. Far easier to walk on, and an added bonus, I was not in constant panic of tripping and breaking a limb.
First item on our list was food and making a list. So we went to a little cafe near the Duomo got some coffee and cornettos (croissants, for you Americans). You may be thinking to yourself, "self, I feel like ate a meal similar to this already...." and you would be correct. However, Europeans have a much different eating style then us. They eat very small breakfasts, have a mid morning snack, lunch at 1 or 2, and dinner at 7 or 8. So rest assured, our second meal was merely an effort to assimilate and refuel our very empty tanks.
Here are the things that made it onto our to-do list: see and climb the Duomo, see the David, go to the Ponte Vecchio, go the Uffitzi Gallery, purchase famous Florentinian leather.
Duomo: A beautiful building located in what I will call the heart of Florence. It seems like all streets will deposit you there. It is a gorgeous structure built by wooden tools and hands. It baffles me that back in the day they made such gorgeous things will so little, and today, we construct buildings with more technology and they won't last nearly as long, and are far less pleasing to the eye. I digress. We (Kelsey, Erica, Molly, and I) thought it would be fun, and a once in a lifetime experience to climb to the top of the Duomo, so we stood in an endless line for said experience. 463 stairs later we emerged sweaty and wheezing to the most beautiful view I have ever seen. As far as the eye could see there were red rooftops, a perfectly blue sky, and hills in the background. We stayed up there for quite sometime taking pictures and enjoying the view, plus none of us really wanted to climb down...
The David: This magnificent sculpture is located in the Gallery Dell'Academia. To see it involved, yet a again, standing in a very long line, though it moved fairly quickly. The museum had a lot of cool exhibits. There was an exhibit on musical instruments (Erica and I, former violinists, drooled over the Stradivarius. Fun fact: I have played a Stradivarius) which was probably my favorite. Though I no longer play the violin, I still really appreciate the craftsmanship of the instruments and the music that they produce. There was another exhibit with sculpture from Lorenzo Bartolini, they were amazing. I never could/can understand how someone can take a slab of marble and chisel things like fabric and make it look so soft and drape-y. Then, for the piece-de-resistance, the David. We stepped out from behind a curtain and it smacked you in the face. It. Is. Huge. Like 16 feet tall huge, and surrounded by a massive crowd and security guards who would practically tackle you if you so much as twitched a finger towards your camera. We all stood there in awe and just soaked up the skills of Michelangelo.
Uffizi Gallery: I suppose if you are really into renaissance art this would be an amazing experience. I, on the other hand like more modern works (loved the MET in New York), so this was kind of a drag for me. Only made worse by the fact that many of the works were nearly identical to those that are in the Gallery Dell'Academia. Let me clarify, I know that there are differences in the art, they are done by different people, and generally depict different things. However, they are all from the same era and all really obsessed with Greek gods and the saints. An odd combo, I know. We spent about an hour in line waiting to get in and another hour in the museum. Then Erica, Molly, and I went to get lunch and shop and left Kelsey to wander around her own personal little heaven.
Ponte Vecchio: This bridge literally has houses and shops on it. How they built it, I have no idea, but it is really cute and it also has a great view. (This might be a good point to say that there really is no bad view in Florence. Everywhere you turn there is something cute, something old, and something that nearly takes your breath away.) Most of the shops are jewelry stores, but there are a few leather stores. This is where Kelsey found herself a read leather jacket. It is fierce.
Florentinan Leathergoods: So, as I said earlier, Florence is known for there leather. A man in a leather store told us that after WW2, they started treating the leather in the river that runs through Florence, and that is how they became known for it. It is super high quality, usually made from lamb or calf. We were all pretty much drooling over the leather and vowed we would not leave Florence without some leather good. Molly took care of this on the first day by purchasing a black leather jacket. She looks very Italian in it. Kelsey, as I said also got a jacket, hers is red. Erica and I both got purses. Hers is a two tone bag that can be both a messenger bag and a backpack. It is soft and slouchy and super chic, very Erica. Mine is a red-brown bag that is an over the shoulder. As a bonus, it has an attachable messenger bag strap (don't panic mom, its super classy). I will only use the strap when I am in Rome, it makes it easier to avoid things like being pick pocketed. I really like it and think it will be perfect for when I get a job, as the real world is rapidly approaching. *gulp* Heres to graduating in one year!
So far this sounds like an awesome weekend, right? No problems:Florence, one weekend, in and out? Wrong. An adventure can not end like that, it has to go out in Italian public transportation style. Like a fiasco. So we get from Florence to Rome Termini (the big station on the other side of town) just fine. Erica and I had purchased our tickets from Termini to Trastevere back in Florence, but Molly and Kelsey had not. So they went a ticket stand to get them (note: it is 10pm and the only way to get a ticket was self-service). The first machine ate their money, but the second one worked. Score. Crisis averted, no. We had 45 minutes until our train left as the earlier one was cancelled on Saturday. So we go to our platform to wait. There is already a little Italian man there, so we had some company. We are all exhausted to the point of being loopy so we are just chatting and having a grand old time. Then we all notice the Italian man sprinting in his red loafers away from our platform. Collectively we say, must stink to find out your at the wrong platform, poor man. Hope he makes it. Turns out he had good reason to run, our platform had been changed and they announced it in , you guessed it, Italian. So none of us knew. It is now 10:20 and the next train leaves at 11:30. So we figure we will take a bus. Only we are at the odd point between the day buses and the night buses, so they run pretty infrequently. After wandering around with our bags for what seemed like an eternity, we gave up trying to find a bus (mainly because we had no clue what bus to take to our apartment). For about a nano-second we toyed with the idea of walking. Then realized it would be about an hour walk in the dark with all of our bags, and Molly had 18 blisters on her feet, two of which were on her heels and bleeding. So we walked, Molly hobbled, to a taxi stand near the train station and we got a cab. Best 12 euros we ever spent. The man drove like a maniac and I feared for my life, but he got us there in about 10 minutes and dropped us off at the door. It was now nearly midnight and we had not yet eaten dinner. We were so tired we actually considered making a french fry and hot dog pizza that Kelsey bought. I, finding that idea repulsive, had nutella on biscotti, and stumbled into my room.
All in all it was quite the adventure. I saw a lot of awesome things and had a great time with my roommates. My conclusion, it was a weekend well spent. Sorry for the crazy long post, hope you enjoyed! (pictures soon to follow)
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