We had a pretty eventful train ride to Florence. Nicole was woken up at 1 am by the older lady in our car, saying that the man in our car was doing something "suspicious." The lady wouldn't go tell a train attendant- she just kept bugging Nicole until finally she got up and went to get the attendant. The guy seemed fine to us, and he ended up being legit, too; we think the lady was the crazy one.
Anyway, our train arrived an hour late to Florence, and dumped us at a different station than the one we had directions from, so we wandered around for about 20 minutes before we went into a hotel and asked for a map. The lady at the front desk was very helpful and told us exactly how to get there.
Silly us, we couldn't even find the bus station she told us to start at! So we resolved to walking, and it took about 25 minutes. We rang the bell and the boys answered. YES!
They (and by "they" we mean all SEVEN of them) know a lot more English than Diego the couchsurfer had indicated to us in the email, thank goodness because we don't know any Italian!
We rested for a little bit, then they gave us REALLY good directions (they pride themselves on "never a couchsurfer lost!") and we set out on the town.
First things first, we stopped at the first restaurant we laid our eyes on. We hadn't eaten in almost 24 hours and we were both pretty cranky from lack of fuel. So much so, in fact, we each ordered and FINISHED our own pizza margheritas.
We checked out Via Vecchio - a bridge over the Arno River with shops on it - then headed to Piazza Pitti to sit down and soak in the warm Firenze sun. We cruised through San Marco Square and stopped by the Duomo (church) but the line was way too long for us. We continued on to the Galleria d'Accademia, the museum that houses the original 'David' sculpture, along with several other sculptural and pintoral masterpieces.
David, by the way, is HUGE! We sat and stared at it for a good long time. It's incredible that someone sculpted such detail out of stone.
We wanted to go to the Galleria Uffizi, another museum with a ton of art masterpieces, but the guys explained to us that it is next to impossible to get in, so we didn't even try. One of the guys was telling us that he has lived here for 6 years and hasn't gotten in yet. Something about everyone buying their tickets months in advance or something.
We headed back to the house relatively early and just relaxed, which was very nice. We had a big family dinner of Frittatta and salad, and were planning on going to a party with all 14 people that were over for dinner, but we pooped out and fell asleept instead.
Anyway, our train arrived an hour late to Florence, and dumped us at a different station than the one we had directions from, so we wandered around for about 20 minutes before we went into a hotel and asked for a map. The lady at the front desk was very helpful and told us exactly how to get there.
Silly us, we couldn't even find the bus station she told us to start at! So we resolved to walking, and it took about 25 minutes. We rang the bell and the boys answered. YES!
They (and by "they" we mean all SEVEN of them) know a lot more English than Diego the couchsurfer had indicated to us in the email, thank goodness because we don't know any Italian!
We rested for a little bit, then they gave us REALLY good directions (they pride themselves on "never a couchsurfer lost!") and we set out on the town.
First things first, we stopped at the first restaurant we laid our eyes on. We hadn't eaten in almost 24 hours and we were both pretty cranky from lack of fuel. So much so, in fact, we each ordered and FINISHED our own pizza margheritas.
We checked out Via Vecchio - a bridge over the Arno River with shops on it - then headed to Piazza Pitti to sit down and soak in the warm Firenze sun. We cruised through San Marco Square and stopped by the Duomo (church) but the line was way too long for us. We continued on to the Galleria d'Accademia, the museum that houses the original 'David' sculpture, along with several other sculptural and pintoral masterpieces.
David, by the way, is HUGE! We sat and stared at it for a good long time. It's incredible that someone sculpted such detail out of stone.
We wanted to go to the Galleria Uffizi, another museum with a ton of art masterpieces, but the guys explained to us that it is next to impossible to get in, so we didn't even try. One of the guys was telling us that he has lived here for 6 years and hasn't gotten in yet. Something about everyone buying their tickets months in advance or something.
We headed back to the house relatively early and just relaxed, which was very nice. We had a big family dinner of Frittatta and salad, and were planning on going to a party with all 14 people that were over for dinner, but we pooped out and fell asleept instead.
1 comment:
Ah yes, I love all the details in this post. Yay!
I have never seen David. I had a terrible flu when I was in Firenze, so my traveling friend went by herself. She was highly annoyed with me for skipping it. I'll have to take your word for the size. ;)
As for the Uffizi, that's crazy! When I was there, we just wandered in, no problem. Of course it was winter then. Although I felt guilty about it, I was pretty bored looking at all those Madonnas and triptychs. ;)
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