Day 9-10 Florence

It was hard to say goodbye to Monaco so fast, but thankfully the food in Florence alone was enough to distract us. No disrespect to Spain or Monaco, but your food just wasn't cutting it. If I see another tapa the rest of this trip somebody is getting hit!

Day 1

THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE OF FLIRT.

So we hit our train from Monaco to Florence at a bittersweet 10AM, luckily we were seated right next to four cute french girls who spoke absolutely no english. Thankfully, the language of flirt knows no bounds, so we had a blast trying to get our points across using the translator, hand gestures, and miserable attempts at speaking french. I thought the french didn't like americans!? Oh and I still haven't shaved since we've gotten here... not that you can tell haha.

Me taking a creepy pic with frenchies in the background


So we got into Florence in the early evening and had to check into our first and only hostel... even though we had our own 4 bed room so we still cheated. It was called Hotel Leopolda and I don't have any pics of the inside but just imagine a room with no decorations and four insanely uncomfortable beds and you got the idea. We were right on the street and the sound of the cars at night made it feel like were in the middle of WWIII. Needless to say we all took half of an ambien.

View of the street from our windows


We immediately took to the search for food and found somewhere suitable within minutes. We ate like kings, for the first time in awhile I felt full, and I can't forget our 5 Euro bottles of wine. We took to the streets for a bit not to sight see, instead to walk off the meal and get acclimated to the town. I had no idea how small Florence was.

Our table waiting patiently to be filled with grubbins! Bad pic sorry!


None of us could escape the food coma so we hit the hay relatively early, big sightseeing day tomorrow! Oh and not to mention we have to do laundry!

Day 2

So James and I hit the sights early, Sal and John followed a different gameplan. First James and I hit the Basilica di Santa Maria Novella, a smaller but extremely old church in Florence, the first Basilica actually. This churched housed the best stained glass I have seen yet, as well as my first encounter with legit gypsies out infront. Pics weren't allowed inside but I did my best.

A view from the front


Stained Glass


Next we moved onto one of my favorites, right up there with the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. It was called the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, locally referred to as the Florence Cathedral or Duomo because of its epic Dome in the back of the church. The dome is second in size only the the dome of the Pantheon in Rome. We were taken back by the size of the cathedral I could have ran windsprints in this thing. Inside there were plenty of interesting pieces such as "Dante and the Divine Comedy", the largest clock I've ever seen, as well as 44 stained glass windows.

Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore from the front


Clock above entrance


View of Dome from floor



The most amazing part of the Basilica though was the Duomo, for the entire thing was covered in an extremely elaborate painting of "The Last Judgement". This painting included angels, demons, Jesus, skeletons, babies, and basically everything you could imagine taking place on Judgement Day. We paid the extra supplement to climb the dome and see it up close and then go on up on the outside of the dome for the best 360 degree view of all of Florence.

Favorite close-up of "The Last Judgement" on dome


View from the top of dome


We concluded the sights for the day at the Accademia, where the Statue of David resides. The Accademia also had an exhibit of musical instruments dating back to the 1400's and James got a pretty big kick out of it. James and I felt unworthy approaching the "David", its hard to imagine it being 17 feet tall when you see it in pictures. I can't imagine an artist today reproducing the detail in this statue.

Statue of David (I wasn't supposed to take this picture)


James on the walk back


We concluded our night with laundry and an episode of Entourage. Entourage and East Bound and Down have been our saviors during our downtime and train rides. We cannot wait to get back to the states for the new season of Entourage!

The boys with clean laundry


My face after I get clean laundry


James and I posted watching Entourage


Alright I'm done typin, my head hurts! Rome blog will be up asap!