Read Evans's blog for Firenze Part 1.
So after coincidentally and bizarrely running into Evans's ex-coworker and friend (who was also on a random trip in Europe), we decided we should all hang out in Florence on the second day since none of us had a set itinerary.
The morning of, Evans and I moved into our other shitty hostel room. Not sure if Evans blogged about this but our hostel in Florence was pretty dirty. Clean sheets, clean towels but thats about all that was clean. The bathrooms were gross and grimy and the drains were clogged. They had to move us into a somewhat cleaner room with a shared bathroom on the 2nd night.
Anyway, not to get off on a tangent, but Evans's friend Mark met us at our hostel at precisely the same time we were about to leave to go try to meet him at his hostel. The timing was just in our favor after Mark ran into us on the street (but not really before that, see Evans's blog on 4 hour train ride).
We took a stroll and found a place to eat breakfast. Evans ordered 2 sandwiches. The sandwiches in Italy are HUGE. So Evans was a heffer.
After breakfast we decided to check out the Duomo. Upon running into what we thought was the Duomo, I wasnt all that impressed. There wasnt even anyone waiting in line to get in! We paid our 2.50E entrance fee and the church had some interesting art. After we made our rounds, we left.
Upon walking down the street, we stumbled into one of the most amazing and large churches I've seen. Whats this? we asked ourselves. It was the Duomo, duh! We actually mistook a small tiny church called the San Lorenzo for the Duomo! How dumb are we? And why was the entrance fee for the Duomo free but the tiny church we had to pay? We dont know!
So we waited in line for the Duomo and it was pretty impressive, we all agreed. We decided that since we went to the top of the Cupola at the Vatican we would give the Cupela at the Duomo a shot. To be honest, I was way more impressed with the Cupola and the view at the Duomo than I was at the Vatican. The artist who painted the chapel was very detailed (i think its Bruneschelli). It was a depiction of heaven and hell and I just stared at the paintings with my jaw dropped because they were pretty darn graphic (including one section of hell where demons were shoving firey pokers into peoples, ahem, orefaces. The view of Florence was amazing once we were at the top of the dome. Really, it was beautiful. Every building had red tile roofs which I thought was pretty rare. You could see castles and the hillside and the river and all the beautiful architecture. it made me love Florence. The way up was seriously a workout though. It was 441 steps (as opposed to 551 in the Vatican) but these steps were much steeper. My thighs and butt are getting a good workout here in Italy!
After the Duomo, we took a stroll across the river to the Piazalla Michaelangelo. It is basically this very scenic plaza that overlooks all of Florence. That was also very pretty. But, I'm starting to see a trend here. Pretty view = ass-blasting workout...seroiusly. I'm going to have some shapely buns when I get back to Austin!
Anyway, the rest of Florence was mostly eating, drinking and trying to find internet access. Nothing all too exciting but it was definitely fun and it was great times to run into a friend of Evans and have a travel buddy for a day!
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