Thanks to some wonderful planning by Jill we stayed at this great little hostel right in the center of Florence...
First off was the Duomo
Besides that ceiling, The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore--- aka the Florence Duomo--- was actually kind of unimpressive. So we figured we could climb to the top of the Duomo for the view.463 steps to the top.
dying...
The trip up was brutal. The only way up is the stairs, but some of the steps weren't so much "steps" as they were ladder rungs! There should be a warning that climbing the Duomo should not be attempted by anyone that's out of shape orrrrr claustrophobic.
Towards the top we were singing 'eye of the tiger' just to keep us going.
But the view was worth it.
Towards the top we were singing 'eye of the tiger' just to keep us going.
But the view was worth it.
some extremely steep steps down
yayyyy we made it!!!
then we just went exploring
Ponte del Vecchio
the church with the tombs of Dante, Gallileo, and Michaelango
We stumbled upon a bar, heard some loud music, and thought, 'that place seems fun!' so we went in and got some drinks.... then we found out that the bar happened to be "The Most Popular North American Bar in Italy".
Figures!!
"We're so American and we didn't even know it!"
Russ and Jill doing some karaoke!
more [drunken] exploring. (although this time we were TRYING to just find our hostel for 45 mins-- the next day we realized our hostel was about a minute from the bar)
Tuscany
Okay, call us lame, but we signed up for the Best of Tuscany Bus Tour. And it was the best money we've spent yet!
our very adorable tour guide
Siena
The people of Siena are extremely extremely rich. But they don't like to show off... so they used the most expensive marble in the world... on the floors...
before entering this room with all the frescoes, we were more or less asked to breathe as little as possible to avoid harming the artwork
Siena is divided into 17 "contrades" (just individual neighborhoods) indicated by plaques on the walls with their mascot animals...
our bus driver stopped along the road so we could get out and enjoy this field of sunflowers
a close up
and a view of the millllions of sunflowers in the field
San Gimignano [pronounced san jim-me-ya-no]
Then we had lunch at an organic farm/winery
olive trees
We met some very friendly cows that liked to be petted and fed by hand....
Then we had lunch.
Everything we ate was produced on the farm...
So yeah, Jill had to talk me through lunch...
I mean we had JUST met the nice little cows... and I was about to eat their
brother/cousin/mother. But Jill convinced me that the cows lived better lives than we did- they slept all day and had a view of the mountains and hung out on a lake.... we study all day and live in Winston-Salem and hang out at Opera House. She made her point. And lunch was delicious.
With each course we got another bottle of wine (which we decided would be split among the 4 of us). There was so much food and wine we couldn't keep up (okay, almost couldn't keep up)
Jill would later regret chugging the last of Tiffani's wine before we left!
Then off to the center of town- called the Medieval Manhattan because of all the towers.
Okay, if you've been keeping up with the blog you know I have a slight obsession with gelato.
We got the best gelato in the WORLD in San Gimignano. No really. World Champions for real...
I got chocolate and pistachio... the cocoa beans were shipped in from Venezuela and the pistachios were from Sicily!
Pisa
the obligatory corny Pisa picture!
anddd other people looking funny doing the obligatory Pisa picture!
Back to Florence
Okay so Day 3:
The Boboli Gardens
I really wish we had seen the "water not fit for drinking" signs beforeeee we saw this awesome fountain thing....
don't worry- the water tasted funny so I spit it right back out!
Then after dinner and bottle of wine #2 for the day, we made our way to Piazzale Michaelangelo to catch the sunset and get another good view of the city. By 'made our way', I mean hiked up a freaking mountain. Florence was definitely a good quads workout.
Here's a fake candid we took while enjoying bottle of wine #3
And then we got bottle #4 for the hike back down!
Which of course was followed by bottle #5!
Sorry for the million pictures and not so many stories but Florence was way too beautiful not to post all [or 1/3 of] the pictures!
Today we handed in our finals so we are officially done with class! Tomorrow is our last day in Venice and then we are off to Nice (pronounced niece) to be lazy at the beach-- maybe hit up Monaco for the day (?), then Rome, then home!!!
I'll try to keep updating but I don't know if the hostels will have WiFi! I'll do my best
Miss you all --- Ciaoooo!!!!
Sorry for the million pictures and not so many stories but Florence was way too beautiful not to post all [or 1/3 of] the pictures!
Today we handed in our finals so we are officially done with class! Tomorrow is our last day in Venice and then we are off to Nice (pronounced niece) to be lazy at the beach-- maybe hit up Monaco for the day (?), then Rome, then home!!!
I'll try to keep updating but I don't know if the hostels will have WiFi! I'll do my best
Miss you all --- Ciaoooo!!!!
