florence.

On Wednesday morning we woke up at our bed and breakfast and had this incredible breakfast by our host Paola. One thing I have learned: I am not a fan of Nutella. It is a little bit gross :). Anyway, we collected our things and took a train to Firenze (Florence). We stayed on a really nice train and made a friend named Gian Marco. He was so handsome with blue eyes and Italian. He gave us a heart attack because we told him we were going to Bologna and he was like "uhh you passed that 3 stops ago." Viv and I were so laid back and were like okay well I guess we'll go somewhere else then. A few minutes later he told us that we hadn't passed it yet. We laughed and laughed.We found our hostel easily and were surprised by how nice it was! We had a room with 8 beds. There was a sauna and a swimming pool as well as a "fitness room." I was so excited to hear this, but it ended up being just a treadmill and elliptical. We went to dinner for some pizza and then spent the rest of the night in the sauna and relaxed.

The next morning I woke up to go for a run. It was breathtakingly beautiful. I turned a corner and there was the Duomo. Wow. It was a bit difficult to run because the sidewalks were small and there were a lot of people out. However, it felt so good to sweat a little pizza and gelato out.

The moment Vivian and I left the hostel, it began to rain. Luckily in Verona I bought another umbrella for 5 euros. We needed to go to the Ufizzi Gallery to get this museum pass, which we thought was only 22 euros. In retrospect, we should not have bought the pass because it was 40 euros and didn't include half the things we wanted to see. Oh well, you live and you learn (in my case I learn a few too many lessons the hard way). But, it was like a Disneyland fast pass and we got to skip the 2 1/2 hour line and go right to the front!

We walked on Ponte Vecchio, which is the most famous bridge in Florence. It is filled with jewelry stores on both sides. There were way too many tourists though. I saw a guy with a ND sweatshirt so I said "Go Irish!" and he said "oh yeah? We live there.. in South Bend." We had a nice conversation and he took our picture for us.

The Ufizzi Gallery was really neat with so many famous paintings. There were some Rembrandt paintings and Michelangelo and a million and one sculptures. As I try to write this, I can barely remember what we saw... everything is blending together. So many paintings of Jesus. I only saw one painting that I knew about from Humanities at Marian College. Unfortunately, I could not remember one important thing about it. Vivian and I kept commenting how it is such a shame that we spent so much time learning these things and can't recall any of it. I should have come here right after I learned it. I just opened up my notes from Humanities and realized that I saw a LOT of things that we studied. I guess I should have done this a few days ago. I feel really excited though!!

We saw the:
Birth of Venus by Botticelli
Federico de Montefeltro and Battista de Sforza by Francesca
Madonna with hte Long Neck by Parmigianino
as well as lots of Tintoretto and Veronese

We saw some really great fashion in the gallery as well.


Look how cute this man is with his baby.


We stopped by the Church of Santa Croce, but didn't want to pay after our pass didn't work. it holds the tombs of a lot of famous people including Michelangelo. Instead, we got gelato at the Caffe Michelangelo. We thought we were just doing it as a joke and then later in another museum, we read about how all the artists went to that cafe to talk about painting and things!!

We spent an hour trying to find the best gelato place in the city. It was called Vivoli. The tricky thing about Florence is that it is not very big, but on the map it looks quite large. So we would walk only a few blocks only to find out that we passed it 5 minutes ago. We did a lot of back tracking. Finally found it and it was worth it. The pistachio gelato was in the top two that I had (the first place still goes to the one in Trieste that I had with Dom).

Next, we visited the Duomo. The colors and architecture were gorgeous. That museum wasn't included in our pass either (go figure). We did pay for this one because we wanted to climb the tour. The view was spectacular. Thank goodness we are young and healthy though, the climb was a bit long. When we got to the top, we got a few pictures and then the camera died.

We tried to go into a few more museums, but they were closed. I think half our day was spent popping into the purse shops. They are everywhere and really entice you. But, I didn't buy any more.

On Friday, I woke up early again to run. This time I ran across the bridge and down the street a while. The river was gorgeous with the fresh air blowing in my face. I didn't bring an umbrella this day because the day before I carried it around all day and only used it a few times. Of course, though before we got to the first museum, we had a little downpour. My hair is not really digging the humidity and looks bad about 98 percent of the time. I don't know what I was thinking by cutting my bangs right before this trip. So silly of me.

The night before I made a plan for our day so that we did not wander aimlessly and get lost so much. We went to the Accademia Gallery, which holds Michelangelo's David. It was SPECTACULAR--they way all the muscles were carved and the veins depicted. We weren't supposed to take pictures, but I illegally snapped a few. Thank goodness for our fast pass on this day because the line was a few hours long and there wasn't much to see. The paintings all start blending together.

On our way to the Medici Chapels we walked through ANOTHER market. I got pulled in by this leather jacket. I knew I'd never be able to afford it, but I just wanted to try on ONE Italian leather jacket. He of course told me that he would give me a "special price." I told him I couldn't spend more than 100 euros. Viv tried one on too and he said if we both bought one we could get each for 150. We said no no. After about 30 minutes of conversation we eventually got it down to 100 each. I couldn't really pass up the offer. So. I bought a brown leather jacket. I love it. I don't know how useful it will be in Arizona when I move back, but at least I'll look really cool this summer in Chicago. I won't go into the story of Vivian's jacket, but after an exchange she was happy by the end of the day. While she did that, I shopped down these two main streets. I just love shopping-- I wonder where I inherited that from ;). I got a little cardigan to match a shirt I got the other day that I haven't been able to wear due to the cold, rainy weather.

I also bought this bottle of Coca Cola light because I was craving it. I decided to get this large bottle from the supermarket because it was cheaper than a can elsewhere. But I was so embarrassed to be drinking it that I felt like an alcoholic--I'd keep it hidden in my bag and then I'd go in an alley to drink or into a dressing room to drink.

The Medici Chapel is where Ferdinand decided to bury the whole family--like a family tomb. The chapel was really quite exquisite. Next we went to the Pitti Palace where the Medici family lived. It was gigantic. It said "Modern Art Gallery" so we chose to go their first thinking we were tired of all this old art work. When we got in, we were quite surprised to see the same thing that we had been seeing for the past week. I decided that modern art meant pictures of sleeping people and mean men.



Anyway, modern meant 18th century. I guess we were looking for contemporary art.

We also saw a costume gallery that had beautiful dresses. And then we walked through the apartments of the palace. It didn't really look very cozy :). Next we went into the Boboli Gardens. It was really pretty after the rain, but we were extremely exhausted because we didn't sit all day. We tried to get some good pictures.


Then, we went to the supermarket to buy cheese and crackers. We trekked our way to the top of this hill called Piazzle Michelangelo at sunset. It was an INCREDIBLE view. We ate some more gelato after our cheese at the top. I have decided I better start eating at the super market more because the food is so much less expensive. Once Vivian leaves tomorrow, I will start eating a little more healthy. My diet of pizza, gelato, and pastries is making me feel a bit heavy.


Some odds and ends:

Andrew's Ties for Uncle Andy

A bus that is so cute and tiny

"Don't worry, honey... I reserved a table for three. Me, you and this thing here...
My face is breaking out from all the stresses of traveling and eating different foods.

A thought for the day: Do you think that if I allowed myself to eat the pastries and things in the US that they'd be as good as here? Some of those cupcake shops in Chicago are to die for... We all just think this is so great because when we're on vacation we splurge. I think the US has some good food too..........