Wonderlust: Florence, Italy

Alright alriiiight, because the heat in Seville is enough to fry an egg at 11 am I've decided to take it easy this morning and do most of my sightseeing when it cools down later today (save for when I go get tapas for lunch, mmm tapas). Thus, mas blogging. Que guay! So after Rome I went to Florence. I was unsure whether or not I would like Florence simply because after having such an amazing time in Rome I thought that no other Italian city could compete. I was wrong. My train got in late Monday evening to Florence and schlepped my stuff from the train station to my hostel, checked in and went to sleep.

The following morning I had to do laundry so I got a late start on the day, but it was okay because I had clean clothes. What a great feeling. Then I found a cute cafe down the street from my hostel, ordered some delicious pasta, a 1/4 L of red wine, brought my copy of Madame Bovary I'm reading for comps like a good Masters student, and got in some premium people watching. The rest of the day was spent wandering around the city checking out the Duomo, the Arno River, and the various outdoor markets. I got back to my hostel after going on an epic quest to find a kebab and made friends with Gina, an awesome girl from New Zealand. Gina and I grabbed a couple beers then hung out in the garden area of our hostel and made plans to go on the walking tour the following morning.

The next morning Gina and I went on the free walking tour where we met Viviana and Steve, two more cool people who were also traveling solo. After the tour Gina and Steve took a train to Pisa and Viviana and I visited the Uffizi Gallery where we saw works by Michelangelo, Botticelli, Raffaello, El Greco and plenty of others. We grabbed lunch afterwards then I returned to the hostel to take a nap. That evening the four of us decided to cross the Arno River and to climb up to the Piazzale Michelangelo to watch the sun set over Florence. It was a great time and so beautiful up there. The night was young we decided to hang out, play cards and drink some more back at the hostel. While we were hanging out outside playing games a handsome young Frenchman named Stephane walked over to us and we invited him to play Kings with us. After getting told to keep it down numerous times by the people who run the hostel and after Gina went to bed, the four of us decided to go walk around Florence a bit. Stephane and I went toward the Duomo to see it at night while Steve and Viviana went another way.

The following morning I wanted to go on a different walking tour of Florence (which ended up being absolutely terrible) and Stephane joined me. We ended up ditching the tour, because it was so bad and doing our own tour of the city. We walked to Pitti Palace and then up to Piazzale Michelangelo again. We got a late lunch at the same kebab place that I had found at the end of my epic quest two days prior and then went back to the hostel. I was going to Venice the next day and because he didn't have any plans but to be in Bologna to fly back to Paris on Sunday he asked if he could join me. He left that evening for Venice while I stayed in Florence for the night and hung out with Steve and two Canadian girls for a bit before going to sleep.

Another great site in Florence were all the handsome men in three-piece suits. The Pitti Immagine Uomo show was taking place in Florence while I was in town. If you read my Dusseldorf post, you know my love for handsome well-dressed men. Sure, seeing the David statue was great, but seeing men in Armani...oh brother.

The next day I took the train to Venice where I spent this past weekend.

Replica of David by Michelangelo