Europe Trip: Day 4

Day 4

We woke up rather early as usual. Since this hotel charged for breakfast, we thought this would be a nice opportunity to go hunt down our own. We found a nice little cafe and Lauren got a croissant and coffee, and I got a pastry and hot chocolate, which I kid you not, was as thick as pudding (and topped in coca powder), and much more delicious. It was especially good because Florence was very cold all day - I don't think it made it past the mid-high thirties.

The first thing we noticed about Florence is how walkable it is. The entire time there, we never needed to ride a single bus. We walked over to the Baptistery (with the Bronze doors) and the Duomo, which also sports a massive cathedral and tower (Giotto's Bell Tower and Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral). They are very beautiful, and look extremely different from any sort of church we saw in Rome (as you will see from the pictures). The style and the type of stone they use is very different. For a more in depth analysis, I am the last person in the world you would ever want to consult. Please look elsewhere. Thankyou

Next we decided to wander towards the Uffizi Gallery, since it is supposed to contain some amazing works of art. The amazing thing about Florence is that you can walk such a short distance, and just "accidentally" stumble into priceless works of art. Such was our luck, as we just turned a corner towards a big neat looking tower, and ran right into Michaelangelo's "David" sitting at the base of the tower in the Plaza. Go figure.

Then we headed into the Uffizi Gallery - unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside (so no pictures below of the inside), but it was packed full of famous paintings. If you want to know which ones, ask Lauren or look it up. I'm pretty sure many of them were mentioned in my art history class, and I'm pretty sure I didn't care (assuming I was awake, which is a pretty liberal assumption). But they were certainly neat to see in the gallery. Though admittedly, I was getting a little testy by the end of the (very long/large) gallery, but Lauren seemed to be throughly enjoying herself the entire time.

After the gallery we headed towards the Santa Croce church. Another amazing (and huge) cathedral in the same style as the Duomo, with another amazing tower coming off it. We didn't go inside, but we did take some nice pictures outside. By this point we were getting hungry and ready for a rest. We had been walking all over Florence for the past four hours after all.

We stopped at a nice little cafe and had lunch. I had been craving a panini since we arrived, and finally got one. Normally I hate tomatoes, but in Italy, that just doesn't count. I had an extremely delicious mozzarella and tomato panini, and Lauren had some pretty good pasta (along with her usual coca lite).

After lunch we headed out towards the Santa Maria Novella train station (right next to the SMN church) to get our train tickets to Bologna for the next day. We stopped at the cathedral right before the train station, and it was in the same style we had been seeing all day. Equally beautiful, though a little smaller. Then we went over to the train station and got our tickets. After that, we headed back to the hotel (around 5ish) to rest. Somehow we managed not to fall asleep, and around 7 or so we went out for dinner. We ended up going to the same place as the night before, and the calzone was just as good this time around, if not better (F- you pizza hut. Do it like Italy or stop selling calzones. Actually, just stop associating ANYTHING you make with anything Italy or Italian). After that we headed back to the hotel, and I passed out accidentally between 8 and 9.