Free Travel in Florence

Tuesday, October 13th

Today Carrie and Erin (two other girls on England Term) came up from Rome to stay in Florence with us for one night. In the morning before they came however, we went out walking through the streets of Florence, particularly in the markets. Emily gave Nelly and me a mini-tour since she had done her share of exploring the previous day. Walking through the street markets, there were so many fun things to buy everywhere! Scarves, jewelry, shoes, belts, knickknacks, bags, and leather galore! Somehow we made it out alive, but a bit poorer than when we came.

We met Carrie and Erin (and Carrie’s cousin Tessa who was with them) back at the hotel and then set out to see Michelangelo’s David Statue. We heard that it was best to get tickets ahead, but it didn’t really seem to make a difference; we probably only spent about 30 min. or so in line to get into the museum – of which David is the main draw. Honestly, I didn’t expect seeing this infamous sculpture to be that big of a deal; I was ready for it to seem overrated. But instead, seeing David in person put me in a state of artistic awe. First of all, the statue is much taller/larger than I had imagined; and there really is a presence of perfection that you can sense when you see it in person. It was definitely worth our time and money; the rest of the museum, however, didn’t really have much to offer in my opinion, (but keeping in mind that I had last been in Louvre, I still wandered around to at least glance at everything else.)

After our David sighting, we wandered the streets of Florence together, walked to the river, and took lots of pictures of each other with the beautiful city, sun, and river scenery. On facebook you can see that one of our group photos has two extra men in it – not our fault. We had innocently been taking pictures when these three Argentinean men start beckoning with their arms, saying “Chicas, chicas!” However, due to the fact that it clearly looked as though they were looking past us and above our heads, we all started confusedly looking around the other women they must be talking to. Yet again we hear “Chicas…come, chicas!” (plus more arm gesturing) which apparently was in fact being directed at us. “Photo!” another guy said. And so we all huddled together and joined them in their photo, and thankfully then got our own shot of the moment on my camera too!

On our way walking back to our hotel we picked up small pizza slices and then hung out in our room that night and relaxed. (Side note about Italian pizza: I have to go back to Italy for the sole fact that I never had good Italian pizza. The only pizza we ever ate in Florence was from small café-type places where we got a piece for takeaway, which in theory looks really yummy, except for the fact that they never heat it up all the way. So basically I only ever ate lukewarm pizza, which isn’t good even if it is from Italy.)