Florence

On Tuesday, April 3, Annie and I took a train ride from Venice to Florence. Florence was a beautiful city!

We stayed at a conveniently-located hostel called Locanda David, from where we could walk to the center of the city in about ten minutes.

Let’s take a moment to fully appreciate the epitome of “tourist” that I represent in this picture: 

 

Please note, the:

-glasses for map reading

-gum

-map

-shoulder/camera travelers’ bag

-large backpack

-apples (in the top pocket), for later

-sweatshirt tied around the waist

-jeans with tennis shoes

#touristproblems.

Our hostel was actually pretty cozy.

 On Wednesday, April 4, we started off the day with a walk around a nearby park. What a nice fountain!

Then we walked to the Duomo and the Battistero of the Florence Cathedral to take pictures.

Despite the gray weather, there was a lot of activity going on at the Piazza della Repubblica!

The most iconic symbol of Florence is the Ponte Vecchio, which overlooks the Arno River.

We climbed up a big hill to the Plaza of Michelangelo, where we could look out and see the Florence skyline.

Also in the Plaza of Michelangelo, was the Basilica di San Miniato al Monte…

…as well as a cool mini-statue of the Titanic.

Delicious Italian pizza at a restaurant in the Plaza of Michelangelo was our primary meal on Wednesday.

We also went to the Galleria Accademia, which the museum housing Michelangelo's Statue of David. We couldn't take pictures. There was a peculiar thing about the statue that I really liked: there was a wire that ran up the back side of the right leg, which was to measure permanent changes in a crack in the marble. It was kind of like an in-case-of-earthquake precautiuon. But I read all about the new technology for it and stuff... wow!

After one more night in the hostel, we were off the following day. We arrived in Rome on Thursday, April 5.