Florence

Hey everyone! We started the day off by our 10:30 train out of Venice to head to Florence. The train ride was about 2-2.5 hours and we ended up getting to the station in Florence around 1:30.  We took a taxi to our hostel because it was too far to walk and left our bags (our room wasn't ready yet)  and went to go grab lunch at a local restaurant.  We ended eating at a local pizzeria and of course like all Italian food we've had it was real good.  We came back to the hostel, got settled in our room and went out to explore the city by about 3:00pm.

The first thing we saw was the Florence cathedral which is absolutely amazing.  We took some pictures infront of it and got in line to climb to the top of the Dome to view the entire city.  Entrance to the climb was 8 Euro which wasn't all that bad and definitely was worth it looking back.  The climb was a winding staircase and got pretty tight at times; might not have been great if you were claustrophobic. The view at the top of the Dome was really breathtaking.  You could see the entire city, and it was beautiful.  We spent about 15-20 minutes at the top and headed back down to see the rest of the city.

When we walked out, we started heading to the Academia where we could see the statue of David. On our way we happened to see three guys from "Jersey Shore," Mike, Pauly D., and Vinney who were eating lunch outside of the Duomo at a local restaurant.  We had heard they were intown filming but definitely didn't expect to run into them. They had a film crew with them and probably 30 people standing around watching including ourselves. The scene was definitely staged to some extent in that people really couldn't walk up to them. But they didn't seem like they were enjoying themselves much. They weren't talking all that much and just stared at the crowd of people taking pictures.

But we continued on to the statue of David which was really impressive. I had studied it some in high school, but I didn't realize it was so tall.  It was probably a good 30-35 feet tall and had really impressive detail.  After viewing the exhibit, we headed to the local market where people had stands up selling various items.  It started to rain at this point, so we ducted inside at a gelato store for some ice cream.  I ordered Mint-Chocolate chip and it was real good as I've learned over the past couple days.

We then headed back to the hostel to regroup and recharge for an hour or so.  We then headed out to Pizzale Michaelangelo which Kara had told me was the one must see she had for me while I was in Florence.  It was awesome. I think the view may have been better than on top of the Duomo just because it was right around 7:45 and we got to watch the sun go down over the town and the river.  It was really pretty and we took a bunch of pictures on top of the hill.

We then headed towards the famous bridge and dinner. Grant had a family friend who knew a restaurant owner so we headed to his restaurant. The man named,  Franco, was real nice and said "he would take care of us." He starts out by bringing two plates of Brochette and Calamari.  He then gives us pasta and steak (which was rare) for main courses. The whole time we were thinking that it was going to be comped, but as the night wore on, we started to think otherwise as he used the same phrase with an engaged couple. We ended up having to pay for our meal which was outrageous in my opinion for how he acted towards us (as if we were family). The bill was 130 Euro and I paid 25 Euro because I didn't drink the wine.  I was mad because he told us not to even look at a menu and I could have had a meal which filled me up for 11-15 Euro. But I guess it's just a one time thing and this is how Italian people treat each other. So it's whatever. Sorry mom and dad! Tomorrow I think we are headed for Pisa; bring on the leaning tower! Talk to everyone tomorrow.

Jonathan