I knew I would fall in love. It has taken two full days for me to unwind from Milan and really get into Florence, but I am in it now and it is just so wonderful.
We got to Florence on Sunday. We got a little lost getting to the hostel and it started raining while we were walking, so we were a little grumpy at first. But we got to the hostel and it was clean, quiet, and more like a hotel than a college dorm.
We got settled and set out to get some food. We found a little place close by with reasonable prices, and had a great Italian meal.
Thanks Nancy!!!
After that we were so exhausted from sleep deprivation and a travel day that we passed out quickly and slept for nearly 12 hours.
We woke up around 11 on Monday (yesterday) with a list of things to do. I don't remember if I mentioned this, but in Munich we had our first theft. In the 40-bed room, Jeremy left his gray mesh shorts on a hook and someone took them. Just grabbed em. Jerks. So we had to find him some new shorts and we needed groceries.
So we did all that and got some breakfast/lunch. By the time we got back it was mid afternoon and Jeremy wasn't feeling great. So we hung out and relaxed for a while and then decided to do something easy and go see some churches when h started to feel better (I suspect low blood sugar). So I put on my long pants.
We first stopped at Santa Maria Novella, right near the main train station, which is very beautiful on the outside.
So we tried to go see the inside, which we thought was free, but they wanted to charge us €5. At this point we hadn't seen anything in Florence, didn't really know anything about the church, and just wanted something free and easy. So we skipped it and headed to the big duomo. (We haven't been back to SMN, and if you really think we should go leave a comment here at the end)
On the way to the duomo I got my first of many...
Yes, gelato. I'm addicted.
We have seen a lot of beautiful churches in Europe so far. Gothic, neo-gothic, baroque, modern, big, small, hidden, Jewish (synagogues of course), Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox.... But not once has the outside of a church actually taken my breath away. Until Florence, I mean.
It is a work of art.
The inside doesn't have as much to look at as some other churches we've seen, but it's still beautiful. The dome also makes up for the unadorned walls.
After that we walked around the city a bit, through the markets and past San Lorenzo, another pretty church.
We went back to the hostel to shower. We had found out a couple days ago that Alex, our friend from Prague, would maybe be in Florence the same time as us. And she was! So it worked out that we met up with her for dinner at a little outdoor cafe across the river. It was our first time down by the river.
Dinner was wine and pasta, of course. She brought her boyfriend and an Australian friend so we had a nice group to chat with. After dinner we walked back and hit the hay.
I am honestly too tired right now to tell you about today. It was a long one and we are getting up early for a day trip to Siena. So I'll write about today on the train to, and Siena on the train back.
Apologies. This is a short one but I'll make up for it tomorrow.
For now just let me say Florence is everything I thought it would be, and it's even everything I hoped it would be.
More tomorrow. <3
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