So today is the day we went to Florence.

Here's something that you should probably know though. I've found Sarah's favourite hobby: waiting for trains and planes. Sarah had stipulated that we needed to leave at a set time in order to be able to make the train to Florence in time. Unfortunately I managed to run over my bare foot with a heavy-as-all-hell locker and had a little trouble finding a small lock in complete darkness (I didn't want to wake up our entire room) and we left literally five minutes later than originally planned. Sarah was furious. This meant that when we got to the train station we only got to sit at the platform and wait for fifteen minutes for our train to arrive instead of her preferred twenty. This waiting happens everywhere we go. If we are required to be at a station or airport two hours before the flight but boarding opens three hours before the flight, Sarah demands we are there three and a half hours before the flight so that we can get there, find our terminal and then wait in the lounges until we're allowed to get on the plane and wait for an extra hour there. If she had her way I'm sure that she'd be more than happy to check in to our departure flight the moment we arrived into the country so that she could sit and wait at the airport for our flight out for three days. All the time with a great big smile knowing that if someone dies in first class then they might think about possibly considering the vague idea of upgrading someone on the flight and seeing as she's been at the airport for three weeks already that it could be her.

Once we'd taken the two and a half hour train ride to Florence we disembarked and had a look around. I grabbed a quick Maccas breakfast muffin (the best breakfast one ever; it had hollandaise sauce on it!) and we headed towards our first destination.

One of the massive differences between Italy and Australia is the attitude towards water. In Italy there are fountains everywhere constantly spewing thousands of litres of water into the sky. There are even drinking fountains everywhere. But not the kind we're accustomed to in Melbourne, these are all over the place and are like someone just left a running tap on in the street. They are permanently on and simply pour water out forever. A massive contrast to back home where you need a permit to change the water in a goldfish bowl.

Our first stop was to see the statue of David. As I mentioned in my blog about the Louvre, nothing can prepare you for the size of it. David is freakin' huge. The first things you notice are his hands. His giant bear mitts look like they're about a foot long at least and look powerful enough to crush Optimus Prime like an empty beer can. One very unique thing we noticed was a blind woman being led through the museum. She was given a pair of gloves and was allowed to feel the statues so she could "see" them for herself. Pretty damn cool. Unfortunately there are no pictures allowed to be taken in the museum (although there were heaps of students sketching David) and so I had to go all covert ops and try to take some sneaky ones of David. Basically none turned out.

Next we went to check out the famous painting The Birth of Venus by Botticelli. It was on the way here that I noticed something else I should mention about the Italians. They love stairs. If there was empty space they just decided to cram some stairs in there just out of spite. But anyways, like the others, the painting was bigger than expected and looked fantastic.

After some more walking and visiting a few more galleries I actually managed to score the TMNT royal flush. I had seen works from Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo and Raphael in one short afternoon as well as got some awesome pizza for lunch.

After all of this it was time to head back to the hostel for an early night. We had to check out of the hostel the next morning and so were planning on getting everything done that night so there was no rushing needed.

Fun Fact: While Michelangelo was the party dude of the Turtles, it was Raphael who was the real party dude. The guy died at age 37. From syphilis.This was in a time when it was almost impossible to even get it. That dude was bangin' everyone he could find. Michelangelo however was incredibly socially inept but loved by everyone. Much closer to the "cool but rude" tag Raphael held. Also, they hated each other. With a passion.