So I woke up the next morning. If you can even wake up from a solid 20 minutes
of sleep. One of the woman last night snored worse than my dad. And that is
saying something.

I finally convinced myself to get out of my bed, and search for the bathrooms.
Which eventually I found, and let me tell you train bathrooms are gross! I
decided not to head back into the room because it was dark, and I just sat and
watched the Italian hillside. Which was absolutely
gorgeous. The ticket man came back through and gave our passports back. (They
keep them overnight along with your ticket on overnight trains)...

I was still in my dirty clothes, that I had worn the entire day before, slept in
and now will wear another day! When we were about 20 minutes away from Florence,
I made Meredith get out of bed and get ready to get off. The train itself was
headed to Rome, and Florence was just a stop. So Meredith and I were the only
people in our cabin that had to wake up and get off.

The hostel had gave us pretty good detailed directions after we arrived at the
train station. And eager to check in and hopefully shower ... off we were. We
must have been tired or something, because Meredith and I (more just I, since I
was navigating) could not figure out the directions. My phone was about to die,
and we tried to use the GPS with no luck. After wandering around for 30
minutes, and making one giant loop we found the street we were looking for.
Turns out we had started walking in the complete wrong direction from the train
station. And probably went a mile out of our way.

Meredith and I were both getting pretty cranky because of course, we were
hauling around our luggage. Not to mention had a horrible nights sleep and no
shower. Finding the hostel (after we were heading in the right direction) was
pretty simple.

And after staying in London and Paris, two huge places, I could not believe how
centered we were in the city. We were literaly a block away from the Duomo, the
Galleria degli Uffizi and the Galleria dell'Accademia (where Micealangelo's
David is displayed).

We arrived around 10am, but there was no check-in until after 2pm. The entire
hostel is also closed from 11am until 2pm for cleaning. But the man working let
us use the showers and the luggage storage room free of charge. But just by
looking at Meredith and I, I knew there was no way ANYONE would not let us use
the showers because we needed it!

I showered and Meredith washed up, and then we put our luggage in the big
closet. We also used the long bike lock that I had brought to secure it :) So
that was definitely a good buy! Meredith got a Florence map and we were off to
study the city a little on our own.

We started out just by walking around the Duomo. Which is a gothic style church
that is made entirely out of pink, green and white marble. I believe it is the
largest cathedral in Italy, and the fourth largest in the world. But it is
right in the middle of Florence and my pictures really won't do them justice.
Next to the cathedral is the Romanesque bassistero. This small building is
where the bronze doors or "Gates of Paradise" are displayed. They are no longer
the original plates. But they were still impressive and engraved in them are
different biblical stories.

We then wandered to some church. Which honestly I have no idea the name of, but
that is what you get in Florence. I think there are over 400 churches ... which
is more than any other city including Rome. Then we continued down the road to
the piazza that opens up to the City Hall (Piazzo Vecchio) and the Uffizi. It
was a Monday so all of the museums were closed, but it was nice because there
were not crazy crowds or anything! We had a look around the piazza and could no
longer resist getting gelato. So we went to the same galatoreia that I went to
with my family 2 years ago. I got Stratachella, which is chocolate chip, and
Meredith got coffee flavored. It was expensive! Like 4 Euros for the smallest
size, but it was delicious! We then sat around the piazza, people watched and
enjoyed our gelato.

Continuing down the square you walk through the Uffizi's court yard. Which is
usually packed with people, but being Monday it was empty. Meredith doesn't
really have an interest in Renaissance art and I have already been in the
Uffizi, so we are not planning on going in. It is expensive plus unless you made
reservations at least a week prior, you will find yourself waiting in line for
hours.

We had a bike tour scheduled for 3pm, but we still had about 4 hours before
that. So we just wandered around. Florence isn't very big. And all the major
sights would probably take no longer than a day, but it is absolutely beautiful.

We crossed the river over the infamous Ponte Vecchio. Which is the bridge
connecting the two sides of Florence that is just showered with the finest gold
and jewelry shops. It is absolutely crowded all the time, but fun to just
window shop. We also saw the corridor (commonly known as the Gold Bridge) that
stretches from the Piazzo Vecchio (City Hall) through the city, over the river
to the Pitti Palace. This was designed for the Medici family that ruled
Florence, so that they could walk among the people. But not in the crowds.

After picking out our future engagement rings on the Ponte Vecchio, we were
hungry. So we stopped at one of the cute little corner bakeries. We both got
these fresh sandwiches, mine with mozzarella and tomato, and Meredith's had some
form of meat.

We took our lunch to the entrance of the Pitti Palace (which is not that pretty
and just pavement) and sat down and ate lunch. There was of course the
occasional pigeon but Meredith would stomp them off most the time. After lunch
it was right around 1:30pm so we decided to walk back and check into our hostel.

Rosa checked us in and put us in room G. We were the first ones there so we got
to pick the best beds that were kinda hidden at the very back. She also gave us
our night light and locker assignment and keys. Everyone was ridiculously nice.

We didn't have much time to enjoy ourselves before the bike tour, so we looked
up the address to the company hosting the tour. Which luckily was only about 3
blocks away. If anyone is looking to go to Florence, stay at the Academy. It
is absolutely great in every aspect!

We arrived early to our bike tour and talked to a man and his wife from New
Jersey. She was scared of going on the bike tour because Florentine people are
not very patient and are gutsy when it comes to their scootering. But Meredith
and I being the pro-cyclists that we are, were really excited.

I can't tell you the name of our tour guide, because I didn't catch her name.
But I could tell you that she didn't shave her armpits and she wore a tank top
:( Gross.

The tour started out of the Medici family's houses, and the Renaissance style of
architecture with big blocks on the bottom blending up to smaller and smoother
bricks. Which is supposed to give an optical allusion of looking much larger.
We then went around the a town square that had been transformed from Mid-evil
style to Renaissance. We told us a lot of the history, but honestly it wasn't
as interesting as Paris'. I think that may have been because it was much deeper
history, dating back to like 500 A.D.

Our tour continued with going to the City Hall & Uffizi Piazza, the Duomo, the
Pitti Palace and frankly a lot of things Meredith and I had seen on our own.
Although it was very interesting to hear some of the facts.

Like during World War 2 Hitler was trying to build an allegiance with
Florentines. So they would hold secret meetings in the corridor above the Gold
Bridge. Hitler eventually bombed Florence and bombed every single bridge except
for the Gold Bridge, because he said he was thankful for their generosity and
hospitality during their meetings there. And all of the other bridges that he
had bombed. They actually found the original bricks and statues and put them
back to their original structure!

The best part about the tour was that it included a stop at another gelato store
:) We were allowed to pick out two flavors and I got Nutella and Yougurt and
Dark Chocolate. The two together were absolutely amazing!

Our bike tour ended right around 5pm. Our hostel hosts a type of meet & greet
at 6:30pm for everyone staying there to bond over free pasta and wine. So we
definitely wanted to be back for that.

We definitely got back in time and we both took advantage of the computers and
skype available in the lobby! Although my iPad is great. It still isn't a
computer and there are certain things that are difficult to do.

Oh I also forgot to mention that this hostel has wifi that doesn't kick you off
every 30 minutes! So the whole day we were gone I let episodes of Chuck
download :D

6:30pm came around and we enjoyed some great cheese, pasta and wine. We sat
outside on the balcony and talked to a few of the other guests. We met three
people from Toronto, and had a nice little talk about how Canadians make sure
that they are not mistaken as Americans while they travel by dosing themselves
with Canadian flags, haha. And we also met Raphie from South Africa. His
sister was also staying at the hostel, but she was currently on a shopping tour!
Where they pick you up and take you on an 8 hour shopping tour to all the top
designers outlet stores!

We were all so excited to see what she would bring back :) It was nice to talk
with everyone, Michelle (one of the girls from Toronto) gave us great
suggestions of places to eat and go out. Everyone asked us to go out with them,
but Meredith and I desperately needed to spend a night doing laundry and we also
wanted to Skype our parents. So we declined.

We were still kind of hungry though, because there is limited pasta, so its more
of an appetizer. So we walked down the block and picked up some pizza and yes
more gelato :) I got mint chocolate chip this time, which puts my final score at
three gelatos and four flavors in one day. Pretty impressive I might say.

Laundry was expensive at 6 Euros a load, but it was WELL needed! We started with
just a load of whites and darks. While our laundry was washing we Skyped our
parents! Yeah! It has been since London, since we had talked to them (over
phone, we still have BBM and e-mail) ...

After that we called it a night.
Tomorrow we are going to see more of Florence, including going up the
Michaelangelo's Piazza :)
-brooke.