We woke up early at went to breakfast at a cute corner cafe called Sabrina's...unfortunately all you can get for breakfast are pastries, croissants, and coffee. Then, we went to the Duomo, the main church in Florence. We walked around inside and marvelled at the ceiling frescoes by Viscali. Then, we went out and around to get in line to climb to the top. We had skipped St. Peter's, so we were determined to climb this one. It was 463 steps up...not bad,...

We left Rome today, and really didn't want to go. It was a very quick train ride into Florence, and our hotel was easy to find. The Hotel Sampaoli was clean and nice, and like an actual hotel, not a dirty hostel. We went straight to the Boboli Gardens since it was such a nice day, walking down Via Roma and over Ponte Vecchio to get there. We saw vendors and Piazza San Lorenzo and at Piazza del Repubblica. Ponte Vecchio is the most popular bridge, and we ...

Today, Allison and I woke up pretty early to get our free breakfast and then went to Vatican city. We were going to do it on our own, but when we saw the line for the Vatican museum, we decided we should look for the blue dot tour group we had taken part in yesterday, in hopes of cutting the line again. I thought they were meeting at 9:30, and Allison thought they were meeting at Footlocker, but we weren't sure, so at 9:35 we started running in that direction. ...

What was probably the best day of my vacation... Allison and I woke up a little later and went down to our free "breakfast" of toast, croissants, jam, butter, and coffee. When the toaster popped, it would shoot out the toast in all directions...mine shot up and spun around, and then landed back in the toaster, like something from a cartoon. It was a gorgeous day out. We went to the Trevi fountain and threw coins over our right shoulders...this means t...

Today, Allison and I checked out of Hotel Brivio and went to Central Station for breakfast and to catch our train to Rome. The train ride was four and a half hours long. We were happy to find that our hostel was a short walk from the train station. Our hostel, Freedom Traveller, was more like Stayokay in Amsterdam...a hostel filled with young people, and flyers and posters suggesting what to do in Rome. The rooms were pretty gross and small, though. We ...