I'm going to get this rant out of the way because I need to before I can tell you about the rest of the trip. My friends and I walked around A LOT of Florence. It's a beautiful city. But I heard more English in Florence than in San Diego (figuratively speaking of course). Every where your ear turned you heard English. You heard it from Italians, from american tourists, from tourists of all nationalities. All menus and signs were written in Italian and English. How does anyone expect to learn Italian by studying abroad here! You can't! We would ask for things in Italian, the people would respond in English. It was very frustrating! My friends and I decided early on that we were so happy to be studying abroad in Perugia, a town where the only English you hear is coming out of our mouths.
Now that is over, we can continue.
We got off the train Friday afternoon and found our hostel, after about an hour of frantic searching. We then decided to go to the Uffizi Museum to pick up these museum passes we bought. The Uffizi is one of the oldest and most famous museums in the western world. We arrived too late as the place was already closed. We crossed the Arno and walked up to the Palazzio Michelangelo, which the hostel director told us had the best view in the city. He was right, the view was fantastic. After coming back to the city, we changed and met up with some fellow american students studying abroad. We were met with some amazing hospitality! We went to bed early as the next day was to be filled with walking.
Saturday morning we woke up, grabbed a cappuccino and a pastry, and headed for the Uffizi. The museum cards we got allowed us to skip all the lines and pay no additional fees. We spent around 3 hours in that museum. I saw pieces of art I had only ever seen in history textbooks. Pieces from famous Renaissance artists like Botticelli and Leonardo da Vinci. After the Uffizi we walked to L'Accademia, which is known for housing Michelangelo's statue of David. I thought I had a big butt, David's got me beat. After that museum we walked across the river to the Piatti Palace, the former home of the Medici family, the richest and most powerful family in Florence's history. The Boboli Gardens are the engorged backyard of the palace. The gardens are amazingly beautiful. After a long day of walking we retreated to the hostel for a shower and a rest. Later that night we went to a great restaurant, payed top dollar for the famous Florentine Steak and shared a bottle of the equally famous Chianti Classico, the most famous of Tuscan wines. We ended the night at an underground bar that featured a live Rolling Stones cover band. A great first weekend of travel.
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