Head out early to catch the train to Florence, check into our hostel by 2pm, look around Florence for the day, sleep, head out Sunday morning to Pisa (to see leaning tower) and other places in Tuscany on the way back to Vicenza by night.
We headed out a little late Saturday morning because a few girls overslept and one other girl and I needed our passports back from our director (who borrowed them to copy for records, had them in her room so we had the hotel people let us in). At the train station they told us all the trains to Florence were full until 3pm so we debated and decided to reserve seats on that one from Padova. Since we had time to kill, we took the train to
Padova and looked around there for awhile (there wasn’t a lot to see but looked at some shops and ate pizza). Since it was so late, we decided to check out Pisa and its leaning tower Saturday night and save all the stuff in Florence for Sunday. It worked out well because we had plenty of time in Pisa to take ridiculous pictures holding up the tower, walk around, and ate really good
food at a restaurant. They had a random meal deal that came with lasagna, roast beef, (both tasted like grandma’s!), French fries (weird combo I know), water, and wine (which I still think tastes nasty!). We were full and happy as we took the train back to Florence to find our hostel (hoping that we could still get in since we missed check-in by many hours!) We had really vague directions to get to the hostel so it took a bit and some asking to find it but there was room to stay so it all worked out! My first experience in a hostel was not bad…it the cheapest one we could find and had some not so good reviews online but we risked it. The rooms were teeny with weird bathroom and little cots but it worked for me (better than sleeping outside or on a train). We went out to check out the town at night and found this little restaurant pub place that was cool—we met many people (some from the Livorno & Aviono military bases, a girl that works in Vicenza, and some nice Italian people). They showed us another place to check out for awhile and then we headed back to the hostel to sleep around 2.To get an early start, we got up and were in line for the museum (Galleria dell’Accademia) where the statue of David along with a bunch of other ancient religious paintings are held. It was cool to see and crazybecause most of the pieces were from the 1300-1400’s! We had a map of Florence so we headed around to find the main sites. There were lots of pretty, old buildings again like all Italian cities. We found the huge palace (Pitti) with gardens in the back but it was really expensive to look around each part so we actually just peered in the gates and played with the pigeons for awhile. It down-poured there, was raining on and off all weekend and a bit cold but my umbrella held up the whole time. We did a little shopping on the tent market things on the streets (they all sell the same main things-scarves, t-shirts, leather: purses, belts, wallets, etc, World Cup stuff, and jewelry). We saw the Ponte Vecchio bridge where the shops line the bridge across the water
selling jewelry and expensive gold…and waffles for the tourists! There were Piazzas (plazas) everywhere with statues andfountains…the Piazza della Signoria had too many statues (one replica of the statue of David), a church, and a fountain. The statues started to freak me out after so many of them! On the way back to the train station, we stopped at the main Florence attraction, The Doumo. It was a huge cathedral with a giant dome—the decorations on the outside were crazy elaborate in marble I think! The line was way too long to wait to go inside so we settled fo
r walking around it. We headed back on the train and got to ride one of the cool high-speed trains (though fast, the inside wasn’t as cool as an earlier one where we got to be in our own little nook cabin with 6 seats and a door that slid shut from the aisle!) That was cool and there was even a cute little snack cart that went down the train aisle.---There are a lot of acronyms I am learning from the military base...they use them even when it would be just as short to say the words themselves! MP=military police, CDC=Child Development Center, SAS=School Age Services, R&R=rest and relaxation, PCS=Permanent Change of Station (moving), TDY=something moving temporarily, DFAC=Dining Facility, PX=Post Exchange (store),
No comments:
Post a Comment