Our second day going we got up nice and early again to take a flight from Madrid to Florence. We were all super excited to get out of SPAIN!!! I know that sounds really bad of me to be excited to leave Spain but we all needed a break from the rude spanish people.
When we flew into the Florence airport we were all a little disappointed that we didn't get stamps in our passports. I was expecting that because we were still inside the EU. We had to take a taxi from the airport because it was so far out of town, but between five people it wasn't too expensive. When the man dropped us off he dropped us just down the road from our hostel because it was safer to stop there, so we go walking towards our hostel. We had the address written down so we go looking for door 8. Well apparently Italians don't know the order of numbers cause they went 4, 6, 10, 12. We were really confused and kind of freaking out for a second but I continued on and just past 12 was 8. How stupid. I feel like someone has a camera set up just to get a laugh out of the stupid tourists. I have have to admit I would do that, it would be hilarious. Once we stupidly found our hostel we went up to drop off our bags, get settled and head out to check out the city a little bit. Britta was the one who picked this hostel, actually not just picked she researched hardcore. It took her the same amount of time to book just this one hostel as it took me to book four :) But she did an excellent job if I do say so myself. The old couple who ran the place was SO nice. The husband was the one who greeted us. He gave us a map and showed us all of the important stuff we needed to see around the city and they he gave us some wine! It was wine that he had made too, how cool! I felt bad though cause I didn't really like it but hey I don't like wine so it wasn't my fault.
After we got settled and dropped off our bags we headed into the city center. It wasn't a bad walk at all maybe 15-20 minutes to the heart of it all. This little river was right by our hostel. So pretty, we all were in awe by the beauty of Florence.
Along the walk in there is a plaza with the arch. Don't really know what it is for or the significance of it but doesn't it look important? Yeah we thought so too that is why we took pictures of it .
And in front of it.
Sarah in front of an old, abandoned pharmacy. If only pharmacies looked like that now.
We just walked around for awhile taking pictures. At one point we turned a corner and saw this. Look how magnificently ornate that is. It was crazy detailed and slightly overwhelming to look at.
Look, look, LOOK! I found a store called Pusateri! For those of you who don't know, one of my best guy friends Robert's last name is Pusateri. I always thought it was a very rare last name cause he is the only Pusateri I have ever known, but apparently in Italy it isn't that rare. I was so excited to have found this store. It was an expensive leather glove store that I really wanted to buy gloves from but had to settle for taking a picture in front of it. This one is for you Robert PUSATERI!!!
As we got closer to the river we found the plaza by the Uffizi museum that has one of the fake David statues. Here is a fact that I didn't know before this trip, that this random David dude is the David from David and Goliath from the Bible. Who would have guessed?! I felt kind of stupid that I didn't know that but some of the other girls didn't know it either. Thank goodness.
We got to the river when it started to get dark so I didn't take that many pictures cause they weren't turning out right and I knew we were going to be back in the morning. I noticed this chain gate thing right next to the river that had locks all along it. It looked cool so of course I had to take a picture of it.
When we crossed the bridge over to the other side of the river I took a few pics before it went completely dark. Florence is such a beautiful city!
Wow I am a little bright but whatever just look at the pretty background.
The whole reason we were heading over to the other side of the river was to go to a pizza place called Gusta Pizza. Heather's best friend Brittany studied abroad in Florence a couple of summers ago and she told us to go there. So of course we went and I am glad we did, it was FANTASTIC and an excellent way to start off our Italian eating.
I got the margharita pizza, so delicious. My mouth is watering just thinking about it now.
The coke cans were a cool shape so I made the girls hold them in the picture.
After the pizza we were going to get gelato but we could not eat a bite more. Believe me we were sad but we didn't worry too much cause we had a week more in Italy. On the way home I got us a tad lost. I was sure we were going the right direction but apparently I was going the wrong direction. I led us to the main street surrounding the city so we just had to walk around on that to get to the hostel. Not too bad just a little out of the way. Alex didn't really appreciate it cause she isn't too fond of walking around in a strange city in the dark. We got back to the hostel eventually we just took a 30 minute detour. :)
Back at the hostel we just relaxed and talked to the girls who were in the room with us. They were on the last leg of their spring break and they said that it had rained everyday of their trip. I felt really bad for them and it scared me a little that that was going to happen to us too. One of the girls was also telling us about her lost luggage. She has been studying in London since January and she still doesn't have her luggage!!!! Can you believe that? We thought it was bad when Sarah had to go 2 weeks without hers, can you imagine having to go 3 months! The good part of it was that she got to purchase an entirely new wardrobe on the airlines expense, but what a hassle.
For our first day outside of Spain we had a fabulous time! All of us fell in love with Florence just walking around and seeing the city. I could definitely spend weeks there.
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