Day 32 - Firenze

Me and Rob slept in till about 10 and then went out for a walk around Florence. We just kind´ve spent the day wandering around all the churches and squares. There was one really cool square that had a bunch of replica statues including David. We also took a stroll down along the river and across the famous Ponte Vecchio that was full from end to end with jewellery shops.

We came back to the hotel to shower around 2 and then went to get a light lunch. On the way we decided we´d leave a note at the front desk of the hotel where Dave (Grant) was rolling into later on in the day, but it turned out he´d just just checked in, so we went up to his room and said hi to hi mom and sister and then he came with us.

We grabbed a slice of pizza, then tracked down the post office so i could send some presents home. What a disaster. Customer service in Europe sucks. And i don´t just think its teh language barrier. They really just are rude, slow, and really just don´t give a shit. It literally took me an hour to send 1 package, adn there were no lines holding me up either. Just stupid people. I had 2 Americans trying to do the same behind me and tehy were just following me around hoping i´d figure it out for them; and eventually did. The one lady from California offered me dinner, but i had the feeling she meant more than just dinner, so i kindly laughed it off.

After that, i walked back to the hostel (Rob and Dave left me cause it was taking so long), then the 4 of us and Dave´s sister, Shelley, met in their hotel lobby. We´d gotten the last possible reservation at the Academia to see Michaelangelo´s David at 5:30. So we found our way down there and just made it on time. It was awesome to have the booking and just get to walk right up to the front of the long long long line. We went through security, then got to go right in. The museum itself was pretty small and not really that great except for the one room that was full of statues and then, of course, the main room with David in it.

It was more impressive than i thought it was going to be. It was in a huge foyer all by itself and it was much larger than i thought it was going to be too. The detail Michaelangelo put into it like veins on his arms and stuff was very impressive. You´re not supposed to take any pics and i got caught with my camera out by the camera Nazi, but i still managed to take one, and Dave got a couple really good ones from the floor where we sat. After about an hour in the museum, with 45 minutes of that looking at David, we went back to our places and rested for awhile, then met up for dinner.

We ended up walking around for about an hour before finding a place and we ended up at a restaurant right beside the one from the night before. After dinner we grabbed a bunch of 1 L Heineken´s for 1.70 Euro each and drank on the Duomo steps for a few hours, then hit a small pub at 2ish before crashing for the night.