Florence and the Tower that Leans

Ponte Vecchio Bridge

So Florence was great. We were there from Thursday evening to Sunday afternoon. We also took a side trip to Pisa on Sunday morning to get the classic tourist pictures before returning to Naples. Here is was we did this past weekend away from Naples...it was great!

Thursday Evening:
We took a fast train from Naples to Florence (it was three hours and pretty cool...we reached 330kmh) and arrived in Florence just before sunset. We made it to our hotel, and then went about to scrounge up some food and gelato. We then saw some very pretty fireworks. The whole town pretty much stopped and watched. All the roads were at stand still traffic for the entire show. So we stood on a median, eating our gelato and watching fireworks.

Friday:
This was my day to wander around the city. We walked and walked and walked some more. We saw a lot of impressive sites and buildings and such. It was pretty cool. We walked around to several piazzas and looked at stuff. Aaron and I bought some artwork from a local artist while we were exploring the city.

Saturday:
In the morning, we went to Duomo and climbed to the top of the dome and got a great view of the city. Afterwards we explored some more, ate, and then headed to see two of the galleries in Florence. The first was the Museo dell'Accademia. Here was Michelangelo's statue of David...the real thing (though we saw lots of replicas around the city). Wow...it was very impressive. We also got to see some of his other works of art both finished and unfinished. Afterward, we headed to the second gallery on our list, the Uffizi Gallery. This gallery houses a lot of the amazing Renaissance masterpieces, the kind that you learn about in school. It was pretty awesome to be able to see the actual paintings that I have read about in books and such. (We also learned some fun facts about the city, I will share with you when I get back). After that, you guessed it, we wondered around some more. Florence is a very beautiful city, pretty much was I think of when I think of Italy.

Sunday:

We got up bright and early (not really that early) and packed up our things, checked out of the hotel and headed to the train station. Our last big thing to do before we left Tuscany was to visit that famous tower that leans...in Pisa. So we hopped a train headed to Pisa and we were only in Pisa for about 1 hour before returning. We were taking the long train home, so we did not want to miss the train (this was a little over 5 hours instead of three). Anyway, it was pretty cool.

Aaron and I posing with the Leaning Tower :)

Overall, I really enjoyed Florence. Rome is my favorite city with historical stuff, because of all the ruins and old things, but as far as pretty cities go, Florence is my favorite there. I shall let you know if this still stands when I return from Venice (We are going there this weekend!)

A beautiful view of Florence from the Arno River