.Firenze.

I know this blog is quite late...but I will try to remember as accurately as possible.
When we arrived in Florence it was during a heat wave and it was SO HOT, during siesta hours, with a cloudless sky and burning hot sun beaming upon us. We checked in to our hostel which, happily, had a pool! Unfortunately, we were staying in room 200, and although room 201 had been cleaned, 200 had not. We decided to wait in the air conditioned lobby for a while until it was ready, but left our luggage in the locked luggage room. About 2 hours later, our room still wasn't clean, but they gave us our keys anyways. The air-conditioning was not working (they finally fixed it our last day there) but we got to swim in their party-pool so that was lovely. The only thing with not having a/c during a heat wave in Florence is that you can't leave the screenless windows open at night because they have mosquitos, and I still have the bug bites to prove it.
Anyways...we had a lovely time in Florence. Pretty much...I bought most of my souvenirs there. I know, it's pretty silly to buy your souvenirs on the second city of your trip because you have to carry them around for the rest of your time...so: family, be happy! Look at the sacrifice I'm making for you. haha, just kidding...but I do hope you like what I got for you.
So, other than the markets, and the Duomo (which is way cooler on the outside than in, I thought...but it could be that I was a little churched-out and museumed-out by then) we got up early to miss the line and saw the Ufizzi galleries which were quite amazing, and went to Accademia to see the David which is absolutely remarkable. Also, I got requested to not take non-flash pictures in the musical instrument history section of the museum which had NO signs saying not to take photos. Actually, I only saw one sign in the whole museum, but it was covered by people and I saw it on the way out of the hall where the David was. So, oh well, I have a few decent shots of it. I paid 10 euros to get in there half an hour before it closed; I don't feel guilty at all.
On the map of Florence our hostel gave us there was a restaurant mentioned that said it would serve 2 courses, a salad, a drink, and a dessert for only 10 euros, so we determined that that would be a great lunch and possible spill over into dinner. It was kind of hidden, but we found it eventually, and this really cute waiter (I guess I didn't need to specify that he was cute...it is Italy) said he would give us the deal and seated us. We're pretty sure it was totally under the table...we never actually got a bill or anything...but it was amazing food. We got bowtie pasta with vegetables, turkey, potatoes, (BethL got tomatoes and mozzarella) and tiramisu...they skipped our salad, but we didn't really have room for it anyways. And we didn't have to buy supper, so great deal! Our waiter had been to Hamilton and Montreal before, and is going to Niagara Falls soon because his cousin who owns the Hyatt, Mariott, and Embassy Hotels there apparently. But he still has to pay for himself, his cousin won't do it.
Um...I think that's all I have to say about Florence right now...but in all it was a lovely city, and I loved the street artists and painters, but it was even more expensive than Rome over all I think.