Mon. Nov. 20 Day 4/Tues. Nov. 21 Day 5
So we got up early, had some breakfast, got packed and hailed a cab to the train station. We travelled a few hours to Florence playing cards the whole time. We figured out how to get to our hotel and threw everything there. We looked up online how to get the Pisa (yes with the leaning tower of Pisa) and grabbed some lunch. We took about an hour train to Pisa and went to see the leaning tower. It was so neat to see. We actually didn't go up inside but we hung out there for quite a while taking photos and getting some souvenirs. So we caught the train back and on our way back to the hotel we stopped by the hotel of the friends we made in Rome. They actually were in Florence the same time as us and we had exchanged information and such. They weren't there but we left a note for them and then sat down for a super fancy dinner at such a yummy place. When we were just about to order dessert our friends showed up! We all sat down and got dessert and just chatted forever! It was great! After dinner we went up to bed and got some good sleep. Tuesday we got up with an agenda. We went to the Galleria della Academia which houses the statue of David by Michelangelo. It was really neat to see. I never realized how huge it is. I bought a little book about the statue to learn more about it. It started as actually a scrap of material that no one could carve well because of the material and it was difficult to carve. After a few attempts it was forgotten until Michelangelo picked it up and carved the David. It is David from David & Goliath and the statue is interesting to many because of David's pose. Instead of triumphant with his foot standing on Goliath's head, he is deep in concentration getting ready to launch the stone at Goliath & it in a way shows that Michelangelo wanted to emphasize David's brains and not bronze & also the help that God gives to him to allow him to triumph. Actually before that we went to a big cathedral with a big dome on top where you can actually climb to and view all of Florence. Catie & I climbed the 450 stairs to the top and saw the best view EVER! We actually met a lady up there who told us another spot in Florence to go to to see a great view. We hopped on a bus (by the way in Florence they NEVER check for your bus pass and consequently we only had one the whole day) and went to the Piazza Michelangelo which is a little park like plaza high above the city where you could actually see the country side and the city. It was BEAUTIFUL. So gorgeous. So after that we had to hurry to grab our luggage and hop on the train to go to Venice. That was a few more hours of playing cards and resting and we were there. We had to take a boat ferry to our hotel. Only in one small part of Venice that I saw for a second did they have cars but there are no cars on the streets. The roads wouldn't be big enough for them anyway. There is only travel by boat, water taxi, or ferry. We thought we were supposed to get off at San Marco which technically was right but actually the closer stop was Rialto. We went an extra 20 minutes boat trip out of our way. We found a lady to give us directions and told us it was 20 minutes back or we could walk and it would only be 10 minutes. Crazy! We were like yeah we'll walk. We contemplated how things would work only water foundation. Cemetaries, waste systems, etc. We found our hotel which looked really super duper scary but ended up being super nice. The first floor looks like crap because the water can rise and destroy anything in the first floor so they put nothing there. Our place was actually a palace in the past and we ended up getting the suite. Something interesting about Venice is all the buildings are settled weird because of the water so our floor actually wasn't straight, it kind of all was on a slight decline towards the middle of the room. So we grabbed some food and walked around a bit and then headed back to our room to sleep. We actually received a free bottle of champagne with our room so we went back and played some cards and drank that and got ready for a busy day tomorrow. I'll finish the rest tomorrow. Love you all!
So we got up early, had some breakfast, got packed and hailed a cab to the train station. We travelled a few hours to Florence playing cards the whole time. We figured out how to get to our hotel and threw everything there. We looked up online how to get the Pisa (yes with the leaning tower of Pisa) and grabbed some lunch. We took about an hour train to Pisa and went to see the leaning tower. It was so neat to see. We actually didn't go up inside but we hung out there for quite a while taking photos and getting some souvenirs. So we caught the train back and on our way back to the hotel we stopped by the hotel of the friends we made in Rome. They actually were in Florence the same time as us and we had exchanged information and such. They weren't there but we left a note for them and then sat down for a super fancy dinner at such a yummy place. When we were just about to order dessert our friends showed up! We all sat down and got dessert and just chatted forever! It was great! After dinner we went up to bed and got some good sleep. Tuesday we got up with an agenda. We went to the Galleria della Academia which houses the statue of David by Michelangelo. It was really neat to see. I never realized how huge it is. I bought a little book about the statue to learn more about it. It started as actually a scrap of material that no one could carve well because of the material and it was difficult to carve. After a few attempts it was forgotten until Michelangelo picked it up and carved the David. It is David from David & Goliath and the statue is interesting to many because of David's pose. Instead of triumphant with his foot standing on Goliath's head, he is deep in concentration getting ready to launch the stone at Goliath & it in a way shows that Michelangelo wanted to emphasize David's brains and not bronze & also the help that God gives to him to allow him to triumph. Actually before that we went to a big cathedral with a big dome on top where you can actually climb to and view all of Florence. Catie & I climbed the 450 stairs to the top and saw the best view EVER! We actually met a lady up there who told us another spot in Florence to go to to see a great view. We hopped on a bus (by the way in Florence they NEVER check for your bus pass and consequently we only had one the whole day) and went to the Piazza Michelangelo which is a little park like plaza high above the city where you could actually see the country side and the city. It was BEAUTIFUL. So gorgeous. So after that we had to hurry to grab our luggage and hop on the train to go to Venice. That was a few more hours of playing cards and resting and we were there. We had to take a boat ferry to our hotel. Only in one small part of Venice that I saw for a second did they have cars but there are no cars on the streets. The roads wouldn't be big enough for them anyway. There is only travel by boat, water taxi, or ferry. We thought we were supposed to get off at San Marco which technically was right but actually the closer stop was Rialto. We went an extra 20 minutes boat trip out of our way. We found a lady to give us directions and told us it was 20 minutes back or we could walk and it would only be 10 minutes. Crazy! We were like yeah we'll walk. We contemplated how things would work only water foundation. Cemetaries, waste systems, etc. We found our hotel which looked really super duper scary but ended up being super nice. The first floor looks like crap because the water can rise and destroy anything in the first floor so they put nothing there. Our place was actually a palace in the past and we ended up getting the suite. Something interesting about Venice is all the buildings are settled weird because of the water so our floor actually wasn't straight, it kind of all was on a slight decline towards the middle of the room. So we grabbed some food and walked around a bit and then headed back to our room to sleep. We actually received a free bottle of champagne with our room so we went back and played some cards and drank that and got ready for a busy day tomorrow. I'll finish the rest tomorrow. Love you all!
posted by Aly D | 8:34 PM
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