Post Florence Blog?

Florence was in a word, touristy.

That's right blog followers. Florence is possibly filled to the brim with tourists during the summer months. During our day trip today, the city felt like an american city with Italian visitors. Almost all market-stall owners/store clerks spoke fluent English.

Oh, and don't get me started on the gelaterias.

There was literally a gelateria every 5 steps. Every single block in the city of Florence had a place that served the delicious Italian treat. Not that I tried any (some stalls looks quite scrumptious in fact), but the sheer amount of them made me question the validity of them all being "artisan" or "house-made".

Even bars and restaurants served them..!

Regardless, today was really fun. The shopping scene is huge there due to the large influx of tourists. I almost bought a belt from a vendor for 25 euros, but at the last minute, I managed to split the belt with my fingernails! So much for being real Italian leather hand made in Firenze. I wound up not buying any leather goods since I lose the girls (and thus their precious knowledge of Lisa's favorite leather place).

Most of the other stuff seemed to be things that I could get in Rome anyways.

So. About my day.

I wake up at 6 AM (I am surprised too). I wolf down an orange and the remnants of my Despar choco-flakes. We depart smoothly from our bus station, taking the 40 to the train station and the fast train.

The train was really fast and totally worth it. Now that I just checked, Florence is actually quite a ways away from Rome. We must have gone at least 100 MPH to get there in like an hour.

Arriving there, we immediately rush to the David. Even though we get their basically as the David opens, we still have to wait nearly an hour to get in through the no reservations line - upside being that it was 10 euro instead of the usual 14.

By this time, we were all hungry, and we stopped at a chic little restaurant called ZaZa. I ordered the ZaZa pizza, but missed that it was frozen. That wasn't so great a choice on my part.

Then, we basically split up into 2 separate groups. A bunch of us, me included, went back to the open market to try to score some good, while Maggie, Katie, David, and Rebecca went to sightsee.

After the whole belt fiasco, I convince everyone to go climb the Duomo. Best decision I had ever made. The view itself was worth the entire trip.

Daniel and I wander around for a while the city, and we find the night-trippers, who are literally freaking out about their hotel (more on that later).

Eventually we meet up with the rest of the day-trippers except Carmen and Emily, who shopped for a little bit longer, and climbed the Duomo a little bit after us.

We all stop by this little restaurant, which happened to be CLOSED. The owner was super nice, and let us sit down to watch GER v. ARG. We ordered some drinks.

The game was a slaughter. I don't even think Argentina was playing the same game. 4 - 0 is just unbelievable.

After the game ends, we visit the night-trippers' hotel, which turned out to be more like a penthouse apartment. What was suppose to be a genius plan that cost 10 euro a head wound up with the additional fees being nearly 30 euros. It was an messy situation indeed, but they did come away with a sweet place.

We do leave them eventually, since they didn't have enough food for all of us. There was this little touristy "snack" restaurant that we came across. 4.50 for pizza. Could be worse.

I make the dumbest purchase ever. For as much as my pizza, but I had to do it. lol.

I've yet to enjoy it..!

The group hits an weird super market, and Kristin and I thought it would be hilarious to drink on the train ride back. We get cookies and terrible(?) box wine.

Red is terrible. White is actually quite good.

Florence is so devoid of interesting things to see after a while that we all decide to leave early. Luckily, we were able to switch to a train that departed an hour earlier from Florence.

I came back and reported diligently. I am tired now since I woke up so early. Good night.