Day 61: Firenze

The trip from Venice to Florence went blessedly as planned for once. I'm staying in a guest house as opposed to a normal hostel for a change, and after a few hiccups getting in both the people working here and staying here as guests have been good fun. Since I only have two nights in Florence I have a lot of ground to cover. I'm limiting myself to two museums/galleries, and today was the Galleria dell'Accademia. The most famous piece there by far is Michelangelo's David. David has never been all that high on my list of favourite sculptures, but so far on the trip I think it has most exceeded my expectations, just due to its size and grandeur. Tomorrow will be the Uffizi.

I checked out many of the big squares in the city, and crossed over the river Arno to the south by way of the Ponte Vecchio. Ponte Vecchio is a bridge that is covered with top grade shops selling art and jewellry, but pretty cool on its own just for the architecture.

I then wandered uphill, as I generally do, to the Piazzale Michelangelo to get a nice view of the city and its landmarks. Florence is pretty much exactly what I dream Italy should look and feel like, from the architecture to the landscape. It's a relatively small city, at least compared to what Rome will be, and it's easy to cover a lot of ground, which I imagine I'll do tomorrow as well.

At 9:00 the guesthouse has a "party", which is basically just some wine and sweetrolls, but it's a good chance to get to know the others staying here. Only 4 or 5 people came by to hang out, but it seems like a good group, although nobody is really spending more than a day or two here.