Florence

The end of the Italy blogs, Florence details my adventures in the city and at the camp/holiday center of Camping Il Poggetto.

First day

Well, after a few days in Rome as hot as they were, I was hoping to get some relief back in Florence, but no luck. I got back to the city mid afternoon and did the wandering thing for a while, feeling more comfortable with the bus home and with the city itself, having already spent a few hours wandering a few days ago. I had my backpack with me, so I tried to keep the walking to shorter distances and took a few breaks to let the sweat dry on my back. Eventually I headed back to the camp to eat and see what the backpacker crowd looked like for the night. At the bus stop I heard a pair of English speakers and talked to them, finding out they were Canadian and traveling for a while after working in London and Dublin for a few months. I hung out with them for a while back at camp discussing travels and stuff. Later that night I met a Canadian guy who happened to be sleeping in my dorm room, who invited me to hang out with some other people he had met there. Altogether it was a group of 3 other Canadians, 2 other Americans, the guy, and me. Add a few bottles of beer, some wine, and a deck of cards and you get a good game of kings. Not the standard rules I was used to, but still fun. One of the American girls reminded me very much of Christie (from UMBC, if you don´t know who it is), which reminded me again that she isn´t going to be on the east coast anymore when I get back. Another stop for my trip out west next year...Anyway, fun night with fun people, in the morning I met the Kiwi girl they had been talking about, who offered me a ride into town that I managed to miss. Oops. I eventually made it into town with the Canadians and Americans, but we split up there to go our own ways, I had an Enoch to find. To sum up that search quickly, missed him again. Back to my day...I went to see the dome first thing (after a quick breakfast) just to be sure I didn´t miss it. It was definitly worth seeing, I loved going up. There are a lot of pictures I took, that aren´t online at the time I´m writing this, but will be up sometime soon. To get up you walk up inside the walls of the catherdal and then in the space between the inner and outer domes, just as the workers did when they were building it. In total, there are 463 steps (their count, not mine - I was too busy looking to count) from the bottom to the top. From the top you get an amazing panoramic view of Florence and the surrounding hills, and a spot to rest from the trip up. I have to reccomend the book "Brunelleschi's Dome" for those interested. Anyway, I enjoyed it a lot, and then continued on my day. I went on to see some other famous landmarks, including a stop at Piazzale Michelangiolo, from which you get a decent view of the city from the top of a hill on the south side of the river Arno. While I was up there I saw a fire in the distance on some hill to the east, and took a picture. Later on the bus ride home I saw a helicopter carrying a water bucket in this general direction, so I´m guessing this wasn´t good. I don´t remember what else I saw, except the famous bridge I walked over on my way back. Most of the bridge is covered in goldsmiths on both sides, and it´s old and famous. That night I hung out with a couple Canadians and a pair of Americans, some drinking and fun. There should be a picture here eventually, just wait. The next day was spent in an internet cafe and a hospital - don´t worry I´m fine - I just wanted to see if I had broken my heel or just bruised it. So a few hours of waiting, some 30 €, and a few rough translations later I find out it just soft tissue bruise. A wasted day as a tourist I guess, oh well. That night was spent with 5 English girls and an Austraillian girl at the camp, lots of talking about this and that, a bit of wine, and a good end to a crappy day. The next day I spent wandering Florence with the Aussie and a Dutch guy we met in the morning. I had a 7pm train back to Pisa and he had a 11pm train to somewhere in France, so we spent the day showing the Aussie the wandering tour of Florence, which is a great way to see the city and most of the famous landmarks without much effort. The trip back to Forchheim was a 20 hour trip, train to Pisa airport, fly to London, sleep in Stamstead, fly to Frankfurt-Hahn, bus to Mainz, train to Forchheim...and then to ANNAFEST! Woo-Hoo! okay, thats the end of Italy, hope to have the rest of the pictures up soon...Bye!