Firenze

You always expect to be exhausted after a long day of travel, that’s why most people like to get a good nights rest to start out on the right foot. Booking that 5:58 am train time did not coincide with this mentality. I felt like I was getting to bed pretty early around 12:45 am, until my alarm sounded at 3:57 am. (Yes, I always set my alarms for random odd numbered times and there is absolutely no reasoning for it, I just do.) I thought, “I can’t believe my alarm is already going off, it feels like the middle of the night.” Oh wait, it IS the middle of the night. As I resisted the urge to continuously hit the snooze button (I only hit it once, that’s an all time record right there), I gathered my things and ran to meet my friends for the tram that supposedly starts at 5 am. Once 5:20 rolled around we were panic stricken that we were going to miss our train. We started walking towards the second tram stop when a bus was pulling up, we sprinted through the streets to catch it. We finally arrive to the sketchy train station before sunrise and board the train for the next four hours. 

A few of us were oddly hyper and goofing around while others slept. I’ll leave it to you and the picture to decide which group I belonged to. I dozed off here and there and made it to Firenze by 10am! Traveling in huge groups like we have, always opts for a bathroom stop. We waited in the train station for quite some time and I hear someone say my name. I turn to see someone I went to elementary school with. It blows my mind to think that I don’t run into this person in Long Grove, Illinois ever, but here I am in Florence, Italy and he is the first person I see.

The first stop we made was to the Duomo. This building is so beautiful that it looks fake even in person when you are standing right next to it. Just like the stair adventure I had at the Vatican, we repeated our way to the top of the Duomo to over look the city of Florence. This marathon was only 463 stairs though, so it was a cakewalk. In the tight corridors of the stairs of people passing up and down I hear my name again to find the same person from my hometown that I ran into at the train station. The phrase, “what a small world” has really taken on a new meaning for me. 

The other places we ventured to this day was Ponte Vecchio, the only lasting bridge from WWII that is filled with top notch jewelry shops, Galleria degli Uffizi, and my favorite of all, the original statue of David. I was given mixed reviews of this statue, “It’s the same as all the replicas, not worth the bother.” My mother saying, “YOU HAVE TO SEE THE REAL DAVID! YOU HAVE TO SEE THE REAL DAVID!” SO, I went and saw the real David. And once again, mother knows best because this was so spectacular and absolutely nothing like the replicas. I stared at this figure inching my eyes over every little detail that was so delicately carved. This thing was enormous and so perfect to scale. It was definitely worth it to see the original David.

Our train tickets were open ended so a few wanted to stay a bit longer to shop around and enjoy a nice lunch, but after I impulsively dropped 100 Euro on a lambskin leather jacket, I was broke as a joke and decided in my best interest to head back. On an incredible note, the jacket was retail priced for 350 Euro and I talked my way down to 100. If that’s not impressive, I don’t know what is. I’m starting to rethink my career path and look into something along the lines of professional barterer. Until next time… Ciao a tutti!