Florence

We think we’re going to feel the same way leaving most places on our adventure. That is, sad to leave one place, but excited for the new experiences we’ll have in the next.

That’s exactly how we felt leaving Venice. With one last look at the Grand Canal from the steps of the train station, we exhaled a big sigh and boarded our train to Florence. Remember how we mentioned in an earlier post the vastly improved conditions on the new fast trains in Ukraina? After just one train in Italy, a simple Venice-to-Florence route, we now understand how Ukraina’s new trains meet the European standard. We rode in spacious, air-conditioned comfort the entire way.

Florence was the birthplace of the Renaissance movement, and we spent the day admiring the sights and sounds of this cultural mecca. Home to Michelangelo, Florence offers numerous museums, churches, and historically significant landmarks which everyone can appreciate.

Our first stop was the Galileo museum. After being frightened by countless obstetric models from centuries ago, we really enjoyed the Galileo rooms. That man was a genius. Need to measure the orbits of Jupiter’s moons to determine the latitude of your ship? No problem—Galileo invented a device for that, and had countless other scientific inventions as well. We just wish we could have played with all the inventions! Apprently, the museum frowns upon that sort of thing. We may or may not have found that out the hard way.

Then we saw the Duomo, the church around which everything seems to be based in Florence. With one of the largest domes in the world, and it’s architecturally-significant (albeit very “busy”) exterior, it’s quite impressive. Just the sheer magnitude of the church is something at which to marvel. As well, it looks way bigger from the outside. TWSS.

Afterwards, we went to the Accademia, a smaller art gallery home to Michelangelo’s David, and several more of his sculptures. Unfortunately, we were stuck in the line which wrapped around the building. However, a combination of beer, gelato, books, and meeting Ukrainians from New Jersey made that 90-minute wait go by rather quickly. Once we finally got inside, there was the big man himself—David. We’ve all seen his likeness before, but seeing this masterpiece up close was pretty darn cool. Some parts of him were bigger than we expected. Other parts of him were smaller. We’ll let you guess which was which. 

After another cheap meal of sandwiches and a giant hunk of watermelon for €1, we enjoyed another walking tour from Rick Steves, some more gelato, and that was it for our day in Florence. Art aficionados could probably spend three or four days here, but one day was just enough for us.

We’re currently writing this from our hostel in Rome. We haven’t seen any of the city yet, but we did meet some nice British people with whom we might meet up tomorrow. Gotta love meeting fellow travellers!

We have a solid four days in Rome coming up, with a full itinerary. Stay tuned for more from us…and more photos as well!