A Florentine Return

In the morning it was time to bid adieu to Rome and head towards Florence.  This would be my second time in that city.  Since I didn't do a blog post for that trip, I am going to use some pictures from then for illistration since I didn't retake any of the places I had been save one.

When we arrived in Florence we had to go into a part of town I hadn't been with Sam, so we were reliant on the map.  The hostel proved fairly easy to find, so that's good.  It was a really nice place with a sauna and pool and laundry and even club in the basement!  It was also one of the cheaper places we had stayed in Italy and one of the most fun.  When we settled into our room we went out on the town.  It was overcast and had been drizzling off and on, so I took the umbrella and off we went to see the sites.

Since I had been there before, I decided the first day could be me taking Braden to all of the places I really liked while I was there the first time so we didn't have to waste a day redoing things later.  So, we went to the Duomo:

The Ponte Vecchio:

The Piazza Signora:

After seeing those fun places, we went to the market streets and walked around there looking at souvaniers for Braden (I already had mine).  I was so mad while I was there because they are opening a Hard Rock there in July!  After I am there twice in one year (and am not likely to go back in the next 20 years) they finally decide to open a Hard Rock....lame.  Today, I found out they are also opening one in Hamburg, Germany...so I better still be around for that one!  The hostel had a pool, so I went to H&M and got some cheap-o European swim trunks...they're short, but blue and cute :)

After a day of site-seeing we went back to the hostel and relaxed for the night.

The next morning we were off to the Uffizi Gallery, one of the "finest museums in the Western World".  I was SUPER excited to see The Birth of Venus by Bernini, and when I saw it, I was not disappointed.  For those of you unfamiliar, here is a pic of it from the web:

After that fun experience (and a lot of statues later), we went to the Piazza Michalangelo and saw some fanastic views of the city.  These are pictures from my time there with Braden:

And these are from being up there at night with Sam:



Also up on that hill is San Miniato al Monte that I only went to with Sam, here are some pics of that:


After reaching the bottom of the hill, we saw Santa Croce.  We didn't go inside, but I did with Sam:

From there we went to the inside of the Duomo:



I went to the cupola with Sam and his roommate Brandon in November:


After that was the day trip to Pisa (to be addressed in the next post).  Sorry this was mostly pictures, but there isn't a lot to say beyond the explanation of the pictures.  We didn't really do anything except site see, which is fine!  It was also a very cheap city because we only at sandwiches and paid for admission to only the Uffizi.