Italia

The first stop on my European loop (more like a zig zag) was Italy. Originally Sarah and I were going to go to Venice, then take a train to Florence, but we hit what some may call a bump in the road: we missed our flight.

6:15 flight to Treviso, bought and paid for on Ryanair, only 10 euro mind you. Sarah and I arrived on time, went through security, Sarah's bag got searched because she had left her pocket knife in there, and finally arrive at the gate with time to spare and carry-ons in tow. I reach the gate first and the guy looks at me and goes, "this isn't valid" famous last words, eh? We look and realize we had been idiots and not read the fine print. Even if you are not checking in a bag, you must go to the check in counter to have your boarding pass, which you have to print out, stamped. The things you learn.

At that point it was too late to even hope we would make that flight, so we began creating Plan B ie flying to Pisa the next day. I never made it to Venice but still got my week in Florence.

We found a hostel in Pisa that picks you up from the airport and we stayed there, got to see the tower in the morning and then were off to Florence (robbery took place en route to Florence, again I'm not going to talk about it here...it sucks, but you deal and you look like this after its all done!).

Before the robbery I did get to see the tower, ta da!

Look, it does lean!

We also found a great street art display, but then we were off to Florence.

Once in Florence we found our hostel a friend of a friend came to meet us and also console me to an extent. He's a great guy and a wonderful host! He took us up to the Piazza de Michaelangelo, which has a breath taking view of the city.

And then we headed back to unwind a bit and met up with him again later. He owns three restaurants in the Florence area, and we went to one in what I believe is a suburb called Prata. The food was great and the company too, we wound up watching an Italian movie without subtitles, but it was physical humor and I got some of the jokes because of the similarity to Spanish.

The next couple of days were spent wandering the streets and taking in the amazing museums. At the Academia I got to see David up close and he's HUGE. The statue towers over you and is even more detailed and awe inspiring in person...mind you this is coming from someone who loves statues. We also saw the infamous Duomo and the Ponte Vechio over the Arno:

And went to the world renown Uffizi. There is actually a medical condition you can get from looking up at the Frescoes too long and the Uffizi just tempts you so much, I made sure I went into the side rooms, so I didn't walk the entire museum hallway just looking straight at the ceiling. The museum was wonderful.l The passion and appreciation for art in Florence is a nice thing to see. Art, especially these days, is being seen more and more as a luxury or superfluous, but it still is adored by some, myself and the people in Florence included.

A fun thing I saw outside the Uffizi was this street performer being a statue, as many tend to do, but there happened to be a bride and groom walking by and taking pictures in the courtyard, well they decided it would be a great idea to go up and take a picture with this guy. Well, the performer had a great sense of humor, and this is what happened...

Italy is truly the land of food and good coffee and Sarah and I enjoyed both. The Florentine region is know for Chianti Wine and pecorino cheese so one night Sarah and I decided we would buy both and some crackers and have ourselves a lovely dinner on the patio of our hostel. We got back from the store and went looking for a cork screw to open the wine with and they didn't have one! I was in shock, but we asked the owner, Antonio, if he had one and he looks at me and goes, wait I will help I will meet you in the kitchen. He comes in with a screw, screwdriver, and a pair of pliers. He proceeds to quickly open the wine bottle and takes the cork because in Italy you drink the whole bottle. We then went outside with our mini feast and discovered that the vines climbing the fence were grapes! So we picked a bunch of those and enjoyed our little Italian meal. The food in Italy is indeed all it's cracked up to be. You heard it here first!

Ciao!