Florence
Florence is a great town to be strolling around at night. Many people are out and about, cafes and restaurants and gelaterias are open, and the narrow streets without cars makes walking around a very pleasant experience. All the areas in and adjacent to the many Piazzas are bustling. The narrow streets also provide a lot of shade against the heat of the sun. Florence is a rather small city and everything is a very accessible distance. But maybe because of the heat, some inertia has kicked in and I haven't felt inclined to cover all the sights yet. Mainly because I know I will have plenty of time to do just that.
Last night I had dinner at the Trattoria Buzzino near the St. Croce chuch. The pasta I had was simple but very good. I ended up chatting with the waiter (his family owns the restaurant) and it turns out he had visited Boston almost 20 years ago as a teenager. As I was walking around, I noticed a crowd gathering outside of the Uffizi gallery. There was a free concert at the Piazza della Signoria and so I found a seat on the floor and joined the crowd. I hadn't been to an orchestra concert in a while - this was even better because it was outdoors.
My hostel yesterday (Hotel Sampaoli) was very good. It's about a 15 min walk from the train station. The guy working there was very friendly and the accomodations wery comfortable and clean. Each room was equipped with a sink and even a hair dryer. I was sharing a room with two other women - one who was visiting from Australia, another from Colorado. This morning I went check in to my other hostel (International Student House), which is also clean but not as nice as the one from yesterday. At least it's super close to the train station, which will be good for when I leave for Rome.
I visited the Uffizi Gallery (best collection of Italian greats) and the Accademia (houses Michaelango's David) today. Thankfully I had called ahead and booked reservations because the line for people without reservations would've been at least two hours. With a reservation, you wait in line to pick up your tickets, then you're in within half an hour. At the Uffizi they limit total people to 600 at a time. I did a brief tour of each gallery but once again, I couldn't really fully appreciate the art. So many of them are religious art - what do I know about that? There seem to be so many variations of the same theme. Jesus on the cross, the Virgin Mary, etc. A will be quite upset that I didn't give the great art it's due. She would probably take all day visiting both... =)
I think I will go later to St Croce church to see the tombs of Galileo and Michaelango.
