Wednesday, June 4, 2008

I was excited to begin my last day in Florence. It ended up being a better city than I thought, but I am so excited about being in Rome tomorrow! We started out the day first taking the bus into the city, and then walking for about 30 minutes to the Uffizi museum. The walk was very pretty along the river but it was pretty long. The Uffizi was pretty neat. It contained a lot of works but Botticelli, whom we had studied a lot. In addition, it had several paintings by Di Vinci, which is always exciting. They were not nearly what I was expecting, but it was still a good thing to see.
After the first museum, it was relatively late in the afternoon and we were starving for lunch. We settled on a cafeteria-style café because we could sit outside without a cover and we thought it would be cheap.
Things in Italy are so expensive because not only do they charge you for food, but also a different cover fee depending on if you sit inside, outside, or to-go. They charge you for water, with no refills. They charge you for bread that they will just bring out, and you have to make sure they take it back before you touch it. However, I think the most absurd thing, it that they will come out and set flowers out on your table, and it you do not say that you don’t want them, they will charge you for that too!
Well, the food didn’t end up being very good or very cheap. I ate it all though and was relatively satisfied. We then started to walk to the Accademia museum. The walk took so much longer than expected but we finally got there. We got to see the very famous work, David by Donatello. It was very large, and I doubt that I would come past David’s knee. This museum was optional, but I was very glad that I went and got to see it in person!
After the museum, many people were very tired and decide to go back to the hotel to sleep, but I really wanted to see more of the city. I elected to go with a group who was hiking a mountain to see the most beautiful overlook of Florence. I do not think that I have ever climbed so many stairs but it was well worth it! The view was amazing and I had a lot of fun with the people that I went with!
After hiking back down, it was time for dinner. We walked past the place where I had gotten lunch earlier. Someone pointed it out, and luckily, they all took my advice when I cringed at the site of it! Instead, we went just one street over and found the most charming little café. The people were so nice to us! They also gave us a very good deal since there was a larger group of us. They talked to us for a while because one man that worked there had lived in the US for a couple of months and just loved Americans. It was a great dinner. I had the house white wine and rigatoni pasta, which again was very yummy.
After dinner, we stopped by a market and I haggled to get a 100% cashmere pasgmina (I have no idea how to spell that)! It is a really pretty color and I was really excited about the price! We then headed back to catch the shuttle. We got back to the hotel and I really had to go to the bathroom. However, Amanda had left for dinner. The people at the front desk were very nice though and let me in the room. After showering, Amanda and I watched some of Heavyweights and it was off to bed!