Firenze e Venezia, Italia: Part I

Please excuse the lack of blog posts for the past week. I was in Italy. You know, that country shaped like a boot, home of the best cuisine in the world (in my opinion) and the language that Kaylie speaks beautifully. Ring a bell? Good. I can proceed.
Our journey began exactly one week ago when we boarded a sleeping train en route to Florence, Italy. We felt like Harry, Ron and Hermione on their way to Hogwarts; don't worry, I kept my eye out for dementors and never saw a single one. There were six beds to a room, three on each side stacked on top of each other. My "cabin-mates" were Aimee, McKinlee, Rachel, Anna and Cassandra. We made a fort with our blankets, talked about boys and ate chocolate. You know, the usual. We slept quite horribly for four hours until a pounding on the door stirred us from slumber. It was the guy who had laughed at us because we didn't want coffee OR tea. He gave us rolls, butter and marmalade for breakfast, which we choked down (it was only 5 am. You know how your stomach feels when you try to eat anything that early). We arrived in Florence around 6:30 am with a nine hour train ride under our belts. The experience may sound ein bisschen uncomfortable, but don't let my description fool you; we rode on a European sleeping train and are therefore more cultured. That's what really matters right?
We checked into the hotel, dropped our bags and Aimee, Jesse, Jake and I set out to find some real breakfast. On our way, we were quite distracted by all the people we saw. Picture an Italian man in your head right now. What do you see? Slicked back hair, sort of mobster looking and those unique facial features? They actually look like that! And they talk just like I've always imagined too. So sweet. Kaylie, you need to go. We purchased pastries (100x better than in Vienna) and some dried fruit (I got pineapple), then met back up with our group for a tour. In all honesty, I don't remember many specific names of what we saw, but it was great to be guided around the city. We saw some incredible buildings and the view of the river was spectacular.
After the tour, I had Italian lasagna and Italian gelato, natürlich. The lasagna was everything I had hoped it would be-- way better than anything you can find in the States (except at my house). I'll talk more about the gelato later, but just know for now that it was a heavenly experience. We shopped around in the flea market and bought some really cool things. The nature of these purchases cannot be disclosed at the current time for fear of certain people discovering their presents. They're cool though, don't worry.
Later that day we met back up with our group and went through the Uffizi museum. Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" and "La Primavera" are housed here, along with many other Renaissance paintings and sculptures. Seeing the originals of these paintings was an incredible experience. Thank goodness for Humanities 202 with Prof. Ancell last semester. I actually appreciated what I was seeing! The Uffizi's courtyard was filled with independent painters selling their work. I wanted to buy one from this sweet Italian guy with an eye patch, but alas, they were 90 Euros. Zuviel Geld für mich. Atleast I got a cool picture of them.
We stayed in a hostel that night. It was surprisingly clean and spacious, and the beds were extremely comfortable. I guess it's not that hard to beat bunk beds on a train. Either way, I slept really well.
Day 2: Breakfast was provided back at the hotel where we had first dropped our bags (same owner as the hostel where we slept). Even though Aimee and I were late, we were mistaken for German students, so we were served without any complaints. Nach unserer Frühstück, we met up with Jen, Jillie, Rachel and Brad to climb to the top of the Duomo (dome), which is part of The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral. Six Euros and a seemingly endless winding staircase later, we were presented with a breathtaking panoramic view of Florence. What a beautiful city!
From the dome, we headed to La Galerie de l'Académie to see The David! We waited in line for two hours and paid 10 Euros, but it was so worth it. Michelangelo's statue is so much bigger than I thought and the intricate details he was able to carve into marble are incredible. We saw some additional statues and some paintings, but David was definitely the highlight of the museum. So cool.
Since we had to wait in line so long, we came out of the museum with only about an hour to finish our shopping. Aimee and I ran through the market, bought some additional souvenirs (after our purchases on the first day, we decided to compare prices before buying anything else), stopped for lunch (tomato and mozzarella on focaccia) and raced to the train.

To Be Continued...