Greg, Riley and I packed up our stuff, checked out of our hotel, walked to the train station and said our goodbyes. Riley left us to go back to America and Greg and I boarded a train to Florence. The train was packed and there was a sketchy Italian man sitting across from us who kept trying to talk to us but we couldn't understand a word he was saying. About an hour into the train ride two women got on and apparently Greg and I were sitting in their seats so we moved further down the car and the creepy man followed us!!!! He didn't even find a seat, he just stood near us. It was so bizarre. We got off at the Florence stop at about 3pm and found Sasha who we were staying with during our time in Florence. Sasha has been studying there since January. We walked back to her flat and sat around talking with her and her roommates. We eventually left and got wine from this adorable wine on tap shop and yummy pizza too.
As we got to Sasha's front door we looked across the street into a convenient store and there, waving energetically to us was.... THE CREEPY TRAIN MAN!!! He works at the convenient store literally 10 feet from Sasha's door. WEIRD!
We spent the night at a bar that had a Beatles tribute band and then went to this club completely filled with American college students. Sasha told me that over 5,000 American uni students study abroad in Florence every spring and I could definitely see them everywhere we went.
Day 12 31/3/10
Greg and I spent the day exploring Florence. All the buildings are very old and really gorgeous. The streets are narrow and cobblestoned so it gave the whole city an old feel to it. My favorite part of the day was walking across the Ponte Vecchio, a bridge that goes over the river. It's lined with jewelery shops and packed with people.
The other side of the bridge had soooo many gelato stands. Not only was it delicious, but also really cool to look at.
The Ponte Vecchio
Harry Potter is everywhere!!
Our next stop was the Duomo, another cathedral. This one was even more interesting than the one in Milan. It looked like one of those 3D puzzles I used to have.
Unfortunately, the inside is not nearly as interesting as the outside. Oh well.We went back to Sasha's apartment for dinner and spent the night pretending we were back in America.
Day 13 1/4/10
Greg, Ethan and I spent the day exploring again. We started at this brewery that had really delicious beers that were literally the size of my head.
Next on our day's mission was a trip across the river to the Palazzo Pitti, a Renaissance Palace, that housed some pretty famous rulers like the Medici family and Napoleon. It cost a lot of money to get in so we decided to just walk around it. We walked around the corner and there was an entrance to the Boboli Gardens! I had really wanted to go there but we were told it closed at 4pm and it was already 4:30. After being told it was closed by a guard, we snuck around to a side entrance where there was no one patrolling and walked in. We explored the gardens until they announced over the loudspeaker that the park was closing. It reminded me of a weird combination of Alice in Wonderland, the Secret Garden and of course, Harry Potter. There were secret passageways under green terraces, brightly colored flowers and an amazing panoramic view of Florence. Since we were there at dusk, the light hitting the city was truly amazing.
Once we were kicked out of the gardens we ventured back to Sasha's, got pizza for dinner and relaxed for the rest of the evening.
Day 14 2/4/10
We woke up early on our last day in Florence to spend the day in Pisa!! The train to Pisa is only about an hour so it's an easy day trip. We spent the entire time there taking pictures of ourselves in various different poses around the leaning tower, which is actually a bell tower for the cathedral. Here are some of our best shots:
I still can't believe I was actually there. The tower is essentially the mascot of Italy and I stood in front of it!
We made our way back to Florence, backed up our stuff, said goodbye to Sasha and Ethan and Greg and I started a bit of an amazing race evening. We walked to the train station where we were told that all the 3 hour trains (the Eurostar/fast trains) to Naples for the rest of the day were already full. The woman at the desk told us that we could take a different train from another train station in Florence to get to Naples. We ran to the platform to catch the train going to the other station, took the 5 minute train ride, waited half an hour for the train to Naples and got on. We traveled using Eurail passes for our whole month of traveling and for the fast trains you have to make a reservation to get a seat. We thought it was weird that we didn't have to make one for this one and we soon realized why. When we got on the train we realized that we didn't have seats. The train was designed to have only little 6 person compartments and then fold down seats in the aisle across from the compartments. Every time someone needed to walk past us we had to stand up and stick ourselves to the wall so they could pass. The train also took 6 hours because it made lots of stops at small villages instead of the Eurostar which only stops at big cities. We ended up befriending the people sitting in the cart across from us and talked to them for most of the train ride. They tested their English on us and wanted to know all about our travels. There was one 10 year old girl, Olivia, who spoke perfect English because her father is English and she acted as translator for most of the ride. Since the train didn't get in to Naples until after midnight, it was too late to get the train to Sorrento, where we were originally planning on spending the night. We got off the train in Naples, walked out of the station and stayed in the first hotel we saw. Greg and I were convinced it was haunted but it was cheap and close to the train station which was where we needed to be in the morning.
Next stop: Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius
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