FIRENZE

When we arrived in Florence, the skies had darkened, and we were let off in a slightly boonsy section of town, where everything was closed for Easter. After a stressful 15 minutes trying to figure out the buses, we headed towards our hostel. Located in a leafy outer district of Florence, full of sports complexes and stadiums, we were a safe distance away from the throngs of tourists that descend upon the city center in search of Renaissance beauty.

After settling in at the hostel, we decided to take the evening to discover a bit of the city, resulting in a walk that yielded two of my favorite discoveries in Florence: the first was in a small corner shop, where a bottle of Birra Moretti was 1.30, a solid deal. Then we realized that in Italy, beer comes in giant 66 cL bottles. It was a full two thirds of a liter of pretty good beer, for fairly cheap, and that wasn't even the best deal we saw. (We later snagged some Moretti's in Roma for 90 cents, a mind-blowing deal.)

The second discovery was the aperitivo buffet, an Italian specialty at bars. The idea is that you buy a drink, then get unlimited access to an appetizer buffet. Not only was the food actually delicious (bruschetta, seafood pasta, pizza, couscous, chicken wings, etc.) but the deal allows you to get one of those fancy expensive cocktails you normally wouldn't spring for. BECAUSE YOU'RE GETTING FREE FOOD.

After dinner, we grabbed a couple more Moretti's and roamed the streets before setting up on the steps of the Duomo, the 4th largest cathedral in the world. After catching some of the Knicks-Celtics finale in a bar, we returned to the hostel.

The next morning, we got up for a free walking tour of Florence. I would suppose they use the free tours as training grounds, as our guide did not speak English very well. It was all fine, though, as we got to see some cool renaissance architecture, before splitting off to find lunch. We found it in the form of an awesome market. We cruised the free samples of meats, cheeses, sauces, and olive oils before settling on a decadent porchetta sandwich, which consisted of fatty slabs of roasted boar topped with delicious pecorino cheese.

From there we decided to mix it up a bit. We had seen a poster for a rally against the "Imperial War" in Libya, hosted by the communist party of Florence, and we wanted to check it out. When we first arrived, the rally was more like a picnic, but they were selling 50 cent glasses of wine in a souvenir communist/Leninist plastic cup. We obviously each got one and helped ourselves to some glasses (cups) of wine. Knocked out by the walking/wine combo, we went back to the hostel for some rally naps before dinner.

That night essentially consisted of pizza, cheap beer, and more walking. The next day we went to Siena, where we essentially did the same stuff we did in Florence, but with more hills and better views.

Back in Florence that night, we grabbed another aperitivo buffet before taking advantage of a free museum night that apparently no one else in Florence knew about. We got to go to the Accademia to see Michelangelo's David, a stunning sculpture that garners the distinction of being the only Renaissance art I will praise in this blog. It was very impressive.

The next day in Florence, we rambled around a bit , seeing the Uffizi, the Duomo, a panoramic view from the belltower, and a delicious roast beef sandwich from the market.

Our train out was at 6:30.

It was to be my first major mess-up of the trip, as it turns out I had accidentally booked my tickets for March 27th, not April 27th. After some panic and bargaining, they made us pay a fine to stay on the train. We ended up with a room to ourselves though, which allowed us to watch Animal House, though, so it was all good. The stress from the train, and crappy weather dampened the mood, and we didn't do much before crashing in the hostel in Rome.

But what adventures did await us there . . . . Muahahahaha