ciao. firenze, italia.

firenze. 

Day 3: Goodbye Roma, hello Firenze!

But first...let me get to that pickpocketing story I mentioned earlier. One thing is for sure, there was never a dull moment for Katelyn and I on this trip.

So there we are trying to board our train to Florence when this little boy about 12 years old starts hassling us. Like taking my ticket out of my hand to validate it..and then trying to help us with our luggage and then trying to force us to pay him for it all. We ended up just ignoring him and he finally left us alone. We found our seats and were minding our own business when we see the same kid on our train again. We watch him offer to help a grown man with his luggage - then we watch him so confidently & smoothly take the man's wallet out of his pocket and then put it in his own pocket! We freaked out. The man had no clue what had just happened and the boy starts to casually walk down the train past us. I tell Katelyn "Take it from him!" It was the only thing I could think to say. Welp, that's exactly what she did!!! She reversed pickpocketed the little brat and he had no idea he'd been pickpocketed! It was seriously the scariest thing ever. I know it doesn't sound scary, but that little boy isn't working solo. There are probably multiple grown men who order him around because in Italy if you're under 18 and commit a crime there isn't a thing the Italian police can do to punish you so kids do the dirty work. We were so shaken up the entire train ride to Florence. I had to pep talk us for a good while so we could enjoy the rest of our trip!

Once we arrived to Florence, we immediately checked in to our hotel, dropped our luggage off and headed for the city. Since we only had one full day in Florence, we needed to make the most of it. We started at a huge food market with tons of fresh vegetables, cheeses, meat, and fish. It was really cool.

fresh italian gelato. nothin' else like it.

Then we headed to the Accademia to see the Statue of David. We knew it would be another long wait in line...but once again we were surrounded by people who spoke english! We made four more new friends. Two from Hong Kong, Kevin and Caroline, one from South Africa, Estelle, and Juan from Mexico City. It was so interesting to hear the differences between all our countries. For a few hours, we had an awesome time getting to know these cool people. Then we finally made it inside and saw the incredible, David. It is crazy to think that it just started out as one big rock and then Michelangelo formed and carved such a beautiful man (I'm not going to add pics since he is naked.....).

we bought matching bracelets.

After the Accademia, we toured the Duomo and each lit a candle inside and then continued walking around the city. I liked Florence because it was smaller than Rome, but Florence apparently has more of a sewage issue. Some streets it smelled terrible! As we were walking along the river, we ran into Juan! One of the people we met in line at the Accademia. It turned out Juan had been traveling for 15 days all by himself (he did a semester abroad in Spain and his friends wanted to travel other places - no he wasn't a creep) so of course I invited him to have dinner with us. I'm so glad I did - we had a great time. 

After dinner, we tried to go to Piazzale Michelangelo for the best view of Florence, but since Italy was playing in the World Cup that day it was shut down for a firework show so we couldn't. But to our great luck the Campanile di Giotto bell tower was open for the first time this year! We were able to climb the 414 stairs and see the second best view of Florence. 

kk in front of the Duoma Cathedral.

Ponte Vecchio

us with Juan.

As seen in Rick Steve's

real spaghetti!

view from the tower.

Firenze is beautiful.

We learned how to spell the word we'd been using for 3 days for hello & goodbye, "ciao" pronounced "chow." Katelyn assured me that "ciao" was not spelled like chow haha I totally thought it would be.

Here's a helpful list if you're heading to Florence:
Traveling Bible: same as mentioned previously
Hotel: Hotel Lorena (perfect location, very cheap & breakfast included) (community bathrooms but very very clean!)
Food: Ristorante Boccadama
Transporation: Florence is way smaller than what it appears to be on the map. We didn't use public transportation once -- of course, we were only there a day, but we were still able to see everything.
Museums: There was a "fast line" at the Accademia that you could get in if you paid like 25 more Euros, but it did not move any faster. And those people were in the sun while we relaxed in the shade. Keep your Euros and skip the fast line!