24/05/09
So I woke up relatively early and decided it was time to leave for Florence. I decided that I was not going to stay in Florence and just do a day trip there and then head to Milan for the night. I am a smart thinker and know ways to save money! So I hopped on a train to Florence, which turned out to be a Eurostar train which is not covered by the Eurrail pass so I got hit with another fine. I was not really that impressed by the city of Florence when I got there. It might be because I went on a Sunday and a lot of things were closed and not many people were out, but I don't know. I bought a map and some travel agent lady pointed out the things I needed to see, and I was off. I checked out the Basilica di Santa Maria Novella, Basilica di San Lorenzo, Catedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, Piazza della Signoria, and Ponte Vecchio which was a bridge that lasted past WWII because, the "story" behind it, Hitler loved the bridge so much that he let it stand after he bombed all of Florence. It used to be the place to buy gold back in the day. They had a huge gold industry in the old day. Then I went to Piazza Michelangelo which had a beautiful panorama of the city of Florence. On my walk to the Piazza I walked passed a church that had mass going on. I listened in for awhile as the people sang in Italian which made my day. In the Piazza I grabbed some Chocolate Gelato (I became addicted to gelato in Italy) and sat taking in the city of Florence. I currently had no idea where I was going to stay when I got to Florence. It was a Sunday night and didn't have any numbers of my friends. I had sent them e-mails but hadn't had time to hear back from them. So I was looking like I was sleeping in the train station when I heard some ladies talking English. I immediately started talking and walking with them. They informed me that they were heading to the internet cafe. It was a longshot but I went with them to check my e-mail. When I got there I had a message from David Mintz with his address. So after seeing all the sights that I needed to see I headed out to Milan. I met a nice Milanese lady on the train who gave me directions in broken English on how to get to Davids. I got to David's around 10:30, and he was completely surprised that I made it to his place, but what can I say? I am a world traveler. His apartment is a 2 bedroom one bath place with a rooftop balcony. A very nice place centrally located in Milan. We talked and ate a little then went to bed. The first picture I posted is of the Catedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, a gothic style church finished in the 1200s. The next is a panorama view of the city which has a river running through it.