Firenze... Salud!

My Italian is no good, but thats the best I can offer.

The good news is that I made it to Florence. I was traveling with my buddy Haggs and his friend Emily from Dublin and we touched down in Pisa at 11:50 pm last night. The problem with Pisa is that its not in Florence. This is like flying to Manchester, NH and thinking you're in Boston. Anyways, we found a shuttle bus to take us into the city that was over an hour long and miracuously my friend Jake was waiting at the station for me. I don't know the last time I was that excited to see someone from Midd. I was prepared to wander the city for the next hour or so burning Euros on my cell phone, so I'm glad it worked out.

As I quickly found out, Florence is a fun city. My favorite part about last night was this bakery right outside the apartment I stayed in. It OPENS at midnight, and is closed by sunrise (I guess that bake for other restaurants?). I called it Heaven's Bakery because it was a God send.

When I finally woke up and got into town I was struck by a few different things. First, Florence (and probably most of Italy I'm sure) is beautiful. The hills and the trees and the warm weather is just gorgeous. Second, the weather was well above 60 degrees for the first time for me since... last September maybe? so I celebrated by breaking out my shorts and birkenstocks.

One thing about Florence is that it is literally swarming with tourists. I took a loop in and around many of the major sights and could not believe how many tourists there, especially Americans and Asians. My favorite sight is probably Michelangelo's David. I didn't wait in the two hour line to see the original, but there is a full scale reproduction at the sight of the original display, and it is truly a sight to behold. I also went in the Duomo Catheldral. The exterior of the building is imposing, but the inside surprised me. It wasn't set up like a usual church with pews in front of the altar, but was rather just an enormous room with intricately decorate marble floors and high vaulted ceilings. The altar area was cordoned off so I couldn't really get up there. But the thing about these catheldrals is that each one has a very different feel on the inside, so you really have to be in the space to appreciate each one.

My plans for the next couple days aren't terribly complex: eat good Italian food, sample some Italian wine, eat more gellato (I already tried chocolate, to positive reviews), and then probably repeat. Tomorrow is Good Friday, so I don't know what that implies but I'd like to take in a Catholic ceremony since I'm practically in the shadow of the Vatican. The Italians are known for their laid back demeanor, so I'll try to be a little Italian for the next 48 hours or so while I'm here.

Once again, pictures to follow-- I've heard there is snow falling in Vermont so I'll try to not make you too jealous of this glorious day today. I'm off to read some more on the balcony of my buddy Jake's apartment... Life is rich.