Under the Tuscan Rain?

We said goodbye to Hotel Felice and our nutella chocolate breakfast croissants this morning and boarded the train for Firenze (Florence). We all took advantage of the extra time to sleep but also saw the beautiful Italian countryside on our 4 hour ride (took the slow train to save some euros... and for the scenery).

Then we finally arrived in Florence under the Tuscan Sun!!! This sun-soaked sanctuary was SO beautiful!!!--except that it was raining...Oh well, that didn't stop us from exploring the gorgeous city of the Renaissance. We found our nice quaint hotel of townhouse sweets, after realizing that #43 in black and #43 in red are different locations on the same street and hiking up 3 flights of stairs with all of our luggage for the term. But we do already feel more at home here than Roma- our hotel is a better central location and the city is easier to navigate since it is smaller.


Taking our kebabs to-go, we walked through the Mercado Central which had expansive booth displays of scarfs, leather bags, jewelry, etc on the side of the road. Laura almost bought a bag, and then she ALMOST bought a journal, but then decided she was an impulsive buyer and decided to wait. Don't worry Laura we have a whole day ahead of us tomorrow for you to take time to make a decision.


We then made our way into the center of the city to the Duomo and the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. This cathedral was erected in 1296 and at the time was so magnificent that it would have been "impossible to make it either better or more beautiful with the industry and power of man". The outside of the Cathedral is absolutely spectacular and is amazing how it sits right in the middle of a square containing Ben and Jerry's and Sephora (don't worry, we were tempted to go to B and J's but decided to hold off for more authentic gelato tonight). We then climbed the 463 steps to the top of the Duomo and got a view of the entire city. While climbing up, we planned our new Dartmouth PE class that we will be holding next year titled "The Staircases of Italian Cathedrals". Rain and all, we still managed to be those annoying tourists and ask people who don't speak English to take pictures of us.


On our walk to Ponte Vecchio, Florence's oldest bridge that has goldsmith and diamond-carver stores across it, it was imperative for Heather and me to stop for a merry-go-ride for 1.50 euro. As you can tell, Laura had a lot of fun too...

Past the Piazza della Signoria and sculptures outside the Uffizi (which we have a reservation at tomorrow), we stopped at a Wine Bar to get some nice red wine and a collection of bread samplings before dinner. We managed to walk out with only one causality- Heather's wine glass. Then, we took our hotel owner's dinner recommendation and found a great restaurant outside the tourist area. You know you do yourselves well when you find a restaurant where the menu is only in Italian so you thankfully have a downloaded Italian/English translator application on your blackberry to figure out what you are ordering (thanks emily!).


We took our gelato to the next level tonight and had it on top of waffels. The lady only let us have two samples between the four of us though and somehow Laura managed to get both of them...but STILL Mhmmm gelato ice cream sandwich. We are excited for our second day in Florence tomorrow!