Fall Break 2007: Part III: Florence

The train ride to Florence was only an hour and a half. It was very relaxing. When we got to Florence, we had trouble figuring out what bus stop to get out of. Not as many people in Florence spoke English. I had written on our itinerary to take Bus 4, 20, or 28 to Viale dei Cadorna, but that stop wasn't listed on the bus routes. The info man told us to take 31 or 32, but then the 32 bus driver said his bus didn't stop there. Diana went back to the info man and asked him again, and he checked with a co-worker and told us to take Bus 4. That bus driver told us to get off at the second or third stop. We got off at the third stop and some friendly women pointed us in the right direction.

We stayed in The Abatjour, and it was very nice. Our host Paolo spoke English well. The only problems with the room were that it was right near train tracks so we heard trains go by all night (but we were so tired they didn't really disturb us) and that the bathroom door was very thin, like a folding closet door, which was sort of awkward. But the room was clean and breakfast was good.

We went to dinner at a restaurant that Paolo recommended. We had pizza, and the crust was thicker than the very thin Roman pizza. It was delicious. After dinner, we went back to the Abatjour and went to bed. The next day, we saw David (we had to wait in line for over an hour just to get into the Accademia Gallery where he was) and climbed 463 steps to the top of the Duomo. We also walked around a lot of Florence, and saw Signoria Piazza. While at the Accademia Gallery, we ran into a girl who lived on our floor. It was funny, especially because at the Spanish steps in Rome, I ran into another friend, and Diana saw a girl she knew in line at the Accademia Gallery. Italy is a very popular destination for BU London students during their break.

For dinner that night, we met up with Stacy and Michelle (whom we had seen at the Spanish steps) and we went to a nice Italian restaurant. Afterwards, we went out for a drink. When we tried to call a cab home, we were told that there were no cabs. (I can't imagine that happening in the US.) We called back 5 minutes later and they sent one, but only 4 people can legally fit in one cab. Luckily, the driver didn't care and drove us all to our respective accommodations.

We had train tickets for Tuesday at 2:30, but we wanted to see the Uffizi Gallery in the morning. We dropped off our bags at the train station and arrived at the Gallery around 10am, and had to wait in line for 2.5 hours just to get into the museum. That only left us an hour to look around, but we knew that we wanted to see the Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Boticelli, and Raphael rooms. We found them and saw some amazing artwork. Then we left to catch our train.