At 3:30 we met up with some other girls to wait in line at the Galleria della Accademia to see The David. Our tour guide had told us that anytime after 2pm is great to get tickets because the line will take you no more than 20min. 20min my butt. We waited in line for an hour. Cindy and I practically melted in the heat and even the 2.00 euro water we purchased didn't help, probably because we finished it in under 5min. We are also lucky to be alive after dive attacks by pigeons while in line. These European birds have no fear, freaking ridiculous.
Around quarter to 5pm we finally got in only to be told that the student discount only applies to European students so apparently our education means nothing to them and not only were we going to be paying more but you couldn't take pictures of David! I decided that my 10 euro was worth at least one shot and I'd take my chances against their Italian jail. While sneakly trying to get shots we made friends with a couple from New Jersey who were doing the same thing. They had a much cooler camera than I and offered to email us their shots. We spent about a half hour staring at David and learning the history of how he was sculpted and why. After the David we walked around the city looking for a new camera for one of the girls in the group that had gotten hers stolen and then had a quiet dinner at a local cafe.
We made it back to the hotel and all passed out. After a bit of laying around and getting one of the boys on the trip to manually override the AC in the room we decided we needed some munchies. We ended up getting chips, cookies, and Iced Tea and played a heated game of Uno before heading to bed.
Day 13
Cindy and I woke up early got some breakfast at the hotel of what is our favorite these days, old bread & butter, some European version of corn flakes with whole milk (don't worry mom we just add a splash to kill the awful taste of the cereal) and sugar (once again to kill the taste of the cereal). We then boarded the bus and headed to Pisa. It was estimated to be 104 degrees in Pisa that day and Cindy and I walked off the bus and were instantly dripping in sweat, so glad we showered. I now understand why Europeans don't shower, whats the point. The lack of shaving though I still don't understand. Okay, so anyways Pisa, we walked around for about a half hour taking the usual tourist pictures, yes we are those people. It was very enjoyable. Then we used the rest of the free time to hide out in McDonald's because they had the AC on. We were ecstatic to find out that milk shakes were 1 euro so we got one of those too before heading out for the walking tour of Pisa.
We had a tour of the Pisa Duomo (Church), the baptistery, and got to hear some history about the leaning tower of Pisa which was constructed to be a bell tower. Back in the day all baptisms were conducted in separate buildings than the church because unbaptized people were not allowed in the church because they were considered to be full of sin. The entrance of the baptism was on the west to symbolize that people were full of sin and the exit was on the east facing the church to symbolize the washing away of the sins. The baptism had a dome and at noon a man came in and sang to demonstrate the acoustics of the building it was really cool and I got a great video.
The tower had leaned up to 8 degrees due to faulty foundation from water. Now it leans i believe 2 or 4 degrees after much construction to the surrounding foundation. They tried liquid nitrogen for awhile but discontinued because the area is prone to earthquakes. Then they brought in cranes and did some construction work to make it more stable. Now you can go up to the top of the tower by climbing the 292 steps and paying the fee. They allow 40 people up every 20min. to take pictures. We decided to skip the 15 euro fee each and just take more embarrassing photos of us pushing the tower over.
Once we were done in Pisa we boarded the bus and headed back to the hotel to meet up with some of the girls that didn't go to Pisa to hit the shops and spend some money. We walked around and toured the leather shops. Cindy and I each got leather purses at a small mom and pop shop where the mom does the sewing on all the bags and ended up getting a deal on leather jackets. So it turned out to be a good day in Florence. We had our last day in Florence meal at a traditional Italian restaurant called Za za. Cindy ordered the Ravioli and I had the gnoochi. It was delicious!! The best gnoochi I have ever had. We then walked to Vivoli for our last gelato of the evening at our favorite gelato shop. We each had a scoop of chocolate and strawberry and sat and enjoyed the rest of the evening. We then headed back to the hotel to repack our bags and get ready for our departure to Venice.
No comments:
Post a Comment