Florence

What an amazing difference there is between Florence and Venice. Florence in in the Tuscany region of Italy and is considered the "birthplace" of the Renaissance. It was refreshing to be in a city with wide streets (compared to Vencice)! Our first visit was to the Duomo, a huge domed cathedral (aka Santa Maria Fiore). Pictures do not do the cathedral justice as it is made from both white and green marble with intricate details all over its exterior.

The River Arno runs through Florence with multiple bridge crossings. The most famous of which is the Ponte Vecchio with a multitude of jewlery shops built along its edges. Supposidly there used to be other more "undesirable" shops along the bridge but a long time ago those merchents were kicked off and replaced by jewlers. Fun fact: the Ponte Vecchio is also the only bridge along the Arno that survived the Second World War.

We were staying at probably the weirdest hostel I have been to yet. It was chosen due to its inexpensive nature and the fact that they offered a "free sangria" night on the weekends. This should have tipped us off before we booked as good hostels shouldnt have to offer free booze to get business. There really was nothing wrong with it but the people staying there were a very odd crowd. Quirky is almost the right word...

Our second day in Florence was very productive: laundry, David, stamps, dinner. That is a lot for us backpackers to do in one day! Laundry is usually an all day activity (though it only takes an hour or so) with the rest of the day spent lounging in the sun or something like that. Anyways, clean clothes then off to find David! The museum he is in was built specifically to display him and it is quite obvious. The rest of the museum is a bunch of small rooms with the walls crammed full of religious paintings and busts from the 17-1800s, all of which are of no interest to me. The busts are all of semi-rich people who loved themselves too much.

Turning the corner from one such room, you enter a long corridor with four of Michelangelo's unfinished carvings ('Prisoners'). At the end stands David in all his glory atop his pedestal. It was the first statue of David in which he is not holding a weapon or any indication of the giant. To put it quite bluntly, David is the most amazing statue I have ever seen (so far). He is incredably anatomically correct except for some minor details like him being much to thin back to front in relation to his height, huge hands, creepily large head, and his weird heart shaped pupils. The David had already been started by another sculptor before Michelangelo got to him. The piece of marble had been started then stopped and sat outside for 25 years before Micky started on it. He is a must see for anyone that travels through Italy, as far as I am concerned.

Lunch was interesting: pizza by weight. You tell the person which pizza you want then how much you want in grams.  

Stamps: pretty straight forward... we bought stamps.

Dinner: fresh pasta (the real stuff) with pesto sauce. I died, it was so amazing. So amazing in fact, we made another batch the next night, the pasta waas a different shape though. Best meal of the trip so far without a doubt. Simple yet amazing.

Day 3 in Florence was Pisa! To sum up our day in Pisa... long walk to a leaning bell tower then gelato. Not much else there. The best part was laughing at all the tourists "holding up" or "pushing over" the bell tower!  See the picture below: classic!

Photos: These are of Venice

 Tourists at Pisa:

 These are of Florence (including the one above):

 I call this one "fake David" because, well, its not the real one. It is a copy and is standing where the real David stood for over 200 years before moving inside.

 Pisa again:

 Back in Florence, this time at night: