May 22, 2010 Florence, Italy

Ciao!! So today being a day completely free of classes I wandered got up in time for my breakfast at the hotel and then Sarah and I went around Florence for the day. We were originally headed to the Mercato Centrale which is the above left picture. But first we walked past the Galleria dell'Accademia and there was NO line with our passes, so of course we took that detour and saw Michelangelo's David and the other works that are there. It was so breathtaking!! Next we continued to the Mercato Centrale by heading towards San Lorenzo since they are close together (though most everything is rather close in Florence). The picture above right is of the San Lorenzo market, its super crowded with lots of stalls of beautiful things, I was lucky and managed to not buy anything there.

At the Mercato Centrale Sarah and I picked up some fresh Pecorino cheese and Bacceli beans, since Karin the woman that runs the hotel told us this was a delicious meal. We had our small meal on the steps of San Lorenzo, the picture of this awesome meal is on the left. After our meal we decided to head to the Arno river since the last time I went down there I forgot my camera so I needed to get some pictures. We wandered along the river, sat at a caffe and had pastries and espresso, and wandered into a few pretty churches we came across. Once we finished our espresso and doing some homework reading in the caffe we went across the bridge to go up to the Basilica of San Miniato al Monte. The views up there were so beautiful! We walked around a cemetery for a while and were going to go to a rose garden but it was closed. After a long time spent up on the hill we went on a search for Santa Croche. Sadly Santa Croche was closed for tours so we couldn't get pictures today. Oh well there is more time later for that.

I found a store right by the Santa Croche called Old Florence Leather Factory. This my friends, is where I found my leather jacket! It is so awesome and the guy that sold me it was so funny! His name was Stefano and if you are ever in Florence look up the store and him, he speaks awesome English bc he may have been born in New Jersey. But his stuff is awesome and the selection is amazing!!! Anyway I think I pretty much covered the majority of my day, it was tiring but so fun!







Ciao!!!