Firenze!! What a magical city!! I don't even know where to begin!!
We arrived at our rad hostel - Alex House for those of you traveling to Florence in the future - in an old-timey building about a block away from the river. I'm so tired now so please pardon the lack of proper titles, etc in the next few entries. We freshened up and headed to the piazza Michelangelo. Gorgeous panoramas of Florence awaited us! It was the perfect lighting for amazing pictures and overall amazing views!! We wandered back down and enjoyed a great authentic Italian dinner complete with amazing chianti. I had gnocchi, the first of many plates I would enjoy throughout my stay in Italia.
That night we met some great Canadian young people staying in our hostel. We enjoyed some q&a about the geography of our country and discussed several interesting topics like gun control and healthcare to name a few. One thing sort of bothered me though - the fact that they told us anti americanism was "in". Why is that? What makes that okay? We as Americans are expected to extend full understanding to all individuals of various cultures and when we don't we get sued or publically reprimanded. But we as individuals are written off as ignorant tourists by various cultures - something I experienced firsthand in Paris several times. Personally I'm offended - everywhere i go i make an effort to learn basic language and cultural traditions to ensure I behave accordingly. Perhaps I'm jaded by my strong patriotic roots but I love my country and all that it stands for.
The next morning, Meghan and I were up at 630 am to go stand in line at the accademia to see the David. WORTH IT!!!!! I even snuck a picture - to be revealed once I'm home and can upload stuff. We then climbed to the top of the duomo - more amazing views. Then we went shopping and that's where Florence OWNED ME. I'm happily the proud owner of a new Italian leather bag :-) We wandered around for the rest of the afternoon....then our all to short stay ended as we boarded a train to Venezia :-)
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment