Do You Need an Umbrella?

We decided, last night to stay in Florence another night because we didn’t get to see everything we wanted to see since we went to Pisa for most of yesterday! We found another hostel to stay in for tonight. This one has probably been the nicest and yet the cheapest. We actually have our own bathroom…what a luxury☺
Today it has been drizzling on and off all day. We cannot be too bummed because up until now we have had blue skies and sunny, when the forcast said every day we were supposed to have rain. We were not exactly sure as to how to go about this day, with the rain and all. So we decided to…eat! We made our way to the free WIFI place and grabbed a favorite pastry and sat under a canopy outside. We stayed there for awhile until I started to get a little chilly. Now here is the thing when you backpack, you don’t have much room to pack for every occasion. My wishful thinking was that I would not experience rain or cold. So neither Chris or I were prepared for this weather we had today. So what did we do…? We went back to our hostel put on another layer of clothes and just walked in the rain. (No umbrella, nothing although many people tried to sell us one.) This meant what we were wearing around today was about all the clothes we packed for 14 days. We are now warm and ready to experience what Florence has to offer.
We began as any American would…with a meal. We found this cafeteria place that appeared to have GREAT prices. We are so excited because this pasta and pizza looks amazing, unlike any other place we had seen before. We get in line and you attempt to tell the lady what you want. This is always fun when we do not speak an ounce of Italian. Well when we got to the cashier to pay for our inexpensive lunch, we quickly learned we really cant read Italian because we thought the prices were cheaper than they really were. With food on our trays we looked at each other a bit confused and…walked to a table. Our cheap meal turned out to be quite expensive, but very very tasty.
Our first place of destination was to the Basilica di Santa Croce. This is a gothic church where Michelangelo, Galieo & Machiavelli are buried in tombs. This church has so much cool history about it, but I will keep it brief. Families could be buried in this church, so as you walk around there are slats about 4feet by 3 feet as part of the floor. People are actually buried underneath. Some of them have tiny hooks so as members of the family died they lifted the top covering and put them in there. When we got to Michelangelo’s tomb…his tomb is not buried in the ground it sits on a fancy platform. The crazy part is he is not actually in there. Right next to his tomb display is one of those slats and that is where the rest of his family is buried. He did not want to be buried with the rest of his family, but against his will when he died he was put in with his family. Some time later they thought they should put him in a separate tomb but keep him in this church. So they opened up the covering and tried to figure out which one he was. (I would not enjoy to be that person). They could not figure out which one was him so they left him in there and made an empty tomb for him. In the tomb is where most people think Michelangelo is buried and not in the ground with his family, because they didn’t have a tour guide like we did!!! I also got a picture of Chris with this huge table because that is where they laid Michelangelo’s body when he died so people could mourn his loss and bring flowers..etc. That is sooo stinkin crazy!
We were finished looking around the church and there is this beautiful garden area we wanted to take pictures of. I was taking pictures in Chris’ direction not really paying attention to what he was doing. He on the other hand was very aware that I was taking pictures in his directions so he decided to strike a pose. He was leaning on his forarms gazing out into the beautiful garden, just awaiting for me to snap a picture of him. So I did…then he tried to act like he didn’t do it on purpose…but we all know he was posing. We were cracking up laughing!!!!
We eventually left Santa Croce and went to the Galleria dell’ Accademia this is where Michelangelo’s most famous work is, David. As Chris and I were walking there, we were anticipating an elaborate museum big intersection and all the works. As we are walking, after we get our daily Gelato on a cone, we begin down this side alley street. We thought well it must be past here…ohh no. The museum was definitely and little entrance into a plain building complex. We would have walked right past it if it was not for the line of people. We get inside and we are anxiously making our way to the David. And we finally arrive the moment we have been waiting for. Ohhh boy this thing is ginormous. It was absolutely breathtaking, you can see David’s sling with some stones in his hand. WOW! We were not sure if you could take pictures, once we saw a few others we decided it would be fine. We though we will turn our flash off to be curtious and help keep this sculpture preserved. As we are taking pictures this lady comes up to us and sternly tells us “pictures are forbidden” AH…oppps. So we didn’t take anymore, but we do have a few cool ones of David.
That is about the extent of our day…Chris took a nap (big surprise huh?) I looked at all our pictures and now we are off to eat some more Carbs. What will it be like to have to eat vegetables again?
Tomorrow we are taking an early train to Assisi. Assisi is the little quaint village in the mountains where St Francis of Assisi was born, did ministry, had encounters with Christ, died and is buried there. We'll get to see his tomb and his church. Chris is really really excited as he really has a lot of respect for St. Francis. The train ride is always an experience! We are really excited about Assisi, although we are not sure where we are staying once we get there. But that is part of the adventure, and boy has this been a great adventure!
Love you guys!