2004.09.25 to Florence and Rome

Left our main pack at the Firenze rail station and did our own walking tour of the city. Hit the nearby "i" for a (good) free city map! We were going to go up the Duomo but there was a massive queue outside the colourful cathedral. It was free that day for some reason so that helped explain the trail of people. Saw what we thought was Michelangelo's actual "David" sculpture outside of Palazzo Vecchio being renovated but it's really just a replica. The actual masterpiece is in Galleria dell'Accademia according to my guidebook. The Uffizi Gallery was also free and had an insanely long queue trailing outside. This museum has a lot of famous Italian artwork but we can't wait for hours as we have limited time and had to explore more of the city. We easily reach the city's famous bridge, Ponte Vecchio, that's lined with jewellery shops. I also noticed a shorthanded dragon boat crew practicing in the river below - this was so cool seeing some dragon boating in Italy! We crossed over this bridge to head to a large garden called Giardino di Boboli. It's behind the Palazzo Pitti, another art gallery that happened to be free today as well. The garden provided great city views - reached only through a lot of outdoor stairclimbing. Also, get used to all these scooters and motorbikes zooming by you - IS true here in Italy. Before we left for Rome, I splurged and spent 4 euros (about $6CDN) for a ginormous two-scoop cone of gelato...

Got into Roma Termini main station and raised our terror alert to red. We could just feel our packs and pockets were being eyed as we walked around the busy station and out. Yeah, we were paranoid, but it seemed necessary. Our first 2 hostel choices were booked full but thankfully Hotel Alessandro Downtown (our #1) recommended another nearby hostel (Stargate Hostel) which had vacancy and cost less, too! For dinner, we settled for some cafe/restaurant for a personal pizza (rock-hard, stale, and sparsely covered with toppings) and ravioli (child-sized portion and staleness galore). Each 'entree' cost about 5 euros which was ridicurously expensive! We bought some groceries after that because I was still hungry and we'd save money for tomorrow's lunch. Our 6-bed mixed dorm was shared with 4 Swedes (we first thought they were German but they hear that confusion between their languages all the time) and late that night one of them threw up on the floor but Le nor I noticed anything until they told us as they left the next morning...