Finally, some time

Hey everyone,

sorry I've been slacking on the blog. Based on your emails and such, I know some of you check daily. Internet just costs so damn much here in Italy. At least my next hostel offers free internet. Anyways, I had to buy a bunch of hours today to get some of my university stuff together, so I have time for a real entry.

Italy is beautiful. Just stunning. It is everything you imagine it to be: Rolling hills splattered with little old houses and vineyards, sleepy little red-brick-covered villages, and amazing pizza. I think I already mentioned that my hostel has a rather tight curfew and is located quite a distance from the center of town. This has been a very good thing. For the first time since the beginning of my trip, I have been going to bed around midnight, and getting up at 8:00 AM to go out and see things. I've only been in Florence itself for one of the four days I have stayed here.

In downtown "Firenze" I saw the obligatory Michelangelo's David. Pretty pricey, considering that all there really is in the entire museum is the David. Still, it's quite an amazing piece of sculpture. To think of the massive piece of marble that it once was, and to imagine someone carving something so precise and smooth, without once making a mistake is quite impressive. I snuck a photo for you all, even though they had a strict no camera rule ;)

Next I saw the the Ufizi. It is said to be one of the most impressive museums of Renaissance art in the world. Most people I talked to waited three to four hours to get in. Luckily it only took me one and a half. My impression: the renaissance sucks. Seriously, how many pictures do we need of Jesus on the cross, surrounded by people with mournful expressions on their face and bodies in weird poses? How many paintings of kind looking people with halos holding babies can you look at and still be impressed, if you even were in the first place. Maybe it's just me and my atheist view, but I don't like it. I want my €6.50 back.

I also climbed the "Duomo," the dome of the fourth largest church in the world. What an amazing view from up there. It cost the same as the Ufizi to go up there and it was worth it. Other than that, I wandered around the town. Florence is pretty nice, but quite crowded. Not so picturesque. It makes a good base for day trips, though. An account of these follows.

First, I went to Pisa. That's one crooked tower. Not much more to say than that. I didn't go up, since they wanted €15 for the honor. Other than that, there is not much in the town. And you know that, because the tower is on the opposite side from the train station, so you have to walk through the whole thing. In and out in one hour, that's all you need in Pisa. The tower is pretty neat, though.

From Pisa I went to Lucca, based on several recommendations. It was quite a nice town. The main attraction is the massive wall that surrounds the whole town. The wall is so thick, it has a road, some parkland, and trees on top. Basically, I just took a nice walk around the top of the entire wall. It is a very beautiful town, and if you ever go, I recommend walking the wall in a clockwisfashionon; it gets nicer as you go along.

Yesterday, I took a trip to Sienna. Of the five hours I spent there, I only got to see the attractions for about thirty minutes. When I got to the town, I walked uphill from the train station. Then I had to decide left or right. I had no map, and left looked downhill, so I figured the center would be higher up. Wrong. I walked into various pretty, but dull residential neighborhoods, bought some bread and cheese at a coop (yeah, that's right), and hopped a bus (riding black) which ended up taking me to a different town! So I had to walk back to Sienna, retrace all my steps, take a left, get to the tourist area tired and not really caring anymore, snap a few pictures, and leave. Oh well. It's a nice town, but overhyped I think. There is not really that much to see, and it is not in any way unique. San Gimignano on the other hand...

San Gimignano is another town I heard about; the city of towers. I wanted to take the bus there today with a friend from the hostel. We got our tickets alright, and were told we had to change buses in some little town (can't remember the name right now). Unfortunately, the bus never stopped there! We ended up back in Sienna! I took that opportunity to snap a few more pics and see some of the things I hadn't seen in my first attempt at the city. After that, we continued on our way. We figured the bus thing out, and got to the little town. From there we got on to a bus to San Gimignano, but accidentally a bus owned by a different line! Oh well, we ride black once again. The town is beautiful. Just stunning. It is what everyone pictures of Italy, and is what I thought Sienna would be like. It is a small, red roofed, medieval brick town; enclosed in a wall; and speckled with thirteen towers. The whole thing is located on the top of a hill, surrounded by a see of rollinvineyardrd hills. If any town casummarizese Italy all on its own, it is San Gimignano. The way home was equally screwy. We ended up on yet another bus line we didn't have tickets for. But there were so many other confused tourists, I think the bus lines don't care. They probably have equaamountsts of incorrectly placed people on all the lines so as long as you have somebody's ticket, it's OK.

Well, that's been my time in Florence. The next hostel has free internet, but there will probably be a time limit. Expect more frequent but much shorter posts. For now, enjoy these pictures!

Later.

The tower near the Duomo


Florence as seen form the top of the Duomo


Some would call it art. I just call it erotic.


Near the hostel. A house overlooking a vineyard.


Architecture at it's finest.


In Sienna:


Also in Sienna:


In the little town near Sienna I didn't mean to be in:


The tourist area in Sienna (these are in chronological order, BTW):


Sienna again... Nice place.


Guess where...


The church that belongs to Sienna's own Duomo:


From the top of the tallest tower in San Gimignano:


Also form the tower. This is surrounding landscape.


Also from the top.


Cool shout trough a stone slot on the tower.


Same town.


And again.


NOW, THIS IS THE COOLEST THING EVER. FOR €12, HOW CAN YOU SAY NO! THIS SUCKER IS SHARP, TOO!