back from Florence

This weekend was the first of many upcoming trips to Florence. Going there with the knowledge that I would be back not only with my parents but with my art history class, I didn't really stress the need to see many famous sights like David or the Ufizi (art museum). Instead, my friends and I consulted a guidebook and saw other sights that were equally interesting (and probably less crowded).
We arrived in the city around noon and immediately got lost trying to find our hostel. Other friends were staying at the same one so they gave us directions and after a quick lunch stop, we found the hostel- had a little misunderstanding and had to go to an internet cafe to print the reservation that I had received only a few hours before.
Finally we checked in and the hostel wasn't what I was expecting at all. I had pictured something like the bedroom in Annie with thousands of beds in a giant white washed room with no sheets or character or anything. Instead we were in a small but comfortable room for 6 people, each with many blankets on our beds. The hostel was clean and nice and overall safe- no problems. And it was about 15E a night, so not too bad, considering we booked it the night before we left!
On Friday we went straight to the Duomo and wandered around inside before going up the top of the tower to see the great view of the city. Florence is very different from Perugia, not only because it is a larger city, but because of the architecture and set up of the buildings, piazzas, and streets. After spending only a few days there, I realized how glad I am to be here in Perugia with the medeival architecture and wall around us. We are far less croweded, less expensive, and even after a few weeks I am feeling very comfortable living here. Florence was a different story.

(view from the top of the tower)

We kept getting lost even though I had a map... eventually we got the hang of it, but not really until Sunday. Luckily, our hostel was in a good location, at least 5 minutes from the Duomo so that was really handy.
After seeing the Duomo we reserved tickets for a "secret routes" tour of the Palacio Vecchio- the old palace- for the next day. The tour was really neat because we got to go through all the secret passageways and see the prince's secret rooms. The best part of the tour was when we went above the ceiling of the great hall, and if you know anything about italian architecture, the walls and ceilings are always covered with large paintings. Well I never gave it that much thought how they hold the paintings up on the ceiling, but we saw the lever and pulley type system from up above and it was really incredible.
We also went to a smaller church, Carmine, to see a famous fresco; went to the Boboli gardens which were quite beautiful and also saw the porcelain and fashion exhibit. Walking around Florence was an attraction in itself, as the bridges across the water were probably my favorite part. Apparently Perugia is near some type of lake (which I may have seen from the train) but other than that we're not near any water. The one famous bridge, Ponte Vecchio (see below), was like a giant shopping mall over water-- there were mainly jewlery, gold, stores and several vendors selling things from purses to dolls to postcards- so many things!
We also went to the open air market which was HUGE and I look forward to going back during my next trip. Unfortunately, we went on Sunday and the food stands were not open- apparently you can get traditional Tuscan specialties for a good price.
Everything in Florence is so expensive and so touristy-- the people in the shops only speak english to you when they realize that you're not Italian... it's frustrating. We found a few good places to eat that were decently priced... I finally had some lasagna it was good :) We also found a really good homemade (key word there) gelato place that was reasonably priced. I had caffe and chocolate mousse the first time and raspberry and a dark chocolate the second time- it tasted just like dark chocolate raspberry jellies... mmmmm.
Now I'm back here in Perugia and happy to be back despite being about 100E less and extremely tired. This week is going to be spent around here only, this weekend I want to go to the Perugina chocolate factory (Perugia's own chocolate factory) and posibbly the art museums... Starting tonight I have to go watch movies for my italian cinema class at 7pm.. I also want to go back to the opera/movie house to see Marie Antoinette. The first free pizza night sponsered by the Umbra Institute is tomorrow, so I'm definetely going to that!
I'll post if anything interesting or exciting comes up. Hope everyone else had a great weekend, hope to talk to you all soon!
Ciao!