Sunday April 10th - Vol Pizza

We wandered and wandered around the city of Florence. We both LOVE it here. The city has a feel that we can't describe but you really get caught up in it. Our first stop after all the plazas and roads we discovered was The Academia Gallery, most famous for Michealangalo's David. Luckily we were entertained by great people watching and the ridiculous street vendors carrying prints of identical paintings. One of them told Jen he would give her a Venice painting for free but after grabbing her hand and trying to drag her to a nearby cafe we decided that nothing is ever really free. The David statue was worth it. We stared in awe of it's size and detail. It really is an amazing sight. Plus, it's cultural week in Italy! Luckily we have time to kill instead of money because all museums are free, just long waits. But we dont mind; some of these places you just have to see. We strolled around all the winding streets and stopped for a falafel (there's a shocker) before getting right up by the Duomo. From here we walked down the famous shopping street, where We (as always) windowed shopped at all the awesome boutiques. In the late afternoon we found ourselves near the river and famous bridge ponte vecchio. This historic bridge is lined in jewelers and loads of people. We sat and listened to a man play covers of jeff Buckley and coldplay. This whole town smells like the best Italian food, sounds like a dull roar of conversation as people wander in delight, and looks like a picture you imagine painting in your mind. The best word we can come up with is enchanting. Friendly people, mellow vibes, busy streets, and history oozing from every untouched building and cobblestone. Trying to describe Florence seems to be impossible, so we'll just say the vibe is an A+. We walked to another bridge to see ponte vecchio at sunset like in so many famous pictures. Nothing like the amazing sunset in Cinque Terre but the couple a few feet from us seemed to find it romantic enough. Shoving your tongue down your loved ones throat in the most public of places must be Europeans way of saying "I love you"...makes us pretty queasy though. Apart from the barf-inducing PDA this was a really delightful time of night to take in Florence. The view was absolutely amazing as we stated down the river. We decided to climb the steep hill up to Piazza de Michealangelo for the best view of Venice at night. Groups of people, mostly young students we guessed, sat on the steps sharing 3€ bottles of vino and laughing and chatting. We have totally fallen for Venice, and the pizza and glass of wine we had for our late night dinner really dotted the i on a perfect day. We realized how much we liked the city when we got wrapped up in conversation and were lost for hours making accidental circles through the city streets on our way home. In many cities this would have bothered us but we didn't mind a bit here :)