David and the First Gelato

Liebe Familie, Donnerstag Oktober 9 2008
This morning we got up far too soon for our level of tiredness. My friend Willow and I walked over to the first hotel, which was still feeding us breakfast, and ended up being the first ones there. No one spoke English, and apparently they had not done a very good job of conveying information the day before. We were told that we could eat between 7:30 and 8:00. Apparently they had meant that they wanted the entire group at 7:30. With just the two of us we were yelled at in Italian for 5 minutes, before she forced us to sit down and watched us like a hawk as we ate.

Afterwards I ran off to the Accademia to see the David at 8, but then there was a sign on the door saying that it didn't open until 10:30. Was that sign there the night before? Nay. So we went to the Duomo and climbed that instead. Pretty fun, it was very pretty to see the inside of the dome so close, all of the frescos and everything. Then you climb up a little more to go out on the outside and see the city of Firenze from above.

After airing out a bit up there, we went back down and explored the markets some more. I even rubbed the nose of a boar statue, which apparently means I'll be coming back to Firenze someday. Oh, and I had my first Italian gelato at 10:00 in the morning. That's right, 10. And it was amazing. And amazingly expensive. They gave me two scoops of mint instead of one, and didn't speak English, so I had to pay the €4 to avoid a scene. But it was scrumptious!

At 10 we went back to the Accademia, and the line for entrance was already wrapped around the building. We got to the end of the line, and then waited a little over 2 hours to enter the museum. €10 for entrance to a museum that does not allow you to take photos....AGAIN! Apparently you're not allowed to take pictures anywhere in this city. But don't you worry, I got one. It's not very good, and very blurry, but I have it! The weird thing is they don't have signs or anything telling you you cannot take pictures, you just have to wait until someone working there sees you and yells at you to know.

I ran off to the famous market in the middle of the town, and grabbed some fresh fruit, and even bought some dried fruit which was AMAZING. I will definitely be buying more of that!

Meeting at the train station, we boarded for a 3 hour train to Venezia. I was definitely too tired to do much homework, but it was too loud to sleep at all, so it was just a time to talk and watch the countryside. Upon arriving in Venezia, we went straight to the hotel without getting lost at all! That was appreciated. We checked in, unloaded our stuff in our room, and went out on the town.

Wandering around the city was so much fun! The water wasn't as dirty as I expected it to be, and due to the lack of cars here there isn't much pollution, and it's much cleaner than Firenze. PLUS, it's so much cheaper here! We were warned so many times how expensive Venice would be, but it's so much cheaper here so far! The Venetian masks, the gelato, the post cards, the glass, it's all so much cheaper here. We even went into a glass shop where the owner was sitting there in a corner at a work bench making the glass figures. We sat there staring for probably 15 minutes, it was so interesting to see him do it! I had some Nutella gelato here for only €1 for this humongous scoop, it was fabulous. I will definitely be eating at least two more while in this city. I shall remember this for always.

I cannot wait to see the city in daylight tomorrow, so I'll need to go to bed to be up bright and early for VENICE!
Deine Anna