Firenze - Florence

Our second day in Rome, we didn't stay - we went to Florence. We heard it was beautiful, and so we boarded the 2-hour train early in the morning and were in Florence before noon.
We bought a map, and then looked for a place to eat. By the time we sat down, it was almost 11, so we decided to get lunch. Pasta. Delicious! We ordered two plates and split it while we sat just outside the Dome (il Duomo), which is attached to an old catholic cathedral.
The Dome and the cathedral together make up this beautiful building built centuries ago with marble. The outside is almost like a mosaic, with different colors and pictures. The front of the building is adorned with statues of the 12 apostles. It was beautiful.
We wanted to go in but the line ran outside the building almost 3 or maybe even 4 blocks down. We only had one day in Florence.
So then we continued on foot through the city. Italy itself it just incredible. Both Rome and Florence are filled with narrow alleyways where you can sit down at little cafes whose eating area extends outside onto the cobblestone streets. Those kinds of places are not so easy to find elsewhere, and are much less common. Vendors everywhere, gelato shops at every corner (gelato is huge in Italy), and amazing architecture accented by various stylish lamps and street lights.
I'm so glad we chose to walk through the city to see what we wanted to see. We walked by a famous square with medieval architecture and a replica of the statue of David. We went by the church where Michelangelo was buried, over the city's river to the Palazzo Pitti where the Medici family used to live, and where we entered into the Boboli Gardens.
The gardens were beautiful - so big and unique. We sat down by a fountain of Neptune in the middle of everything and began to write postcards and journal. It was relaxing after our long walk in high temperatures. Then we looked around a bit more, finding a patio area filled with greenery that overlooked the city. It was so cool, so lush and green from that vantage point.
Then, on our way back into the city, we walked over the Ponte Vecchio bridge, where Machiavelli used to live (for those of us nerds that have read The Prince). He lived at number 18 on a bridge that was damaged twice by floods and another time by the German retreat during WWII. It's now known (apparenlty worldwide) as the jeweler's bridge and is filled with little shops.
Then, we ate a quick dinner at a restaurant situated outside the cathedral where Michelangelo was buried, and continued back to the train station. Our day in Florence was over!
We arrive back in Rome, take the metro to our host's place, and trek up the hill to his apartment. We were exhausted.
He offered us some fruit, and we accepted, trying a new round green fruit that I can't remember the name of, but it was good.
We made awkward conversation for a bit, he actually asked us about our universities, ha, and then we told him we were exhausted and were going to go to bed.
You can imagine my horror, as I am just laying down to sleep, when he walks into the living room where I was sleeping on the couch and sits down to show me his football magazines.
(The night before, I told him a liked American football. I take it back, I take it back!!)
Wow, I said, wow.
He flips a couple of pages, and I try to look interested without letting my eyes droop. After a couple of minutes, he asks me, "Are you dying?"
"What?" I said.
He wanted to know if I was exhausted. Yes! I am!
And I told him honestly that I was, we had walked around in the heat all day, and I wanted nothing more then to crash. So he left, saying maybe we could look at them tomorrow.
I wanted to be a good guest and let him show me the magazines, but when you barely sleep, and then get up and spend a day walking around in the sun, by midnight nothing else sounds better than sleep. At that point, I could barely even keep my eyes open.
Sorry, host.
Leslie and I got up the next morning, packed our things, and headed to our hostel. Our host had a couple of other guests arriving that night and could no longer have us there.
So, on to another experience.