It's thunderstorming in Italy. I told you the rain is following me! What's up with that?! It's rained in every country that I've been! But it's been helpful in Italy because the weather has actually been quite pleasant and not as miserable as I had pictured.
This morning, I headed over to the Galleria di Accademia where Michaelangelo's sculpture of David is housed. I had heard horror stories about waiting in line for hours to get into museums here (all the reserved tickets have been filled too!). We're talking like 3-4 hours, particularly on the weekend. Originally, my plan had been to just wander the city and get a feel for it, but it's a pretty compact city and I was itching to see some art. Being completely surrounded by it doesn't help. So, I sucked it up and headed over to the massive line in which I ended up waiting in for almost 2 hours. So, not too shabby.
David is every bit as amazing as everyone plays it up to be. It's kind of funny because you first walk into the museum and there's this room with a bunch of art, beautiful old paintings but everyone knows it's just the prelude to David. I took my time because I wanted to enjoy the experiemce. After circumnavigating the room (is that right?), I slowly peeked my head into the next room leading down a long hallway. There was a large rotunda at the end of it from which you could see an immense amount of light streaming through. I rounded the corner from where some of Michaelangelo's unfinished statues are and there he was. Gigantic and beautiful. I know it's completely cliche but I totally got chills just standing there from afar. It was almost better from afar because you could wholly appreciate the work of art. Either far or close, the statue is absolutely flawless to the naked eye. I cannot even imagine being able to create something like that, it's even bigger than I ever envisioned.
There were a few rooms after that with some artwork from the 13th-14th century but it was so hard to concentrate after seeing David. Luckily there wasn't too much after that so I headed outside to reflect.
It was getting to be about 3 o'clock around then and I was STARVING. Serious stomach eating itself issues. But the problem is that nothing is open in Florence between the hours of 2:30 and 6:30pm. Dammit.
So I did what I had to do and headed down the touristy street to have some quick pasta. And it wasn't bad! I guess even the worst pasta in Italy is still better than at home (ok that's pretty untrue but you get my point). After lunch, I decided to take a jaunt around town to see if I could find a market so I wouldn't have to eat out every meal (even though my hostel sucks and doesn't have a kitchen, only a fridge). Plus it was near a gelato place Lonely Planet suggested so you know... ha ha.
The market ended up being really far in which I didn't want to carry all my groceries, so I decided to just find a closer small market. Plus the gelato place was closed (as many things in Florence are right now). Instead I hoofed it back over to another gelato place near the fashion-y part of town which was bumpin'. Good thing everything in Florence is so close to each other. Yeah so danger: gelato! Awesome awesome awesome gelato, it might have to be a daily thing :x I had the mint and chocolate... ahhhhhhhhhh. Then it started melting all over my hand so I had to get to it really fast instead of savoring it. Good thing I travel like a mom and had my handy dandy wet naps! See, I'm learning.
After a short stop at the hostel (I met a French lady who is with her husband... it's funny to meet married people staying in a hostel, I guess it's the European way), I had some dinner, thought about gelato, decided no and am now just chillin'. In fact I should get to bed because I gotta be up at 7am so I can get in line to the Uffizi which is like the huge art museum here. It opens at 8am and the Scotsman told me the other day he got there at 8:30am and still had to wait an hour and a half! Crazy tourists!
I had been thinking about taking a day trip out of Florence but it doesn't look like it's going to happen because it takes so long to get into museums and just see everything. Plus I like being in the city, everything's happenin' here! Woo!
Man, 2 more weeks and I'll almost be done with my trip. I can't believe it, it's been crazy, amazing, awesome, stressful, new, all of the above. I can't even think about it right now or my head will explode. I'm not ready to come home yet, the traveling lifestyle is so addictive!
Oh, part of the title refers to what I saw when I was in line today. It's not nice to make fun of people with fake limbs. Really. There was the cutest little asian girl though, she was dancing to the Italian playing the accordion. Oh, and can I tell you how odd it is to hear Asian people speaking Italian?? Weird. Speaking of Asians, there are HELL OF them here. It's so funny to see all these old asian people walkin' in with their millions of luggages. Sleeping in bunk beds. Amusing.
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