SPACE!!!

Day 9 - 17 Sept 09:

Today was our free day in Florence.

We started off at a leather demonstration as Florence is famous for its leather. We had a crash course on how to tell the fake stuff from the real stuff…look for suede! They also had a gold and silver shop where I bought a Turkish puzzle ring. If you take if off it falls apart.

After the leather works tour we had some free time to wander around Florence before our walking tour. Bec, Amanda and I went to a market and I bought a leather tie on bracelet for dirt cheap, don’t really care if its real leather or not haha.

On our walking tour the main thing we saw was the Duomo. It was an absolutely huge building with green and white stripes and designs on the outside and a red dome. The thing that suck out to me the most is that it is all naturally colored!

After our walking tour, we had an Italian lunch of pizza and bruschetta and to line up to see David at the Academia Gallery. We waited in line for about 45 minutes to get inside. David is made from one block of marble and is absolutely HUGE!! I didn’t expect it to be that big. There is no taking photos of him, but Bec snuck one anyways haha, that rebel.

Tonight was the optional Tuscan dinner. Everyone on the tour did it. It was so much food that by the time it got to the main dishes, after having bruschetta, 2 types of pasta, and bread I was so full that I didn’t even eat the mains!! Wine and water was also included in the dinner, although these waiters were not as lenient as our French waiters were with the vino.

After dinner we walked to the Space Electronic Disco! Immediately after leaving dinner we saw a bar that advertised 5E for 5 shots!! So what did Bec and I do…went to the bar to get our 5 Euro worth and then had to run to catch up with the group!!

It was only after we got to Space that Bec remembered that she needed to get money out. I went with her and we walked for 20 minutes through a pretty dodgy part of Florence to get her the money so she could drink.

At the bar they are cash free and you get a card to give to the bartender to punch every time you get a drink. Once one section is full, you pay for what you have drunken at the cashier and get another card. Our bartender was Gigi, even though the bar was cash free, if you gave Gigi a cash tip, he would make you a very stiff drink!!

I don’t even know what time I got back to the campsite, but I knew that we were leaving at 7 am the next morning for Rome.