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21 November 2018
11:05 PM
This will be shorter as I am really tired. I'm all packed, ready to head on to Napoli tomorrow. But what a day! I am thankful for:
1. train ride to Pisa - I had the whole 4-some of seats all to myself. It was a nice train ride - beautiful country side and some portions were along the coast. Really pretty.
2. Pisa - I think about 300+ steps to go up... whew! I wasn't expecting the tower to be made of marble, it was quite beautiful. The town itself was also nice. I did lose the magnet I bought last minute... bummer. (Update: I found the magnet, in the oddest of places, when I got back home in St Louis. 😂)
3. train ride to Florence - it was ok, I was able to sit though a bit more crowded than the train to Pisa. Chatted with the guy (50sh) sitting next to me - I wasn't really chatty to begin with (not a snob, just shy 😁) but he's been to Florence a few times so he told me a few places to check out.
4. Florence - the big Cathedral (Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore / Duomo di Firenze )...wow!!! 😲 I wasn't expecting that at all. I wasn't even supposed to go inside, but it was raining and I needed a place of shelter. 😂 The place was huge, and had really high ceilings, and the outside was mostly made of marble (I think). First, I had a quick lunch at Mercato Centrale - kind of like a food court. Then walked around - this was when I saw the cathedral. Saw some statues. Gelato again, of course. Then hiked up to Piazzale Michaelangelo - it was quite the hike/walk but what a view from up there! Oh yeah, also saw that famous old bridge Ponte Vechhio.
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| Duomo di Firenze |
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| Ponte Vecchio |
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| view from Piazzale Michaelangelo |
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| Firenze at dusk |
5. train ride back to Rome - the train was packed. If the train tomorrow to Naples will be like that, it will be a struggle to lift my luggage to the overhead rack. I hope someone will offer to help.
(Today's note: I didn't really do much research on Florence before I went there. I just thought I'd do it on the same day as Pisa because it was in that same general area so was only looking for things I can check out in 3-4 hours. Florence was a really nice surprise to me, and would love love love to go back and spend a few days there. At one point after this trip - I think around the time I was watching Medici on Netflix 😄, I was even casually considering spending a month in Florence, not on vacation the whole time but working remotely most of the time and taking some days off. What an experience that would be. *sigh*)
