Days 17-19: Florence

Last Friday morning we left our beloved San Paolo at 7:45am, hopped on the Foniculare and rode down the mountain to the train station, where we were thrilled to discover that our train had been delayed by 35 minutes. After a quick jaunt over to the cafe for cappuccinos, our train eventually came and we set out for Florence. 3 merry hours later, we stepped out onto the smelly streets of Firenze, as it is so lovingly called here in Italy. Within a minute we were hit with a barrage of street vendors, trying to sell us everything from runoffs of paintings that weren't even good the first time, to scarves and remote control cars. Florence is a tourist town, and the local vendors take full advantage of it. We walked down the street, over the river (through the woods) and eventually ended up at our hostel. A set of bolted wooden doors, a hallway, and another bolted door led us to our destination: The Gould Institute. (where you can check out any time you want...but never leave?)
The name was a little sketchy, but the hostel was actually pretty nice. We were there for 2 nights, and our 3 days there were jam packed full of activity.
Friday afternoon, we had a nice stroll around the town, visiting Or San Michele, Palazzo Vecchio, the Baptistery and the Duomo. The evening was spent walking from the center of the city all the way up to San Miniato, where this picture was taken from.

The walk was a little bit insane, but meeting Fra Bernardo at the top and getting a tour of the cathedral was wonderful. Bernardo is a monk there, and we had the privilege of listening to him sing a little monk song which was great. (Just to clarify, it wasn't a song about a monk...just the monk singing a song).

Saturday was spent at the bargello museum, the medici palazzo chapel, santa maria novella, the brancacci chapel, and santa trinita. I'd go into what all those places are, but it'd take too long. Let's just say it was a very busy day.
Sunday we set out in the morning to see the Museo San Marco, but it was closed, so that idea went out the window. We then went to the museo dell'opera del duomo, which was fascinating, then had lunch in town before heading back to the train station. An hour ride took us to Arezzo, where the movie Life Is Beautiful was filmed, and we saw Piero della Francesca's frescoes. We were then caught in a thunderstorm, and arrived back in Orvieto tired, damp, and exhausted.
Overall it was an enjoyable weekend.
Carissa and I found awesome star trek glasses in one of the markets..pretty cool.