Florence and Pisa (October 8-11)

After a train mishap and then some difficulty finding my hostel, I was ready to crash my first night in Florence. But I ended up going out on the town (read: to a club called Space!, exclamation mark included) with some Australian girls and various other people in my hostel, because some things are more important than sleep, and drunk Australians are one of them.

I'm sure this metaphor has been made before, but traveling alone is like first dates, or like the first week of college--if you were a very different sort of person than I was at eighteen, partying-on-the-town-wise. Everyone always asks the same questions; everyone tells the same stories over and over again. You have to be more social than you'd ordinarily be, or at least, I do. But even though it can be exhausting, it's also really fun.

The next day, I ended up going to Pisa with some of the people from the night before, because they had an extra train ticket, and it was a really good time. I desperately needed a relaxing day, and this hit the spot perfectly--I had some lasagne, then we took typical tourist photos with the Leaning Tower, then we wandered into a cathedral, lay on the grass, ate gelato, and all fell asleep on the train home.

The next day, Thursday, I got up early and spent the morning at the Uffizi Gallery, looking at mostly Renaissance art and amusing myself by noticing how bored angels always look, and how annoyed Mary is in every Annunciation picture. My favorite part was learning that a bunch of paintings had originally been misattributed to different painters, and in one case it looks like Rembrandt added some embellishments to a painting he owned by another guy. That Rembrandt.

After that, I wandered around for hours and saw some palaces--where the Medicis used to live, but now they're museums--and climbed the hill to see a gorgeous view of the city, even though the sun was barely out. I also bought two more scarves to add to my growing collection. I haven't really been buying many souvenirs in Europe, mostly just scarves. Then I hit up the grocery store for some cheap wine (I had to; it's Italy) and headed back to my hostel.

I would be remiss if I didn't take at least one picture of the gelato I've been eating two to three times a day.

On my last day in Florence (this is the place I've stayed longest so far--three and a half days--and it definitely feels like it), I went into the Duomo and its related churchy buildings and climbed one million stairs for more beautiful views, and then promptly wanted to go back to bed immediately. Instead, I wandered up to this giant street market and bought more more things I didn't really need, and then hopped on a train to Rome.