More Florentine Days

Ate at the Hard Rock Cafe in Florence! Awesome music + awesome company + ok food = pretty awesome lunch!

The Legendary Burger. Seriously... that's what it's called! It wasn't as legendary as I thought it would be. 

After Lina and Joseph left I quickly found another place to stay with my handy-dandy Rick Steve's book. Soggiorno Magliani. Pretty nice and pricey. 35 euros a night for a single. But it was like you had your own Italian grandmother looking after you. She was so sweet and nice! :) You had to find your own source of food though.

Witnessed a baptism in the Baptistery!! Usually you would have to pay to get in, but I got in for freeeee! It was Antonia's niece getting baptized. An hour long process of citing and singing in Italian. Then dunking the baby in water. Pretty cool!!

The ceiling on the Baptistery. So much gold!! And a big ole Jesus!

Aaawwww :)

Lina and Joseph's last dinner in Florence! 

Sirloin steak - they love to eat nearly raw meat here! Can I get it medium, please???

Aawwww, we go all the way back from Hedgecoxe Elementary School to Plano East Senior High School!!! :)

Odd picture...hahahaha. Antonia's head is just floating in the middle!

And of course, we rode the merry-go-round! It looked like it went super fast!!! But in real life, it was the slowest merry-go-round ever! But still pretty!

Teehee!

Walked to Piazzale Michelangelo. A hill top area where you can see all of Florence! And on the other side, you can see lots of trees!

Wooooooooow!!! Love it!

Don't know what it says, but something about "I love you". Thought it was cool since it was written on the street!

A green David marks Piazzale Michelangelo

Oh Hi!

You can see the Duomo, Palazzo Vecchio and many others!

Here you can see Ponte Vecchio!

San Miniato church right next to Piazzale Michelangelo

Mercato Centrale!!! I absolutely loved this place! It's like a Central Market back home (which I also love)!!! Yay!!! They sold a whole bunch of stuff! Pasta, meats, cheeses, fruits, breads. Basically everything!

YUMMMM - prosciutto and salami!! My loves! You can get full from sampling different kinds of things here! I bought some Tuscan salami. It was aite. Then I came back and bought some Milan salami. Now THAT, was delicious. So I got it again another time! Hahaha, you can see how many times I came back to this place!

Truffles!!!!!!! Only pigs can sniff this out!

Look at all the different kinds of salami!!

Witnessed a strike going on. Apparently, they happen quite often in Italy. TONS of people join in! So I joined in too. Just to march to the place I needed to get to, because there was just way too many people to get through.

Yea.....look at that.

Santa Maria Novella Church. Churches everywhere!

The Tuscan salami that was just aite. Milan salami definitely better!!!

So I went to go wash my clothes, and after everything was washed I put it in the dryer only to find out.... it doesn't work.  Or maybe I don't know how to work it. SO.. I had to bring all my wet clothes back and hang it to dry. Yes, this is how I live. Awesome

In the mornings, they have a flower market going on at Piazza della Repubblica. What are these called again? Fly-catchers?

MT FAVORITE!!!!!!!!!!!! MY LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And yet another church

Duomo

Went for a climb to see the dome of the Duomo. But it was closed that day, so didn't get to see the whole thing.  But still got to get a view from high up!

AND you also get a view inside the church!!

The Baptistery

Bell Tower

You can see Piazzale Michelangelo from here! Do you see the green David? Ok... probably not from this picture, but it's in that general direction

The great Dome! Too bad didn't get to see the inside of it :(

Here's a little part of the dome from the inside! Looks pretty amazing!

Creepy...... He's like... "Come here! Sit next to me! I'm a real boy!" Hahaha

Santa Croce

Statue of Dante Alighieri

Here Thanh!!!! I ate a napoletana pizza for you! Happy now? It was delicious!!!!

YUM YUM YUM YUM YUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sandwich from Nerbone inside Mercato Centrale. Only 3 euros and you get a tasty, filling lunch!

This place was also recommended by my handy dandy Rick Steve's book! Thanks Rick!

More amazing street art!

So the story of this is you have the rub the boar's nose (it's been rubbed so much it's turned bronze!) and you wish for something. Then you put a coin into his month and let it drop into the cage below. If it drops smoothly, then good things will happen with your wish! That night, I had one too many glasses of wine... So I had a little wine buzz going on. But I rubbed the boars nose, but I think I messed up on the second part. I tried putting the coin in the boars mouth, but the coin just somehow popped outta my hands and into the gutter. Joseph was like.... uhhh, that went in actually really smoothly! Hahahaha, even though I messed up it still went in smoothly. So does that mean my wish will still be good?

Duomo so big so pretty!

Next up: Cortona! :)