"I want to swim naked...in the Danube!!!" "That's the Arno..."

June 7

Ok...I like the idea of blogging, but sitting down to write them has become increasingly frustrating and boring...so if this seems like rushed crap..that's because it is :)

Where are we? Ah yes, Siena. I was so excited because this was the first hotel breakfast that I liked. Then, we went back to that appliance store where I was able to trick them into giving us another converter...fo' free! Mwahahahaha. But...we also got a hairdryer and curling iron for European outlets - why, you ask? Well, they have better power than our crappy traveling hairdryer, don't get our converter scary hot, and mother plans on traveling a lot...so there.

Then we drove to Florence!!! (the mysterious Firenze I kept seeing signs for hahaha) Our GPS wanted us to take a certain route to the hotel that we couldn't shake no matter how many different turns we tried, but mother refused to enter the "unauthorized roads" cause Rick told her she'd get fined by the po-po. So....she made me hop out to find the hotel while she circled the Arno River since there was absolutely no place to park (decidedly scarier with no cellphone or anything). I went in to talk to them and ask them about how to get to the hotel. Their reply - go in the unauthorized zone. Of course. Turns out, yes the police take a picture of our license plate, but the hotel enters it into their system and notifies the police not to fine us. Problem solved!

part of our awesome view of the Arno River

So we checked in, set up our room, and tried to get a tour for the next day...but everything was full. Oh - our room had a very nice view overlooking the Arno River. We liked to just stick our heads out, feel the nice breeze, and watch the city. But on to lunch! - after just wandering in the general direction of the Accademia, we found a spot that specialized in all things buffalo. We tried two different kinds of pizzas....one with buffalo cheese....ewwwwww haha but we tried.

mmmm....tasty buffalo

Then we were off to the Accademia! Ooopss...I meant shopping! I kept running into all the stores we passed and buying my friends stuffs :) But yes, on to the Accademia (with a relatively short line)! In this gallery, we saw the Museum of Musical Instruments (not the main part of the Accademia by any stretch of the imagination, but of course I was into it) where I saw the very interesting serpentone and hurdy-gurdies and re-learned that the main difference between a harpsichord and piano is that a harpsichord plucks the strings while a piano hits them with a hammer. "And when it arrives....ahaha I'll smash it with a hammer!" (quick, 10 points if you can name that quote!)

uhhh yea I play the serpentone

 a hurdy-gurdy! isn't it just as neat as its name??

Then, along with some unfinished works by Michelangelo, we rounded the corner, I let out a very audible "WOW!", and there was his David. He was only 26 years old when he completed this 17-foot-tall sculpture with a look of concentration so intense that I, embarrassingly enough, turned around to see what he was looking at...there was a painting of a naked woman on the wall...understandable.

no pictures allowed anymore...but quite amazing...seriously

see?? you know you wanna look too...

Did I mention there was constant off-and-on rain during Florence?? Well, during this current downpour, we decided to head into a leather shop to take shelter. Mother had been trying to convince me that I needed a leather jacket from Italy and Florence was the place to get them. However, I didn't think that leather would look good on me....but the store owner was convinced otherwise (haha of course he was). But, by the tenth or so jacket that I tried on...I decided that I liked the second one's fit best and we got it - half off! Haha yea...whatever that means. Admittedly, I was upset buying a leather jacket because of animal treatment and such...but researching it, I'm coming to find that leather is a byproduct of the animal being killed for other things like meat. In other words, they aren't raised just to be killed for their skin. Unlike fur...I'm still against fur. Please post any thoughts or comments on the matter - I'm still not sure what's right...but I will say I do really like my new leather jacket :)

The rain never stopped, but we went ahead and walked past the Duomo (already closed for the day) to its museum in order to buy tour tickets for the next day which would allow us to bypass the long lines. Then, we walked in even more rain to the Uffizi Gallery where there was NO line! (partly due to rain haha and because it was at the end of the day) We closed the place after we saw numerous Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Botecelli paintings and sculptures.

The Duomo....notice the outside detailing

Well, you guessed it - there was even more rain and we had to push ourselves to find dinner at a restaurant called Buca Poldo. I ordered ravioli with asparagus (so delicious!) while mother ordered a salad with fresh parmesan cheese, grilled veggies, and assorted cheeses...with honey? Oh my gosh it was soooo good! I thought it sounded awful, but we ended up splitting it (it was to become our favorite thing to order in Italy). Plus, we each got Cokes...served in wine glasses! How fun :) Then we bought gelato to eat on the way home hehehe yum yum.

Back at the hotel, I finally figured out how to charge my computer without blowing any more converters. Remember how I said we had the 50W side and 1600W side? Well (and yes, I did feel quite mathematically awesome lol) after Googling some formulas to convert voltage and amps to watts, and checking every device from the computer to the charger to the converter, I came to the conclusion that the 1600W side was, in fact, the correct wattage to use... Basically, 1600W from the wall goes to my charger of 200somethingW then changes by the time it gets to my computer to 40W....so if you read my computer, you would put it on the wrong side (50W) and ruin everything. Haha but it's been working ever since! So glad we cleared that up :)