Fo free.

day 3 of my backpacking adventure.
today----florence/firenze.
we woke up bright and early to catch our train from rome to florence. after some confusion of which train to take, we settled down for our ride through tuscany. since i feel a bit puny, my eyes were shut for most of it. but i hear it was beautiful. once we got to florence, we took a taxi (best decision of the day) to our hostel. let me say, once again. it's awesome. great location, shady name. the florence youth hostel. but it's really nice. kelly and i have our own room with windows overlooking a little street. it's precious. and no bed bugs, no worries aunt linda---i've been checking. since check-in was at 2, we had time to kill. so we left our stuff and went off to wander. we walked to the square, made our way to the bridge, looked at all the shiny jewelry in the windows, ate lunch (yummy ham and cheese calzone), went to h and m, and then went back to our hotel to check-in. then we went to the leather market, where kelly and i made rather fine purchases for some lovely leather purses. quite excited. then, we went to the duomo and took pictures. next, dinner time. we were burning up, and saw a place with a mist-maker. check. i ordered the steak and potatoes. i know, i'm in florence and should eat real italian food. but, i have not had beef in 6 weeks. it was a treat. i also had a coke zero, which are way better here than in america. kelly had the tortellini.dinner was a winner.
we walked down the pretty italian streets to see the bridge on the opposite side. then, we went to have gelato at GROM. it is a rick steves favorite. it is also super trendy and granola, if you will. it has biodegradeable everything---spoons, cups, etc. while inhaling our gelato, we met a sweet family from chicago.
i love making random friends. kelly and i had a talk today about how americans really stick together. we like to look out for each other. i'm proud of my fellow citizens.
we made our way back to the hotel. sidenote: our hostel is in such a great location. it's like 3 minutes from everything, so we came back and forth a lot. we came in, and then decided to hydrate ourselves. kelly bought a ginormous bottle of water. noticing the fading sky, we ran to the bridge to see an italian sunset on the river. magical. ah, geez. once again, we made sweet friends. a family with like 5-6 children. and they were so happy. made us smile.
after taking a few more pictures, we ambled through a few more streets and came across the square of the uffizi. thinking it was closed, we were curious to why people were walking in. and yay, it was still open. at 9:30. so we went in, didn't make eye contact with people in suits, and made our way through one of the most famous museums in europe/the world. all for free. check.
and now, i am here. doped up on benedryl. my eyes are droopo, so this blog is rather short and vague. my apologies. just jotting things down.
i really want to feel better. i feel so bad. i met a lovely english lady today as well. i love the english. she offered me water and asked if i was sick because of the heat. i replid, "i'm from mississippi". yeah, i know heat. but i have no idea what to do. i tried buying medicine at a pharmacy, but the medications were in italian and the pharmacist didn't speak english. i just pointed to my throat, and she gave me spray. tomorrow, another big day.
since we went to the uffizi tonight, we can leave whenever tomorrow for CINQUE TERRE. yay!!!! we are going to sleep a little later (like 8, haha) and eat breakfast at our hostel. they have nutella toast. then take a taxi to the train station. take a train to pisa. jump off and take a picture of the tower. jump back on a train to cinque terre. spend the rest of the day in peaceful serenity. i've missed nature. i've been in such a bustle, i'm ready to sit. and put my toes in some grass. oh, the simply pleasures.