Again, woke up and Pett met me at my room at 10 (a recurring theme). There was a bit of a kerfuffle as Pett couldn't get booked in at this hostel for all 3 nights, so he had to check out of here and into another hostel, and will have to do the reverse tomorrow. So he dumped his bags in my room for easiness, and we headed downstairs to blog and look for things to do in Florence.
We decided to take a wander through the town, and see what took our fancy. First stop was the supermarket to get some breakfast goods, and we had a picnic in the park. The pigeons were annoying but we didn't feed them so they weren't too bothered about us, result.
After breakfast we wandered towards the Duomo (yes, there's one here too), otherwise known as Santa Maria Delle Fiori. This duomo had been built in the renaissance style, and is the largest freestanding masonry dome in the world. I preferred this one to the one in Milan as I love the renaissance, whereas Pett preferred the one in Milan built in the gothic style as it was all built in one colour of marble, and the carvings were excellent. A difference of opinion, but both valid points.
We found a museum at the back of the duomo, and decided to head in to have a look. The contents of the museum were quite poor, but there were some cool machines Brunelleschi invented himself in order to build the duomo, which were pretty cool.
After that, we decided to walk down towards the river. When we got there, we found a wee gelate shop and had some sitting on a wall by the river. The ice cream was brilliant, much better than Mackies.
We decided upon a plan of attack for our wanderings in the afternoon, we made a figure of 8 around the bridges to maximise efficiency in our viewing time. The middle bridge, the Ponte Vecchio, was quite similar to the Rialto in Venice (but not as cool) in that it had shops all the way over it. Before long we had finished our figure of 8, and the afternoon was drawing on so we decided to head back to the hostel.
On the way back we came across a Swatch shop, so decided to have a wee look. I ended up buying myself a Swatch watch! Lovely.
When we got back to the hostel there was only one thing to do, get down for a wee swim and sauna! The water was absolutely freezing, but wasn't too bad once you were in. After a short swim, it was sauna time! Some of the people who had been in there the day before were there again, namely a bird from Canada and one from USA. We had a wee bit of chat (the yank was a bit of a weirdo, the Canadian was ridiculously full of herself) and then they left to go for another swim. I decided to go for an endurance sauna, while Pett took the sensible option of jumping in the pool to cool down then coming back in. After about 30-40 minutes I was starting to feel light headed, so had to leave and jump in the pool to cool down. I did some lengths then we headed, feeling invigorated and ready for the evenings festivities.
We decided to go for something to eat, and then down to the river to watch the sunset over the Arno (I know, very romantic). We got food, and even bought some beers to drink whilst taking in the view. The sunset was impressive, and I got some good photos of the changing colour of the sky. A couple next to us were posing for photos too, and the guys pose was hilarious. Absolutely no emotion in his face, hands at his side. They'll be great to show the family how much fun he was having!
After that we decided to do something a bit less bromantic, and watched the wet t-shirt competition back at the hostel! There was a massive bunch of rowdy Australian birds there so there were plenty of takers. Unfortunately they all kept their bras on. Have they never seen a wet t-shirt competition before? That was a bit of a let down. The best bit was when a chant went up for "RJ" to join in, who turned out to be a lad! He got soaked and looked like he was a top lad.
At this point the Aussie weirdo axe murderer from yesterday showed up and plonked himself down at the table, after filming the whole competition on his video camera. What a beast. He chatted a lot of rubbish to us all night, including more insights as to why Italy was "overrated". How can an entire country be overrated? The guy was clearly a freak so we decided to try and ignore him and just say peep show and the office quotes all night, which was infinitely more fun.
After the bar closed we decided to hit the sack, and Pett walked back to his hostel. Another day down, getting close to the big finale in Rome now!
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