After leaving Assisi, we were back on a train to Florence, the birthplace of the Renaissance. We met an American student named Jordan who was studying fine art in Florence for the semester. She told us where to find all the best gelato places in Florence, told us about a lot of the travel she'd done the past few months, and helped us get to our hotel when the train stopped short of the main station due to problems

After being pleasantly surprised by our very posh hotel room (complete with separate sitting room, bookshelves, and enormous bathroom with jacuzzi), we ventured out for our first night in Florence. We promptly witnessed our first (and only) purse-snatching: a very pissed-off (and very large) man ran down the skinny perpetrator and forcibly took back the stolen item.

We saw plenty of Renaissance art, including the David -- but we didn't overdo it on museums. We saw pigs' heads, skinined rabbits, and cow stomach at the big market. We bought olives and dried fruit and threw the pits at stinky pigeons. We ate more gelato. On Tuesday, our last day in Florence, we split up and Jen took a hike across the Fiume River to Piazza Michelangelo, while Javaun went to Palazzo Vecchio and listened to an Italian Opera singer rehearsing in the great hall of the castle.

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Florence Photos: (34 photos)