Friday-Florence!

view from the hostel window

Today I flew from Birmingham into Bologna, Italy. My flight left at 6:30 this morning, so unfortunately I had to be at the bus stop at about 4 to ensure I got to the airport with plenty of time to get through security and whatnot. I was pretty tired so I ended up sleeping through the whole flight, even takeoff.

My flight went into Bologna, which is in the northern part of Italy, but I decided I would rather check out Florence (which is more central Italy) for 3 days and then stay in Bologna for 2. So, when I got to the airport, I hopped on a shuttle bus to the train station and found a train that went to Florence. I found the hostel pretty easily (which I was shocked by), but it's on the third floor of a really tall building so it was kind of a hike.

For the afternoon, I just walked around a bit and I've got a pretty good idea where I want to go tomorrow. The museums here are pretty famous, and it's typical for there to be a long wait to enter them. The original statue of David, which is a larger-than-life-sized sculpture of a man made from a single block of marble, is also located in the city and I guess it's typical to wait a few hours before you can get in to see it.

So far, I really like Italy. It's much warmer than Birmingham (which was freezing! I had to wear a sweatshirt and several layers, and I was still cold). It also has a great landscape--there are mountains in the distance, and I have a gorgeous view of the city from my hostel room window.