A beautiful Saturday

Lately, the weather has been sooooo gorgeous, you cannot help but want to get out and walk around. Saturday was like that. It was Adam's last day here in Florence, so Allyson and I took the #7 bus down to Firenze to meet up with Adam at his hotel. We had decided on going to the History of Science Museum and spending the afternoon there. Only, there was a little bit of a problem with that.

The Museum, due to renovations being done, only had the main floor and the basement opened for viewing. Because of the renovations, the ticket price was reduced. But, not only was the whole museum not opened, the rest was only opened until 1 pm as it was a Saturday. The three of us got to the museum at like 12:15. We decided to go through anyway and see what we could see.

The History of Science Museum is filled with the coolest things. There was a ton of medieval and Renaissance era astronomy and science apparatuses. Telescopes, watches, compasses, protractor-type things, microscopes...the list goes on. It was just awesome to be in the presence of the tools that helped get us where we are today in the sciences. Without those creations/inventions/discoveries who knows if we would still think that the sun revolved around the earth. I'm very glad we went there and also equally glad to get a little taste of science on this trip. I've been missing my labs and scientific need-to-know facts. What can I say, I'm a science major who misses her area.

Well, after exiting the museum before they locked it down for the day, the three of us wandered along the streets of Firenze. Having expected to spend a lot more time at the museum than we actually did, we were left with an entire afternoon to fill. Allyson and I showed Adam through the streets, pointing out the courthouse, the church where Matilda is buried, Dante's church and house which is now a museum, and many others. We finally are getting hungry and look for a little sit-down place to eat. The place we chose was excellent. Each of us had a perfect-sized portion plate with a drink for under 10 euro. I was just what we needed to keep us going through the rest of the day.

After our late lunch, we wandered around downtown Firenze. We went to the San Lorenzo Meat Market. I showed both Allyson and Adam, as neither of them had been there, around the first floor where they have all the cut-up meat. Allyson and I even bought Ania some pasta that she's been looking for. After the market we decided to walk up to the Piazza Michelangelo because I have never been there.

That walk took us to and across the river Arno. We then had to walk up this hill with a lot of steps. On the walk up to see David, we saw a man taking a crap a little ways of the path in this kind of shaded area. I could not believe that someone would just walk off the path and drop his pants like that. It was disgusting, needless to say. When we got up to the piazza, we finally saw David up close. The three of us went and sat on a bench and just looked out at the wonderful views for a while. On the bench next to us, which we tried not to look at after the first glance, was a guy straddling the bench with his girlfriend straddling him, trying to make babies.

After leaving the piazza and walking back down, we walked back to the Duomo to wait for Ania to join us. Ania and I were going to attend Mass at the Duomo at 5. While waiting on the steps of the Duomo for Ania to arrive, Allyson, Adam, and I did some people watching. There was the ever present tourist groups and all sorts of strange characters. We even saw a guy dressed up like a Jedi or another such character from Star Wars walking around the piazza. Finally, Ania showed up and the two of us went to Mass while Adam and Allyson went back to his hotel to wait for us.

After Mass, Ania and I walked over to Adam's hotel to pick up Adam and Allyson. We then walked around Firenze trying to find this restaurant that the guy at the hotel recommended. Unfortunately the restaurant didn't open until 7:30 so we walked over to the Duomo to wait for Betsy to join us. Now the four of us sat and people watched until Betsy showed up. Right before she did, though, this group of Italian guys came up to us and started a conversation. The one guy wanted to know if we could be friends so he could improve his English. Since most of us thought the guy was just trying to play us, it was convenient that we could say he had no way of contacting us. Right after he and his friends left, Betsy joined us and we went out to eat.

After dinner, we headed back up to Fiesole where we then all went to JJ's to celebrate Adam's last day with us. Overall, Saturday was a pretty great day but this morning I'm feeling all that walking I did. Today I'm just going to relax, get some homework done, and maybe do some laundry.