Note: Pictures for this will come up tomorrow; I can't access the photos for this day right now :( Apologies!
As I blearily opened my eyes, my mom rushed me to get up and stop being a zombie. Long story short: Cappuccino is good stuff. We first went to the Piazza di Santa Maria Novella, a 20 minute walk away. The first destination for us was the museum for the cathedral, as the line was short and they provided tickets for the entire area. But by the time we got to the ticket counter, we weren’t able to get a ticket to access the roof for today, so we got one for tomorrow. The museum itself was detailed, elaborate, intricate… even beautiful. But in the end, all of this would mean more if I was Catholic.
Along the way, a question began annoying my mind: Is it a bad thing to be rich? To be poor? Either way, you get vilified for something or another, so… There really isn’t an answer, is there? It’s just a status that you get flack for, no matter what status you have.
Anyways, after that, we went to Giotto’s Bell Tower, or Campanile de Giotto. Giotto was the person who designed/painted the entire tower, which is about 227.9 ft tall. There was 5 floors to the tower, each tower becoming hotter as we went up. It was exhilarating, but exhausting. On the top, we could see the roof of the cathedral, and Florence/Firenze as a whole as well. The view was beautiful.
But it was SO HOT. We stayed there long enough to take enough pictures, but immediately dashed downstairs to get some delicious gelato. After snacking, we continued wandering the streets of Florence. There were a lot of small shops and restaurants to snack on along the way, plus the multitudes of pictures that Mom wanted to take.
You can’t deny here that Italians have a great sense of style.
By the time we got back to the plaza to see the cathedral itself, it began to rain, PLUS it was closed. We decided to visit tomorrow instead, and get food. My mom found a place, and we tried going to it first, but they ended up closing, so we went to another place nearby. They were famous for their T-bones, so we ordered a t-bone, a salad, and a cup of wine to go with the t-bone. That’s when I had my first taste of red wine.
It looked like grape juice, smelled like grape juice, but when I gulped it down, I knew it definitely was not grape juice. It tasted bitter, but was tolerable until the burn at the very end.
Paired with T-Bone, as well, made it slightly more tolerable than beer. However, because I didn’t want to waste any food, I ended up eating like 1/3 of the T-bone. Food coma, begin! Then, we went to get more groceries. Finally got a second converter, too!
As the sun set, my mom wanted to head to Piazza de Michaelangeo, apparently a great spot to view the sunset. For some reason, my sister decided it was the perfect time to act like a robot; it was all to annoy my mom though for not staying at home. The sun setting was beautiful, though. If only I was able to watch it instead posing and having my mom taking photos.
On the way home, we sat outside and ate some of the best ice cream in Florence, The Emporio Gelateria. They had viagra ice cream, and also sesame. My mom got the sesame, and it was surprisingly delicious- tasted sweet with the hint of sesame in the end. We ate the ice cream on the oldest bridge in Florence, before heading home and heading straight to sleep; we needed to get up early tomorrow morning for touring the rest of the Piazza de Santa Maria Novella.