Florence

after having traveled norther italy, we finally stepped into the city where the renaissance began... FLORENCE... i had visions that it was going to be this amazing place filled with art, culture and endless amounts of "great" architecture...

i was traveling with the people in my studio, and with the way things were going this trip was going to be a stressful one. we got lost in the morning. there was an unusal fog floating around the autostrade which made for difficult navigation. but lucky for me, i don't drive stick and i didn't have to navigate so i slept in the back, waking up to take a bathroom break or listen to someone's ipod trying to learn italian. btw, i'm not to sure about the berlitz method or brand, i didn't learn too much from them. plus they're a little bit difficult to follow.

anyways we get to florence and the hotel is nowhere to be found. florence has an interesting address system. certain colors stand for a private residence and businesses, but you can also have the same number on the same streets too. odd. so finally we just park, a few of us go search for the place. we find out that the hotel is actually located in this office tower on the fourth floor, next to an attorney's office and some other random things.

the area we were staying in was kind of shady, but alright. it's a good thing that we were in a group and that usually means that no one walks alone. which is good, so people can watch your backs especially around the gypsies around the area.

here are just a few of the images from florence...

the view of the florence duomo. gruesome and grotesque, but pretty amazing...

lisa and i at the top of the duomo with the city as the back drop...

view of the uffizzi and the tuscan hillsides...