Florence, Italy

I was so excited about going to Italy and could not wait to eat some really Italian food. I felt it would be a good country to work in to as it would give me a chance to really get into the culture and the Italy way of life.

My first stop was at Florence before heading to Torricella to start work. Florence or Firenze, as it is called in Italian, is the home of Renaissance art and Michelangelo's David. I really wanted to see David so when my train arrived at Florence at 7 am I went straight to the Accademia to wait for it to open. At 8.15am they opened and I rushed inside. David is by far the best sculpture I have ever seen and I think will ever see. It is huge and so detailed. I can not explain how prefect it is . Not the real thing but still a great looking peice of art.

After looking at the other art at the Accademia I went to the Galleria degli Uffizi. When I had seen Haley in Paris she had given me her card to the Uffizi which was meant to get me in for free and jump the line. I could not wait to use it. Haley said she was never ID when she used it so I should be fine. Hahaha! As you can imagine this one time I am asked for ID and then told I am a theft and have to run out of the Uffizi. Not how I imagined it working but that is the way it goes sometimes. haha!

So instead of joining the line which was 3 hours long I walked around Florence until 8pm when my train left for Torricella. Florence is so lovely and ever building in it is stunning. I could not believe how many Piazza, or town squares the place had. Florence is not very big and you can walk from one side to the other in about 30 mins.

While on my walks I went to the Cappelle Brancacci. The church is the home of some of the best restored frescoes by Masaccio. Luck for me they had a free information video on before you enter the chapel to explain about all the works of art and how some of the works actually contain three scenes in the one piece inorder to tell a story. It was really interesting and the best piece was the Expulsion of Adam and Eve.

Finally after walking all day I took the train to Torricella. I arrived at this small station which did not even have a full length platform at 10pm. I was so scared and had no idea what I was about to do. Lucky when the train departed from Torricella station it revealed La Casa sul Lago on the opposite side of the tracks and a smiling girl called Sese greeting me. She took me inside and two Estonian girls called Ege and Stefani, who showed me to my room which I was sharing with them. I instantly liked both of them. They were 17 and had been working at the hostel for the past 2 months in their summer holidays. After getting settled in they took me down stairs to join the others for dinner. Wow! Everyone was so nice and I was really excited to start work.