Far Too Much Pizza and Pasta, and That Sinking Feeling

Heyo, readers!

So, Florence, eh? Everybody I talked to about Italy said that they didn't really like Rome all that much, but LOVED Florence, and I think I've been converted to that opinion also. Not that I didn't like Rome- I did. It was SUPER cool with the ruins and all the history yadda-yadda-ya, but as a city it is kind of dingy and touristy and the area we were in wasn't the *greatest*. So, yes... I like Florence.

The first night we were there was a Sunday, so we decided to, after hanging out in the hostel for awhile, head off to an evening mass in the Cathedral there. It was the first mass we've been to on this trip (believe it or not!) and it was way cool. We are somewhat sad that we didn't arrive on Saturday, because they do a mass in English then, but the Italian was still quite interesting. Following it up by some delicious pasta and conversation about Catholicism made it quite fun as well.

The next day we went back to the Cathedral again to explore and go into the crypts and- of course- up the tower! And dome. SO. MANY. STAIRS. I vowed not to go up any stairs for a few days, but surprise! They're everywhere here in Venice. But anyways. Back to Florence for now.

We agreed that this cathedral was the most impressive on the outside that we've seen thus far.

Yeah, I'll never get tired of cathedral floors.

Sweet ceiling. See the illusion in the center? So cool.

View  of the cathedral from the top of the detached bell tower.

Miniatures for dayyyyyys.

After exhausting ourselves walking up and down stairs, we walked over back to a vintage clothing store that we'd seen on the way but that didn't open until later, and went in to check that out. Gahhhhhh it was incredible. (Mom, you would have just about died.) There were so many gowns and dresses, some even as far back as the 30's-50's! Crazy talk! Wanted to buy them all, but of course that was not an option. So we left that, and came across a Leonardo Da Vinci museum! Which was sweet! Had models of a bunch of his inventions/machines, based on his sketches and notebooks, so that was really cool.

This is an automaton. Which is super cool.

One of many Da Vinci flying machine concepts.

Machine for grinding concave mirrors! So interesting.

And that was that day. The next day, it was off to Pisa! With the train passes that we have, we can pretty much hop on any regional train with no fees, which is sweet. So we took advantage of that and went to see the famed leaning tower of Pisa! Which is pretty cool, gotta admit. I mean, it looks pretty leaned when you look at photos, but it seems that it looks even more so when you're actually there! Kinda like how we thought the Colosseum was way smaller.

Da tower!

There were upside down blocks like this literally everywhere. And SO many of the buildings were actually just completely crooked and slanted and such. Go home, builders, you're drunk.

View of the cathedral from the top of the Leaning Tower!

And, if you ever go, be SURE SURE SURE to go to the other buildings around because they are just as cool if not cooler. Seriously. We asked the ticket guys which two were the best, and he told us one of the museums and the Camposanto Monumentale, which is a big courtyard and graveyard with loads of ancient frescoes all around and such. AND the Cathedral itself, for which the Leaning Tower is the bell tower, was one of, if not the coolest cathedral we've been to yet. Don't overlook those! But do certainly see the tower, and for the sake of all that is good, don't do the cliche holding-up-the-tower photo. Goodness gracious. We did pay to walk up the tower, which had an amazing view of Pisa and some of surrounding Tuscany as it is the highest point for quite a stretch of land! The tower is SO strange to walk up with the 6-degree incline, making half of it going up easier and half harder, and the same coming back down. So strange. But quite a cool experience. However I can also see that it would get RIDICULOUS in the summer for business, so choose wisely.

Crazy 600+ year old manuscript of music! Yeah! Music notes! Crazy cool. And this book was about 2 feet wide.

Yeah sorry I'll also never get tired of this shot in cathedrals.

So beautiful inside I can't.

Inside courtyard of the  Camposanto Monumentale. Very cool.

She looked so regal. I liked this statue a lot.

Pretty much the whole thing inside is a graveyard.

Frescos.

And then it was on to Venice! Ahhhh, Venice. I've wanted to come here for awhile, so has been pretty cool for me. And of course as soon as we touched ground on the island from the train station, TJ seized the opportunity and said, "Do you ever just get that sinking feeling?" Har-har-har. We started off by going to see St. Mark's square and the cathedral there, which was quite cool. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed any photos in the cathedral, so I have nothing to offer but exterior:

St. Mark's Square! With the cathedral under construction. As almost all of them are. Think it's to do with the fact that it's low tourist season. But fine by me! Less people to deal with!

A bit that wasn't obscured by scaffolding. 

Next we headed to the Doge's palace- yeah, I know- "Much palace, so wow." Anyways, all joking aside, it was super amazing. One of the rooms could have probably fit THREE of my houses in it. Crazy talk. Yet again, we weren't allowed photos, although T.J. may have snuck a few over the Bridge of Sighs and in the armory section. Not saying he did, but I'm not saying he didn't either. Anyhow, that was very cool, and we got to walk over the actual Bridge of Sighs and walk through the prisons on the other side. Neaaato!

The Bridge of Sighs. Fun fact: It got it's name because from the bridge, convicted prisoners sighed as they got a last glimpse of Venice and were lead over it to the prison on the other side.

Since we had purchased a museum pass and wanted to make it worth it, we went next to the Museo Correr, which was also amazing, but with also did not allow us to take photographs. So frustrating! But oh well. It was still very cool. It was in a massive palace and definitely worth going. Had loads of huge ballrooms, bedchambers all set up as they would have been, and then it blends into the archaeological museum as well which has loads of Italian statues and frescoes and different artifacts. The museum also had a section on the history of Venetian culture and daily life, in which there were ancient coins, and models of warships manned by around 50 rowers! Those were cool.

After that, we headed back to the hostel where we were to meet our new friends who were sharing the room in the hostel with us to go on a gondola ride! With four of us, the price was satisfactorily split, and they were so nice and so funny that it made the ride just that much more enjoyable! So cool! And our driver was quite funny and we were just in front of a big tour, so we heard some accordion plying and singing!. We got to see Mozart's house, and just went around the canals of Venice! Quite an enjoyable experience.

Mmmmm, Venice.

GONDOLAAAAAAAA.

So much fun going long the canals seeing more of Venice.

Mhm. I like it.

They're really not kidding when they say it's sinking. Check out these doors!

And that brings me to today! Today we said goodbye to our friends who set off back home to England, and we set out to see some more museums. The first one we went to was a museum all about a playwright who lived and worked in Venice. It was a total of three rooms big and not really worth it, to be honest, haha. If it hadn't been included in our pass, I wouldn't have payed for it. But still, it had some sweet marionette dolls, which seems to be a thing here, and it WAS included, so twas alright.

These CRAZY glass chandeliers were all over the other museum as well, but we weren't allowed photos then so. Ahhh so incredible. So impressive!

Funny marionette guys.

The water rose like 2 feet overnight like look at this street it is legitimately flooding.

Next up was the Natural History Museum, which our underwater archaeologist friends (Yeah, that's right. Coolest major ever?) had recommended to us. And it was AMAZING! Definitely one of the best natural history museums I've been to. Very well curated and VERY well displayed. I give whoever made the displays an A+. We saw a seahorse, had fun mimicking whale calls, were amazed by an interactive animal room, and I had the pants nearly scared off of me on multiple occasions by MAMMOTH-sized bugs. Okay, maybe not mammoth, but at least small rabbit sized. And- bonus!- there was virtually nobody in the place, so we had time to play with the interactive things. So cool.

Got game?

Such a cool way to display all of the swimming animals in this exhibit.

And after that, we headed to the Rialto bridge (in the rain) to snap a couple of pics, and then back to the hostel to r-e-l-a-x for the afternoon. Which was much-needed, certainly. This city looks small, but due to the fact that pretty much every street is approximately 100 meters long, it's a very winding and around the world sort of way, so it takes a lot of walking to get somewhere. I still quite like it, though. 

Rialto Bridge!

And that's about it! I am super ready to not eat pizza and pasta anymore, as strange as it sounds, so I am excited to be heading to Vienna, Austria tomorrow! 
Talk soon!