Hi Dad,
I’m in Florence and there’s no internet at the hostel again, but it’s still a pretty nice place. The three of us have a room to ourselves, three beds and plenty of space. We got a 9:14 train from Roma Termini, arriving Firenze Santa Maria Novella at 1pm. Our hostel is a five-minute walk from the station and about 10-15 minutes from the Duomo and downtown.

After dropping our stuff off, we grabbed lunch from a pizzeria near the Mercato Centrale, wandered through the myriad of stalls outside the market, and headed to the Duomo. Next, we met up with a friend of mine from high school, Renee, who’s studying here in Florence for the semester. It was terrific to see her, we chatted for a bit, she recommended some places to go, and then she headed off to class and left us to explore. We’re planning to meet up again later tonight. After parting with Renee, we went downtown to the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge, walked across it over the Fiume (river) Arno and walked along the river to the Piazzale Michelangelo, a park on a hill with a gorgeous view of the city and surrounding countryside. Finally, we headed back into town and found a nice little restaurant for dinner.

Tomorrow, we plan to go to a big weekly Tuesday-morning market that Renee told us of, go back to the Duomo in order to climb to the top (we didn’t today because Brian had left his camera behind and mine was running out of battery), visit the Galleria della Academia to see Michelangelo’s David, visit the Galleria degli Uffizi to peruse some art and an exhibit on the mind of Leonardo da Vinci, and possibly visit the Giardino di Boboli, apparently a very beautiful garden park. The following morning we are off to Venice at 9:30 and then to Bucharest the morning after that. I can’t believe we’re only a week and a half into our trip and still have three weeks to go, it feels like much longer. I’m having a blast, though, and I’m particularly looking forward to Bucharest and eastern Europe, to see how different it is.

Hope everyone at home is well, and love you all very much,
Michael