17/04 Florence, Italy

We left beautiful Venice and went to Florence. We took the train at 0725 and arrived there at 0945. When we got off and the station and handed towards the hostel, someone looked like working in a organization asked us where we were from. She invited us to sign on her paper to donate money to her organization. When we were signing the paper, we realized we needed to donate money to them, which I did not want to as we were broke LOL. I said I did not have enough money now and maybe get back here later from the hostel. She said even a little money was fine. I said we needed to go to the hostel first. She looked pissed off and said thank you to us. I did not mind she was angry with us or not as long as I did not lose any money.

Hostel was quite closed to the main station. We put our things there first and checked in later. There was a church nearby but it was not famous and cost €5 just to get inside. We then walked to the Florence Cathedral.  On our way, I found many streets were quite marrow and the buildings on both side were very old. The cathedral was gorgeous and huge.

There was another tower standing next to it. The arcitecture was very Roman and the design and pattern on the outside were very meticulous and beautifully made and it had a giantic dome at the back of the church. I took a Polaroid picture here because this cathesral was the landmark pf Florence. Again, many Chinese poeple were here. We went to the other side to buy combination ticket €10 including Church, Dome, Baptisery, tower and museum. It was really worth it to buy this ticket.






First, we went to the baptisery bexause it was very close and no need to line up. The dome inside the baptiswry was really beautiful and the biggest dome i have ever seen so far.

There were many beautiful paintings on the wall of the dome. Each line told us about differwnt stories like life of Jesus, St john etc. I really had no idea there could be paintings on the wall of the dome, which really surprised me once i got inside.  On each of the three doors, there were different pictures telling different stories again.

Then, we lined up to go to see the dome because it would be closed at 1430. The wind was strong and cold that I really wanted to get out of here. We waited for almost 1 hour. Inside the building, the staircase was quite narrow and we needed to climb up to the roof of the church to the dome. It was like an adventure because we need to climb up a lot of stairs and the wall on both sides were tarnished. Some staircases were quite steep and After 150min, I got to the roof. Wow, this dome became the new biggest dome I have ever seen.

It was very giantic that i could not capture the whole dome in a photo. Each line of the painting also told a story and the painting was much bigger and we could see them more clearly. We could also look down to the church inside and found here were really high. I really felt amazed to see such a gorgeous dome.

Then, we kept moving up to the roof of the church! I did not know we could go to that high place. The staircase was steep again and people going up and down on the same staircase,.which was a bit crowded. 10 mins later, we got to the roof. Another astonishing view appears to me.

We could see the whole view of Florence, which was very beautiful. Here was even higher than the tower and we could see the tower next to us. We could see another old churches, bridges, buildings, narrow streets and gardens, which were amazing. The things under my foot was very small.

Then, we walked downstair and stopped at where we saw the dome but at a higher level. We were even closer to the dome and I could reach and touch the paintings on the wall!!!! and see the paintings more clearly. We landed and lined up to go to see the church. It was very spacious inside and the paintings and windows on both side were very big but we were not allowed to go further deeper.

Then, we lined up to climb up the tower. We climbed up to the highest level of the tower. We could see the church here!! and the whole scenery of Florence.

The church was very beautiful. We could see people on top of the church from here. It was almost 1630. We decided not to go to the museum and went back to hostel to check in. It had a kicthen but there was no stove to be used but only microwave. We then went to the famous bridge called Ponte Vecchio.

The view on both sides were fantastic. There were many shops on two side  of the bridge and there was a guy singing music at the centre of the bridge. Then, we went to Pitti museum to have a look but the garden behind it was already closed and the ticket to that museum was discounted to EU citizen only, which did not refer to us.















We had no interest in it. We then went look for supermarket and we found Penny!!!!!!! which was much cheaper than other supermarkets in italy. We bought some pasta, ketchup, sausages for tonight. We then walked to the Michaelogio square. We needed to walk uphill which was quite tiring. There was a guy singing italian songs at the centre.

The view was wonderful. There was a sunset and the sky was colored. Because it was 1945, we tended to stay there till nightime came. The nights were on around 2045 and the view was better. About 2100, we left and went back to have a look of the night view of St mary church. Then, we went back to sleep.