I’ve traveled the states over pretty well for a mid-twenty something. There is a short list of cities that I would consider living in: various places in San Fran (duh), LA, San Diego, New York, Boston, Chicago and potentially somewhere around DC or Virginia. Even though we’ve only spent 2 days there, I think we can all add Florence to the aforementioned list. They even have a “Hotel California”, which is what I have nicknamed every apartment I’ve lived in since my freshmen dorm.

As we arrived in Florence, we were greeted by, Marco our hostel host. To my surprise, Marco remembered my name and enthusiastically ran down to help us with the bags. As it turned out, our room was actually two blocks away on Via Nationaliez. Instantly, Florence showed a friendly side that Barcelona didn’t. I found the city to be much cleaner and tourist friendly. Oh and the people are absolutely beautiful! Adam said it best when we announced,

“I can see more attractive girls on this block right now, than I have seen in Portland over the last 6 months”.

With such a warm greeting, a room with AC and three beds, how could the three of us not love this town?

After dropping our bags off, we headed out to see the Florence’s architectural crown jewel, the Duomo. This is a gigantic church that houses what I believe is the largest dome in all of Italy, if not the world. While I was taken back by the sheer scale of the structure, the building was quite dirty. The dome was quite impressive and led us to an extensive So I Married An Axe Murderer, “Look at the size of that dome, it’s like a mellon on a toothpick” quotes, this was just another monument to me. Since we didn’t arrive until night, we had to wait until our second day to see the inside.

After the Duomo, we headed over to the Galleria Del Accademia where Michalangelo’s Statue of David is housed. This was my favorite monument in Florence. David is huge (well, in most places). While everyone knows what this statue looks like, being in the same room with a pale naked man of that stature is enough to make anyone take a step back. All kidding aside, the statue of David was awesome. I bought fold out calendars for all of the girls at work. Is posting pictures of gigantic naked men HR inappropriate?

After our evening of sight seeing we headed out for dinner. Before we found the right place, we were passed by the Olympic torch. The torch starts in Athens and is run to the location of the next Olympic site. I think the next location is Beijing, China, so I think there may be some swimming involved as well. When the Olympics were in Athens a few years ago, did they just run the torch around the block or something?

Unfortunately, as my we settled into a spot for dinner, my back really started to bother me. As the doctor explained, the shot I was given had anesthesia which would ware off before the steroids had actually started working…he was right. Since we were a good distance from our hostel and running home for meds was not an option, I was forced to self medicate with copious amounts of the house Chianti. I was also able to throw down a large serving of Italy’s finest Gnocci. Lisa and Aldo would be proud.

After dinner (and 5 bottles of wine split between 3 people) we decided to head to call it a night and head home. It was the right decision since I was having some back issues and we were going to have big day coming up.

Adam: Ha, that bar is called Slowley. Take a picture.
Ben: Ok. I think I’m going to take it from the inside.
Mike: This is not going to be an easy night.

Mike was right. The second we entered the bar I asked for three “local drinks”. The bartender handed us three tropical fruit filled glasses filled with a concoction he called the California Ice Tea. By local, I meant local to your home, not mine you idiot! Within a few minutes, we were chatting it up with a few other English speaking travelers and our night was in full swing.

Before you know it, it’s 3 am and we are across the city from our Hostel on a bridge that overlooked the entire city accompanied by three girls and a random dude from Norway. With out going into detail, let me clarify by “we” I mean Mike and me. At this point, Adam and a girl who’s name he didn’t remember until 11 am the next day were amorously gallivanting around Florence like it was going out of style (now might be a good time to re-read the title of this post).

Our second day in Florence could have been one of the more uncomfortable days I’ve had since the beginnings of puberty. My facial hair is now out of control. While the pictures I will post at the end of this trip show the stages of beard, they are taken at a very specific angle which makes me look less like the shoe bomber than I really do. I have huge blisters on both feet and my back could be used as the mast in one of the US Cup’s yachts it’s so stiff. While the idea of the Uffizi was interesting, the art of the early renaissance coupled with a firey hangover is a bad mixture. By the way, I live in California, and I’ve never heard of a California Tea…what kind of bullshit is that? Anyway, back to the story…the museum was huge and crowded and I don’t really enjoy that style of art. The audio guide was painfully slow. Eventually we left and did some shopping, which I enjoyed much more. I came out with a pair of casual shoes, a front pocket wallet, and some cologne (in addition to the awesome shirt I bought in Barcelona). The rest of the day was spent getting some much necessary rest.

Today is the start of the 24 hours I will be spending in Rome. It is also Adam’s birthday. It’s a good think we are close to the Vatican, because god might be the only spiritual entity that can help us get out of whatever mischief we will get into tonight.