Italy - Student Style (Part I - Firenze)

First thing you should know: it is very difficult to be a student and a tourist at the same time. Having no money has the ability to prevent one from participating to the full extent of what a place has to offer, but it also allows one to be creative and find alternatives, and hey, pictures are free, right!?!
So for our half-term break, Phoebe and I headed off to Italy from the 13th to the 22nd.
We had a very bad start. Our essays and reports were due on the 13th, but our flight was leaving from Birmingham at 6:50am on that very day, so we had to be done on the Thursday. Side point, but a very important one: MY ASSIGNMENTS WERE THE FIRST ONES IN! I know that's mind-blowing enough for you all, but wait, there's more to come.
So Phoebe was going mad trying to finish her stuff on time, finally handed it in and ran home to pack in half an hour - Mad was going to drive us to Banbury (still Thursday night). I was going mad trying to fit all my junk in one backpack while trying to come to terms with the fact that we only had our flights and the first hostel booked! Diving in blind...We made it to Banbury on time to catch our bus to Birmingham (thanks Mad!) and then found a comfy spot (haha joke) in the airport to sleep for about 4 hours. Around 4am we stopped pretending to sleep and went to check-in then we flew out at 6:50am on the o-so-high-class Ryanair.
Dun dun duh da duh da da! We made it to Italy ahead of schedule!
We landed in Pisa at the Galileo Galilei airport and then went to look around for a train to take us to Florence. The train ride was uneventful until the dude came to check our tickets. "Bonjourno!" we said hello, it seemed like we could all be friends. But then..."Problemo". Sarah and Phoebe the exhausted student travellers had forgotten to validate their tickets! Big Problemo. It would have been great if we had known we had too. So we got a fine...Italy was not my friend so far.
It didn't get better either. We left the train station and wandered a bit when we got to Florence. Wandering is bad if you don't have a map and you are in an unfamilar city in an unfamiliar country. So it took us ages to find the train station back so we could find our hostel, which we still couldn't because Florence has black (residential) and red (commercial) numbers and we needed to find a commercial/residential building. When we finally found it, no one was there so we had to call and then wait, wait, wait till the owner came. We were the only people in the 'hostel' which was really just a bunch of rooms. But that was ok because honestly, we went to sleep right away (3:30pm) and got up the next morning at 9. It's a vacation, right?
We spent day 2 at the Gallerie delgi Uffizi looking at incredible works of art - Botticelli's, Michelangelo's, Raphael's, van der Weyden's, Rembrandt's...you know...those guys. I loved it, what a fantastic, ancient place!
Then we went to the Ponte Vecchio which is an enclosed bridge that has shops growing off the sides of all colours, it's incredible to see! It also has the Vasari corridor on top which was used by the Medicis, whom I love.
And then we got Pizza! Totally allowed...we were in Italy! O, then we got Gelato to celebrate Valentine's Day and sat in the Piazza de Signoria to watch all the lovey-dovey couples. How sweet.
When we got sick of valentine's mush, (o, and we were freezing to death) we headed back to our hostel and found that there were four new guests. So I decided to have a chat with the two also staying in our room and low and behold! They go to DORDT! Cherylyn and Jamie were on break from the SPICE Programme to the Netherlands (I was toally going to go on that programme!). What are they odds that we would end up in the same country/city/hostel? Totally a God thing...I'll be honest, I feel better in bigger groups of people! I'm bad at one on one. We also met Amber and Jess from Dordt and Calvin respectively who were also on the SPICE Programme and kindof travelling with the other two. Wow.
So we spent the next day - Phoebe, Me, Jamie, and Cherylyn- touring the Academia Gallery (home of Michelangelo's David), took some photos, which may not have been 100% legal...saw the Medici-Riccardi Palace, crossed the Ponte Vecchio to check out the Pitti Palace, met up with Jess and Amber, and went to the Piazza de Michelangelo. There was a great view of the city from there and we followed some nuns to a church where we got a free organ concert and the chance to look at some incredible architecture and artwork! Then we attempted to find Fort Belvedere by climbing this never-ending hill only to find that it was closed so we headed back into the city to find the Brancacchi Chapel, home of the finest Massachio paintings. On the way we found this fantastic outdoor market, a gigantic incredible church and finally the church with the Brancacchi Chapel where we sat through a Mass before checking it out. Wow.
Day three we were up early to check out Il Duomo, the Florence cathedral with Brunelleschi's architectural wonder - the Dome. It was closed. So we came back later and climed all 463 steps up to the dome. That was very cool, but I am mildly claustrophobic so it was an adventure...we got a great view of the city and the mountains in the distance...just chilling on the dome that revoltionised architecture during the Renaissance...
Then Phoebe and I caught the train to Venice!
Florence was amazing...dirty and noisy, but the amount of history and culture that is there everywhere is astounding! Recommended.