"is that a synegogue? i didnt know they made jews in florence"

so we still arent sure why in english the city is called "florence" when in italian its "firenze". it has to do with flowers we know, but still. cmon guys.

so thursday night jaya and i were tossing around the idea of going to venice to see carnivale, but decided it was going to be too last minute and thus expensive since most hostels were totally booked. so we decided to go to florence instead. and so we booked the hostel and after my class on friday we were off!
got into town about 330-ish in the afternoon and it took us a little bit to find the hostel, get creeped out by one of the guys there (he was just awkward and kept asking over and over why i dont speak italian while jaya does) and then we ran to the duomo.


so we got in line to go up in the coupola and up we did! go at least

forever.



and then! 463 steps later we were up on the top and it was pretty (and chilly) and gorgeous and we took glamorous shots of each other






so that was fun. it really is such a gorgeous building. the colored marble and the relief work. just exquisite really
that night we had some florentine food- jaya had veal and i had wild boar. and it was lovely. then we met up with some of her friends that are studying in florence for hte semester and it was awesome.

next day we went to the uffizi gallery and the gallery dell'Academia. couldnt take pictures inside but oh the marble! and michelangelo's david still gives me the heebie jeebies. but the unfinished marble works that look like theyre trying to escape from the stone are still my favorite ever.
i love love love sculpture. and it makes me so sad that the old marble sculpting techniques are lost to history

we saw the ponte veccio


and wandered a bunch. had dinner with the girls again. scary "lousiana style" wings at an offensive american restaurant where there was a cigar store indian and lots of weird totally non-pc but yet absolutely hilarious indian pictures on teh wall.
the sauce for the wings was a teriyaki with a kick...served with blue cheese. so weird.
but the milkshake? was AMAZING

and then we went back to the hostel after chillin with julia for a bit. and then we came home today. and its still raining in rome so...sad day.
but great weekend!
we win!
ciao