Coming to an end ...

Our honeymoon is coming to an end, and way too quickly.

The ride back from Venice to Florence was much more pleasant than the one there. Our seats were actually where we had chosen, the train wasn't packed, and there were no stinkies. It was quite a feat for us to make it to the train on time, since the previous night, our last night in Venice, we had 1.5 liters of the house wine. It was delicious but we are lightweights and it was interesting trying to get back to our hotel that night. We'll share some pics of Pat in a state of uncontrolable laughter upon our return.

Once we arrived in Florence, we found our hotel which is suuuuper nice. Even better than the one in Venice! We are definitely 4 for 4 on picking the accomodations. We're right on the Arno river and have our own little balcony with a river view.

After checking into the hotel, Patrick wanted to walk to the Fortezza di Belvedere. It's a fort that supposedly has a great view of the entire city. I say supposedly because we never made it. We walked, and walked, and then we climbed for about a mile at about a 45 degree angle UP a HILL. When we finally reached the base of the fort walls, we saw that it was closed. We tried walking around to find a sneaky back entrance, but that place was bunkered down like a keep. It was probably a very effective fortress back when that was its purpose! We went on this hike to avoid having to pay the 10 euro/person for a ticked into the gardens that led to the fort. After walking that far, our calves were on fire so we gave in and paid to enter the gardens from the top instead of the bottom. I wasn't a very happy camper. Because Mr. Cheapo over here didn't want to pay 20 euro, we climbed ... and ended up paying the 20 euro anyway. But, I'm glad we did because the view from the Boboli Gardens was AMAZING. We took lots of pics but the weird indian guys who own this internet point won't let us download anything onto the computers. At least they don't smell bad.

Today, we saw the David. Patrick and I are two people of the same heart. We know how to do the museums right. One lap, no stopping (except for The David itself) and out. Museums are for the boring. And the weak. The David was pretty cool though.

After our brief stent in the Accademia, Patrick drug me around town. In all we counted we walked about 8 miles and saw a wholelotta nothin, which is just about everything there is to see in Florence. This is definitely our least fave city yet! Ok, we see the crazy indians approaching .... I think our time on the computer is up.

Ciao!!!