Day 51-53: Crushed Florence

My great college friend, Daniel Bernstein, is down in Peru doing some medical volunteer work right now. Just over a year ago though, he studied abroad in Florence. I have to thank him so much for the efficient and extremely helpful 5-5-5 (things to see, places to eat, best nightlife spots) guide he took the time to create for me prior to my arrival in Italy. Thanks to that, in less than 48 hours, my sister and I managed to do Florence pretty alright.

We went through the Uffizi museum to see some of the best art from the Renaissance (Michelangelo and Bartorelli), Santa Croce to see the tombs/monuments of Michelangelo, Machiavelli, Dante and Galileo, Duomo to hike the steps and explore the Cathedral, and of course the Accademia to see Michelangelo's David (pic attached, don't tell the museum I took one!).

Quick note on Machiavelli- I can thank rap music for my interest in this politician/philosopher. When 2pac was in jail in the early 90s, he got really into reading. One of his favorite topics was Machiavelli and his theories on efficient power gains. One of his thoughts off of this was that faking one's death while rising in power is the ultimate way to forever become a powerful remembered figure. When 2Pac came out of jail he returned to power within the rap game and switched his name to Makaveli for his last album "The 7-day Theory" released right after his questioned death in Las Vegas.
Not saying it's what went down but definitely an interesting conspiracy thought.

Food-wise we had two great dinners and found a healthy smoothie spot to keep our diets mildly in line. The first night we ate at an awesome hole-in-the-wall pizza place called Gusta Pizza where I got a huge spicy salami, mushroom, basil za and a glass of wine for under 10€. Night 2 we went to another recommended spot called Zazas where I endulged in a mixed grilled meat platter with potatoes and spinach. Really good.

We had 2 nights in Florence. The first one we just hiked up to Plaza Michelangelo to watch the sunset over the city and took it easy. The second night we partook in the Florence Bell Tower Pub Crawl which went to a few bars (including Lion's Fountain for those familiar) and ended at a dance club called Space Electronica. Lots of fun and I ended up getting offered a gig with the pub crawl for a week post-Olympics if I'd like to return to Florence, make/save some money, yada yada. I think it would be a blast but so would lounging in the Greek islands so we'll see how it plays out I guess.

One of the best parts about backpacking / traveling is not knowing what's going to happen the next day and being open to new ideas / schedule readjustment.

The Italy itinerary has fluctuated from Rome 2 days, Florence 3, Venice 2, Milan 1 to Rome 3 days, Florence 2, Venice 0, Rimini 2, Milan 1.

With this being said, we are in Rimini at the moment staying in a sweet beach hostel 50 meters from the Adriatic Sea. We went hard for 5 days in Rome/Florence so we decided it would be best to chill / rest up a bit before London/ the Olympics happen.