Day 189 - Bologna to Florence (Firenze)

I took a short, afternoon, hour-long train ride to get from Bologna to Florence, one of the bigger cities of the Tuscan region of Italy. Upon arrival, I headed to my hostel, where I stayed there for a good couple of hours, sort of exhausted from traveling through Italy thus far. I'm enjoying reading a book that has picked up a lot of hype due to the release of the movie trailer for it - The Hunger Games. It's definitely a light read, fast-paced, and plot driven, but very entertaining. I can hardly put the book down, but I'm trying to balance it out by reading Jane Austin's Persuasion at the same time.

I set out for town after the sunset to take in a small dose of the city. You could definitely tell this was a popular tourist destination by the number of souvenir stalls lined around the streets. I also heard a greater amount of English here than in some of the other cities in Italy that I visited. The city was packed and lively, and this could possibly be due to the Firenze Marathon that is being held tomorrow.

Wandering through the streets, I made my way to the city center, where I came across Piazza del Duomo, where the Duomo and the Campanile were situated. Most of the churchs and other sites close early during the colder months, maybe around 5pm, so I wasn't able to enter any of them. I followed street signs that led to various other tourist sights and found the Chisea Santa Maria de Ricci, where there was an organ concert open to the public and a nativity scene right in the middle of the church. It's Christmas time!

At the end of the night, I met up with a Couchsurfer, Alessando, who grabbed a beer with me at an Irish Pub. He told me of a good place to grab dinner, called Baldovino, where I decided to dine on my first night here. It's always great to get advice from locals.

Duomo

Chisea Santa Maria de Ricci