Cinque Terre

On leaving Florence to go to Cinque Terre, we stopped over in Pisa, just to take pictures. Of course we were actually holding up that tower (or trying to push it down), it no longer stands. I am glad we stopped in Pisa, it was really fun to see the tower, it is so famous!
After leaving Pisa, we continued to Cinque Terre, which was gorgeous! This place is on the northern and western coast of Italy. Cinque Terre is a group of five small towns that are protected, as the is water surrounding them, as a national park, so there is no construction, and there are no big resorts. The beaches were rocky in four of the five towns, but in the fifth were coarse sand. The water though, was so clear and warm, and blue. It was a beautiful place to be. We stayed in the first town, Riomaggiore. The towns are all linked by trails, and it takes about 4 hours to walk between all five. The trail from Riomaggiore to Manarola only took 30 minutes, and was a beautiful walk along the tops of cliffs boarding the sea. This place was so relaxing, with swimming, hiking, and sitting on the beach, like a wonderful tropical island, we even rented kayaks. But it still felt like Italy. For example, there were lemon trees and vineyards. The people were very clearly Italian, and so were the food and markets. It was hot, but I loved Cinque Terre.

Florence

The third city on our tour of Europe was Florence. I loved Florence. Everything was so exciting, and the people were very friendly. There was a huge market in the middle of town with hundreds of vendors selling everything from cloths, to leather, to souvenirs, to purses, to wallets, to shoes, to everything! We walked through this market everyday on our way to and from the best tourist spots. Our hostel here was very nice, the staff were really helpful, and the rooms were really nice. We were about a 10 minute walk from where we wanted to be everyday.
On the first day we arrived, we in the afternoon and visited Michelangelo's David. The museum he is in is alright, there are a lot of statues, which are neat to look at, but there are also a lot of what look like plaster models of famous statues which are housed elsewhere. But I can say that the entry to the museum was worth it if only for David alone. I have always seen pictures, but in person this statue has such a powerful feel to it, it is beautiful and so much larger than I ever imagined. I sat and looked at David for the same amount of time it took to see the rest of the museum.
The next day, we took a walking tour through the old town squares. The tour was awesome, the guide was very informative and interesting, and the history of this town and the Medici family is fascinating. If anyone is going to Florence, i would definitely recommend a walking tour (thanks Aunt Sandra!). After the tour, we returned to the big church we saw on the tour to climb to the top, up 453 stairs to see a beautiful view of Florence which only had red tile roofs, it was beautiful.
The next day, we went to the Uffizi museum, which was pretty neat too, but not nearly as large as the Louvre (thank goodness). I loved all of the marble statues, and saw all of the famous paintings, but my favorite was a statue of young cupid and psiche, called "amore e psiche".
Along with all of these great sights, Florence had delicious food, and wonderful gelato. The gelato was really good.
Since I could not take pictures of the actual David, here is a picture of the model, which now stands where the original once did, in front of town hall, which was once a Medici palace.