Day 36 (Sunday, June 18)

We woke up around 6:45 so we could both get showers before meeting the girls and Drew. We met up at the girls' hotel around 8 and went to go see the David. The line only took 20 minutes to get through, and seeign the David was a very cool experience. There was a lot of other artwork in the museum, and it was nice to read a little bit about each painting.

After the David, I don't remember everything we did, but we ended up running into 2 other GTL'ers and had lunch with them. After lunch, I told a few people I was going to use the bathroom, and when I got back, everyone was gone. Luckily, the Uffizi was nearby, and the girls were in line. I got some gelato with them, and we went back to their hotel, since my stuff was there.

At this point, I decided to strike out on my own since no one else was going to Venice with me later that evening. I saw some ads for a Leonardo Da Vinci museum, so I made my way over there. On the way, I found this HUGE outdoor market, and I made a few purchases for myself and loved ones at home. Then, I went to the Da Vinci museum, and it was very cool because they had build about 30 of Da Vinci's inventions he had sketched out but never constructed. I really enjoyed tinkering with the devices and seeing the ingenious ideas he had hundreds of years ago.

I then trekked way across the city to the Piazza de Michaelangelo, which was on an enormous, steep hill. From there, I had an incredible view of Florence, and it was worth the walk for the view alone. There was also a replica of the David and a beautify church. Oh, and a monster PSP.

After spending some time overlooking Florence, I made the long walk down the hill, and then went to the train station to make reservations for my train to Venice. I grabbed some cheap cornerstand pizza and went to wait for my train. While I was waiting, I talked with this great family from Alabama where the grandparents had come to Italy to visit their son, who was stationed here for the military. They had a talkative seven-year-old and an adorable two year old who just kept running around the terminal.

The train ride to Venice took almost three hours on a speed train, and I wrote about my trip so far for most of the way. I got to the Venice mainland station around 11:30pm. The hostel I booked wasn't actually in the canal-city; it was just off the coast in a normal town. As soon as I stopped off the train, I could smell the ocean and feel the humidity. I foudn the hostel using the directions from their website, checked in, and went to sleep on my bunkbed. There were four other people in the room, and they were all US college kids backpacking across Europe. I feel asleep around 12:30.