Today, Sara and I woke up really early to take the 7:12 am train from Roma to Firenze. On another note, it is Easter Sunday, so happy Easter everyone! I was rather scared that Sara didn't make the train, but apparently she just made it on, so I didn't have to go to Firenze alone. Our goal was to make it to Firenze and be at the Duomo, the cathedral there, by 9:30 – 10ish, as there is a rather large Easter celebration in front of the Duomo. We arrived in the city around 9 am, checked into our hostel, which was really nice, and we finally weren't staying in separate hostels. I probably shouldn't have waited so long to book my Roma hostels. Woops. After checking in, we headed outside to a nearby cafe that the hostel receptionist recommended, where we then got breakfast.
After breakfast, we made our way down the streets of Firenze to the Duomo, there a crowd was already starting to gather. Thankfully there was more than enough space so Sara got right up to the ropes and I stood a few rows back. We had to wait maybe half an hour, fourty five minutes for the ceremony to begin, but it was incredible. The Duomo itself is unbelievable to see, a massive and unbelievably decorated cathedral that is just huge. Towering. Not to mention the baptistry right next to us and the Campanile next to the Duomo that is just as tall. The ceremony consisted of marching groups of people dressed in Renaissance clothing, followed by the bishop and clergy of the cathedral in a procession giving out holy water and branches. After this, they wheeled out a giant... box. A very large and ornate box, which they planted in the center of the plaza between the Duomo and the baptistry and covered it with fireworks. Then they lit them all. The fireworks went on for a good fifteen minutes, and the ceremony overall was incredible to witness. I'm very glad we took the early train. Firenze knows how to celebrate Easter.
After this amazing event, we headed up to the Galleria dell'Accademia, where the statue of David is. Upon seeing the line and reading the sign, we realized that we could head a few blocks to the architecture museum or something like that and get tickets there, bypassing yet another line. We did this and got into the Galleria rather quickly. There were some rather neat statues there, and a lot of paintings and religious items that I did not particularly enjoy, but the David was much larger than what I was expecting and pretty impressive. They also had a collection of old instruments, including a harpsichord, and a Stradivarius violin and viola, both of which were amazing to see.
Lunch our first day in Firenze was a quick meal at a small pub-like lunch place where we grabbed pizza slices that were actually pretty good. But for dinner we went to a restaurant a friend of Sara's had recommended, which turned out to be pretty incredible. So incredible that Sara asked for reservations for the next night to come back with Yiting and Rosie, who decided to stay in Roma for one more day as they had only been there for the previous day. After dinner, we walked down to the Ponte Vecchio where we got ice cream before walking back up to the hostel. We got to see the Paizza della Signoria, where the town hall Palazzo Vecchio, the Uffizi Gallery, and the Loggia dei Lanzi are located, the latter being an open-air museum of sorts with a bunch of statues and sculptures, all of which are pretty interesting. The rain was a bit heavy, but it wasn't really a problem. We did have to walk back to the Ponte Vecchio to get Sara's hat, but I could live with that. Firenze is definitely my favorite city so far on our trip.
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