Birthday in Firenze!

Today we are in Firenze. The train to get here was great. It only took 2 hours, so we got here nice and early at 11 am and had the whole day to walk around.

It is very crowded here though, which is a bit of a shock, as we were in Assisi yesterday, and staying in this very tiny town called Torricella on Lago Trasimeno in the middle of Umbrian hills.

Assisi is absolutely amazing. The town is like a miniature city, because it is all paved, but it is also like a small village, because the old part is fairly small, and everyone has little vegetable gardens.

We started out at the Basilica of St. Francis, which was great. Dad and I sat and drew St. Francis tomb for awhile. All while we were there, we could hear the monks singing.

We climbed to the top of the city, stopping at a castle on the way. I had this amazing pasta with truffles in it. I decided that from now on we should only eat at restaurants mentioned in our guide book. Today we stopped at this tiny hole-in-the-wall restaurant at the mercato in Firenze, because it was mentioned in our book. I had the most amazing ravioli ever... mmm...

I think, because of the crowds, we will go to Siena tomorrow. Siena might be crowded too, of course, but it will be nice to go back to a smaller city. We saw the Duomo today, and Donatellos statues. There is more to see, but we dont have reservations to see Uffizi or the Accademia anyway, so we would not be able to see the top Firenze sites anyway.

All the photos I have posted were taken by my father, by the way, because I cant upload photos from my camera without the software installed, so Ill have to wait until I get home!