We got up and traveled to Florence bright and early to get a jump start on our day. We had decided to give camping one last hoorah, so we set up at Camping Michelangelo, a great site right on a hill overlooking the entire city of Florence. Our spot is fantastic, from the stakes driven into Florence's rocky ground to our Canadian neighbor, Igor, who's been biking around Italy. We got sat up swiftly and easily and had a great campsite (with scorpions, as Igor informed us) all before 1:00 pm. Talk about having come a long way! We're pretty much professionals.
We started down toward the city and enjoyed views the whole way of the enormous Duomo jutting out among a sea of terra cotta roofs. We walked along the river toward the famous bridge, Ponte Vecchio, and on our way we had a real shock...
Two weeks ago in Interlaken we had randomly bumped into one of Laura's friends from Furman University, Austin Holmes and his wife, Chelsea. They are great people and we had a blast sharing stories all the way on the other side of the world. It was amazing then, but what's even more crazy is that we saw them again! Across the street we all freaked out to see familiar faces YET AGAIN, but in Florence.
We continued along our walk, across the Ponte Vecchio and all of the sudden we heard a scream... Tripp's friend since middle school, Kerry Knapp was across the street! That's right- the only people we could possibly have known in Florence at the time crossed our paths within 10 minutes and 200 yards of each other. Kerry is here studying for a month and we had been trying to figure out when we could meet, but were having trouble communicating. Well...the Lord decided to meet us right there and we made dinner plans right away! Continuing our walk through a courtyard we stopped to look at a statue for a second and what do you know...
We saw our old roommates from Interlaken, Robert, Laura, and Lynn. They were some of our favorite roommates on the trip and we had enjoyed hanging out with them so much. When they started yelling Laura's name we didn't think there was anyone else we could possibly run into... but there was! Ha! Talk about a crazy day...and all within the first hour in the city!
Finally we had a chance to go explore the city of Florence. This place is right out of a postcard with streets paved in stone and plaster walls crumbling to show their brick skeletons. It's a great, bustling town, filled with passionate, fun people. We made our way to see Michelangelo's famous statue, DAVID. Boy- we were amazed at how tall he was- 17 feet from head to toe! He is the real "Renaissance Man," and a symbol of pride for this city for good reason.
We finished our day by meeting up with Kerry Knapp for dinner. We enjoyed pizza and then more gelato to keep our bellies happy while we lazed around one of the many piazzas, catching up, sharing tales from the journey, and listening to the street performers giving all they had. It was a really special way to end the day. We were so happy to get back to our campsite for the night, ready to take on this town for one more day.
Love you and miss you all. Really- you can't imagine how much each one of you means to us.
Tripp and Laura
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WOW! Sounds like you've had yet another wonderful day! Isn't Florence a pretty big city? How in the world did you see all these friends?!!! We love you and miss you. Mom P.S. I'm starting to count down the days until you get back home. Only 9 more, and I am getting excited!
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