Piazza della Signoria

It was 8am breakfast and 8.45am jump on the coach to head into the main part of Florence, where we were taken to a Leather demonstration at Leonardo's Leather and Gold. Our guide spoke to us about how the leather trade originated in Florence, how to make leather items, and how to tell real leather from fake. The trick? Buy from a reputable seller...
This store also sold jewellery, and had a puzzle ring, which Tamara had already told us about as she has one herself. Quite a few of us girls decided to purchase, although I went with silver rather than gold. Tamara promised we would have lessons on how to put them back together, should they fall apart, on the bus ride to Switzerland.
We then headed into the main square, where we found Jorge (just can't get rid of him!). He was going to join us for our walking tour through Florence.
We met our tour guide, and he took us on a walk through the city, telling us all about the history and showing us different sculptures. There were a few in the main square which were around 2000 years old, and were brought over from Rome.
Whilst the real Statue of David is located in a museum, there is an exact replica, which stands in the spot the original did when it was first sculpted by Michelangelo. Our guide assured us it was much the same. Our guide (who's name escapes me) had a very dry sense of humour, and along with his accent, I think a few people missed the jokes, but I found him to be hilarious!
The tour ended at the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flowers, which was absolutely stunning on the outside. Jorge and I decided we wanted to quickly head inside for a look, but once we saw the queue to get in, we decided against it.
A few of us wanted to go and get some lunch, so Terryanne, Jorge, Jacinda, Ashleigh, Jessame and myself decided to sit down at a pizzeria near the main square. I thought I'd stray from the standard Margherita pizza, and opted for a Hawaiian instead, although when it came out, it seemed to be prosciutto instead of ham... Bit odd but still tasted great!
We said our final, final goodbyes to Jorge, and left him to go on another tour he had organised for himself, and the rest of us headed in search of some gardens the girls had heard were quite spectacular.
We crossed the river and made the hike up some hills, we found some stairs that looked like a shortcut, but we were following a gps so followed the main road. We made a sharp turn and sure enough, there was the end of the staircase. Terryanne and I found the stairs continued on the other side of the road so decided to cut away from girls and see where they lead. We all ended in the same place, but Terryanne and I had had time to sit in the shade and catch our breath. As it turns out, these gardens seemed to be hard to get to, so Ashleigh and Jacinda went off in search of them, while Terryanne, Jessame and I headed up a little further where we found another fake Statue of David and some incredible views of Florence. We stayed up there for a bit, soaking in the views and taking a few selfies, before we decided to head back down to meet Tamara who would take us back to the bus.
As it turned out, even taking our time on the walk back we had just over an hour to spare, so we found a little restaurant and had some cocktails, the girls had belini and I had an Aperol Spritz.
We still had some time so wandered around a little more before heading back to our meeting spot. We walked to the bus, jumped on and headed back to the hostel where we got ready for our optional night out - a tuscan dinner and night out at Space nightclub.
Dave was still driving but Jo was back to join us for dinner, so we all jumped on the coach at 7pm and headed to the restaurant.
It was a bit of a drive, but on the way we stopped at the same lookout we had been to earlier, took a group photo, and continued on our way.
We were welcomed to the restaurant by the owner, and more Aperol Spritz (this is fast becoming my fave Euro drink!). There were 2 other contikis there, but they were already seated, so we made our way in to find 2 bottles of red on our table. I sat down with Terryanne, Nicole and Jono, and the two new American girls, Emily and Selena. I found out they were only 18 (thats TEN YEARS YOUNGER!!!) and decided to pour myself a red, even though I'm not much of a wine drinker, much less a red wine drinker! Turns out it's not so bad after some Spritz!
We had about 5 or 6 courses, from bruscetta to pasta to ice cream, and enjoyed some entertainment by an opera singer, some people even getting up for the Zorba dance. By this stage we'd complimented our food with some white wine also.
It was then time to head off, and we were all in party mode, so we chucked on some tunes on our way to the nightclub.
This Space club had quite an odd system: you get a card and free drink on arrival, then every third drink you get (using your card) you have to go and pay at a separate register. I imagine this gets quite confusing for drunk people, but the club would do quite well out of it, as the fee for losing a card was substantial, and you can't leave unless you produce the card and prove you've paid for your drinks...
It was still a cool club, we did karaoke: Tamara and I rocked Love is a Battlefield, and I'm pretty sure I sang with Dave the bus driver (now off duty). We headed upstairs where there was more drinking and dancing, I'm pretty sure I had a stumble of epic proportions which was apparently not graceful, but completely in time to the music, impressing two of the girls who told me all about it in the following days!
I'm not sure what time I left, only that I was in a cab with Zoe, Daniel and Jim, and when we got back to the hostel there was a big group of us sitting at the tables and chairs outside.
I remember someone got me a water, then a couple of us decided we were hungry so Matt, Charli, Gabe and I went in search of food. We could only find a closed servo with vending machines out the front, so after much confusion with our money, we headed back to the hostel.
We stayed up chatting for a little while longer before heading to bed.Read more