Florence - Thumbs up

I am currently on my 3rd and final day in the fine city of Florence. I had thought the weather was cooling a bit but the temperature has shot back up again today, summer is very much still lingering about here in Italy. I had arrived here early on the Thursday from Perugia as my hostel bizarrely only checks people in from 9 in the morning till 1 in the afternoon, the staff even disappear completely after that so if you arrive after that you are pretty much screwed, its a strange system but it seems to somehow work and its a nice little hostel, very good value for money and the girl that runs it, Serena, is very friendly. My first day was a bit of a slow one, I realized from the map I was given that Florence isn't really that big and a simple case of wandering soon led to me to the massive dome which you can pretty much see from just about everywhere in the city in any case. I wandered a bit more and found a cheap Chinese restaurant for dinner and went back for an early night. The next morning was taken up with one of those things that travelers pretty much hate but has to be done, doing the laundry! luckily there was one right across the street from the hostel and an hour later that was all done with. I set off to the dome again accompanied by an Australian fashion designer who was staying at the hostel. This time we climbed the 450 odd stairs to the top (something I would have really struggled to do 2 weeks ago!) and the view of the city was pretty spectacular. Being an Aussie he was then gasping for a beer and I didn't take much persuading! we were joined by more Australians (I think they grow on trees where bars are concerned) and several beers and a pizza later email addresses and promises to meet again later that night were being exchanged, I have no idea what happened to them after that! My evening was spent watching the spectacular sunset over the Arno river and then an even more spectacular view from Piazzale Michelangelo from which you really can see just about everything in Florence, I'm going there in a bit to try and catch the sunset there this evening as its supposed to be one of the most spectacular sights in Europe. Today I've started self catering for the first time as eating at restaurants and cafes every day is starting to hit my budget, sadly the Bistecca alla Fiorentina will have to be missed. My main activity has been strolling around the Boboli gardens on the other side of the Arno river, they are basically the palace gardens and are really nice to wander around on a day like today. After the sunset I will most likely have a beer with yet more Aussies that I have met here and that will be all for Florence. I can see the city's appeal, it is very full of tourists and this can get quite tiresome at times, especially the big groups but I am not anticipating many other places to be like this with the exception of Venice really. So I'm almost 2 weeks in now and things are going pretty well. I defiantly feel a lot better physically due to the massive amount of walking I have been doing, not really feeling homesick though I do still miss a lot of people and two kittens a great deal. Next up is Pisa tomorrow and then Genoa and the amazing sounding Cinque Terre which I am very much looking forward to. Hope everyone is well. Chris x