Florence

Florence/Firenze:

Oh, where to begin! After a hectic week, Florence was a much needed and appreciated trip. We left the palazzo after lunch on Friday and headed for the bus station. After a bus and a train, we had arrived in Florence. As we got off of the train and into the station, Dr. Webb pointed out the McDonalds. We all snickered to ourselves, seeing a McDonalds in Italy, that being the last thing on our lists to eat. We walked for some time finally to exit the train station, I would have surely gotten lost had Dr. Webb not been leading. Once we emerged from below onto the busy street, the great walk began. It was raining and we walked for what seemed like hours (not really though), and even with these disappointing factors….. We were in FlorenceJ. How could anyone not be ecstatic to be in Florence? Taking the scenic tour/ getting lost was the idea of John Rose, although it made for an interesting walk.

After arriving at a very quaint hotel, which used to be a monastery but was later converted into a hotel, we all seemed to disappear to our rooms. Luckily, it was no less than 5 minutes later that Shannon came into my room. All I remember was “ok, get up we are going to find gelato,” then looking up to see Shannon fully ready to go. So we all decided we might as well, little did we know, it was going to be slightly more challenging than we anticipated. We never did find gelato that night! Dr. Webb treated us to dinner at the hotel. It was wonderful, consisting of pasta, chicken, potatoes, and cauliflower; and then of course there was a fabulous chocolate brownie for dessert. After dinner we were all so exhausted, we decided to head to bed and get rested up for the coming day.

The next morning, Saturday around 8am, I woke up late as usual. There is never a time in my life when I am not running late; maybe I have more Italian in me than I thought! After breakfast, we broke up into priority groups, as I call them, and we were off. My group consisted of Shannon, Jess, Kim and I. The first thing we decided to do was to go to the Academia. We had all deemed Kim the map reader for the day; she was the least directionally challenged of all of us. As we were on our way to the Academia, there were a lot more tourists than we are used to. In Sansepolcro, we are it! It seems funny to say, but it was a culture shook. As we arrived at what we thought was the Academia there was a huge group being given instructions, so we thought we were going to beat them by slipping past them. Little did we know, we had just made it to the art school and the museum was 2 blocks away. We were surprised when we approached the doorway; it was very plain and nondescript. We almost thought we were in the wrong place. After getting through security and paying for our tickets, we were let down to know that no picture taking was allowed inside. While we wandered around the museum, we discovered that the main attraction was Michelangelo’s David and that was about it, along with some of Michelangelo’s unfinished pieces. As we were leaving, I looked up! It was breathtaking, and I almost missed it.

The ceiling, other than the David, was the hidden treasure in the Academia museum. Upon finishing, we agreed to go to the market, easier said than done. We wondered for awhile, which is the most fun to me anyways, and we turned a corner and there it was in all its glory. The Florence cathedral was absolutely stunning in all of its detail and perfection. We had passed it the night before but it was completely different during the day. I do not even have words to describe it, only that pictures do not do it justice in the slightest. We must have spent an hour just looking at it, it is ironic to me that something as practical as a church can be so magnificent. This cathedral was built during the Gothic period, but reflects more of the Romanesque style. Most gothic churches of the time had pointed columns and tall towers. As I could tell, this does not. The church began its building during the gothic period but the dome was finished in the beginning of the Romanesque period. The dome was constructed by Brunelleschi.

Then we took a walk through the market. Although many of the booths had similar items, the trick was finding the person who would bargain low enough. I remember Megan looking at a sweatshirt and bargaining with the woman; finally Megan came up to me and told me she got the woman down to 13 from 18. I was impressed until she told me that she had used the excuse of not having enough money. Then comes the humor, Megan told me she only had a 50 euro on her, and nothing smaller. Needless to say, she did not get the sweatshirt and we kept looking. We then called the other group, consisting of Kayley, Hilary and Kelsey, to meet up for lunch. We were planning to eat at a place called The Oil Shoppe, but it was closed. It had been a recommendation of some friends of Hilary’s. We ended up going to this very yummy pizzeria.

I am sure this pizza had everything on it that was bad for me but it was so delicious.

With lunch having ended, climbing the Duomo was the next on all of our lists. 463 steps and agonizing happiness! Halfway through the climb, I could not see the end result. Shannon just kept telling me that the view was going to be great. And so, we arrived on top of the world. It was, in fact, like nothing I had ever seen. This was most definitely where the postcards photos are taken of the city. You could see for miles into the distance.

Just a glimpse at Florence is enough to make anyone smile!!