Rebecca does Florence

We left Verona on Friday morning. I think we all felt it was a bittersweet departure. We had such a great last night together though, so if anything we were all in great, friendly moods. The people on this trip were all different and we all brought something entertaining to the table. The bus ride to Florence was fine. Honestly, I love bus rides. They always remind me of the days that we would take field trips during middle and high school. Those trips were the best because the teachers were relaxed and we could all just have a great time. Anyways, during the ride to Florence most people were sleeping off the night before. I wrote in my journal some and enjoyed the views. We got into Florence at about 2 or 3. Once we dropped all of our stuff off we were free to do what we wanted. The whole weekend it was five girls that hung out and it was a great group. We walked straight to the Galleria dell Academia where Michelangelo's David is held. As I mentioned in March, this was something I was really excited about. We completely lucked out and came to Florence during Cultural Week. That meant all the state museums were free- including the Academia. The line wasn't long, we only waited for 5 minutes. It’s a surprisingly small museum and really not that elaborate on the outside. We walked in the first room for a few minutes and then ventured into the next room. I am so glad that we had that Italian History class in the beginning because we learned about a lot of the art in Florence and Rome. The Academia also holds Michelangelo's prisoners. Anyways, at the end of the long hall was it- the famous David. It was incredible. We stood there for about 20 minutes just taking in the whole thing. It took him 3 years to complete and the detail is incredible. After we finished looking in the museum we walked through the famous Florence market. Florence is known for its leather. I had not planned on buying anything for myself in Florence- but of course I found a great leather bag. I got it for just 25 euro too, which was a great deal. It’s a bit vintage but I love that look. The rest of the night we walked around to get a feel for the town. Florence is extremely easy to navigate. One of my friends, Ginny, came to Florence before the trip with her mother and had some amazing soup at a restaurant near the duomo. We went there and I had one of the best pastas I have had in Italy. It was divine. It was penne with a spicy red sauce and garlic. It was absolutely delicious! After dinner we took the long way back to the hotel. I started reading a book when I got back, while everyone skyped with their families and I was dead asleep in about 15 minutes. I was super tired from the late night in Verona and the long day in Florence.

On Saturday we met our tour guide in the lobby at 9:30. We went straight to the Piazza Signoria- the political district. That’s where one of the David replicas is and some other famous statutes. After she told us all about the Piazza we went into the Uffizi gallery. We got to see a lot of cool art though- including the famous Venus and Primavera works by Botticelli. Once we were finished in the Uffizi, the 5 of us walked across Ponte Vecchio. This is the famous Florence bridge that is covered in jewelry shops. From there we walked to the Pitti Palace and ate our lunches in the Piazza in front if it. After we had rested our legs we walked to the famous Boboli Gardens behind the Pitti Palace and enjoyed the views and the beautiful greenery. After we felt done there we walked to the Duomo Museum. It was also a small museum but it has one of Michelangelo's Pietas which was really cool. Also, the baptistery in Florence has the famous "Gates of Paradise" which are bronze doors, designed by Ghiberti, depicting 10 scenes from the Old Testament. The doors on the baptistery now are replicas- but the real ones are in the Duomo Museum. There have also been replicas made to the sides of the bell tower- campanile- and the original statues, etc are in the Duomo Museum. Once we were finished there we headed to the Duomo in the hopes of catching the 6:00 English mass- but when we got to the doors we read that it was actually at 5:00 on Saturdays. We were all pretty disappointed. From there we walked around and tried to find a place to eat. Between the 5 of us we couldn't agree on a place so we split up. I got another dish of the pasta and Bolognese sauce. It was another delicious plate of pasta. It was a large serving too, which I needed. After that we ventured to Santa Croce church and piazza. There was a delicious food market that we walked through and got a few pastries for dessert. By 10 we were all exhausted and walked back to the hotel. It was a great day- but it all hit us that we were going home soon. We all went through a few hours of hoping to be back in America- but also knowing we needed to make the most of where we were.

Sunday we met our tour guide in the lobby at 9:30 again. Unfortunately the great weather ran out, and it was raining off and on all day. The tour guide planned a city walk so the rain was quite a bummer. She took us through places we had already walked through but told us more history which was nice. In the middle of our tour she gave us a 30 minute break and we went into the Bargello museum. It, too, was free because of cultural week. We waited in line for almost 30 minutes thinking it was to see the exhibit- but to our surprise, it wasn't what we came to see. Since we were crunched for time, we had to quickly walk through the museum- finding all of the pieces we had learned about in class. It was neat because Florence had a competition for the baptistery doors- that are now called the "Gates of Paradise." The competition was between Ghiberti and Brunelleschi. In the Bargello museum they had the two competition squares that decided that Ghiberti would be the artist. From the Bargello museum we met the rest of the group at the Santa Croce church. It’s actually more of a museum now- but they still have mass there. This is where the scientist Galileo was buried as well as the famous Michelangelo; both of which were neat to see. Our tour guide gave us plenty of detail on the church and the tombs too. We finished the tour there and everyone split up again. We had planned on going into Sienna for the afternoon but since we were all a bit burned out from traveling- and it was raining- we decided to chill in Florence for the afternoon. A few girls had to finish up their souvenir shopping, so we headed back towards the markets. We also went into the duomo- and it was gorgeous. On our walk back to the hotel we tried to stop in the Santa Maria Novella church but we missed it by 15 minutes. We were all hungry by that time- big surprise- so we started looking for a place to eat. It is hard to find anything that is open before 7pm for dinner in Italy though. We ended up at a kebab place because it was close and open. I have never had a kebab before so I figured I would go ahead and try one. I just got a regular kebab with chicken and it was good. We stayed there for a long time just resting our legs and laughing at everything from the trip. One of the girls wanted coffee and we went into a McDonalds on the walk back. I had been refusing to step in another McDonalds until my arrival in the states but I went in and ordered a 1Euro milkshake anyways. In fact, the 5 of us stayed in that McDonalds for over an hour. We just needed some down time plus one conversation topic lead to the next. Once we realized how many people we had seen come in and out we knew we needed to go back to the hotel. When we got back we all packed everything back up and watched a movie before bed. We didn't leave for Rome until 10:30 so I got a great night of rest.

I really enjoyed Florence. Honestly, I was hard to fully enjoy it though. I was so close to coming home that thoughts of America consumed me. The rain definitely didn't help anything. But, Florence is a wonderful city with so much to see. It is full of great history, great art and great churches. After the short time in Florence we headed to Rome...