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Published: February 2nd 2008
In the Hostel
Alicia and AJ in our wonderful hostel. It is an off season for tourists, so there wasn't many people and we had a whole apartment to ourselves. They also let us keep our room far past check out time so we had somewhere to keep out bags. So nice of them!I am just sitting finishing up my lunch and realized I haven't updated recently! This last weekend went by pretty quickly. School and the work that comes with it seems to move thing along pretty swiftly. Anyway, last weekend the girls upstairs and I traveled outside of Rome and visited Florence (or in Italian, Firenze). It is a beautiful city! It's much, much smaller than Rome, so it wasn't hard to be right in the middle of everything. We learned another expensive lesson while we were booking train tickets. Apparently, there is a HUGE difference between taking the normal Regional Rail, and the faster, express EuroStar. About a 20 Euro difference... But, on the upside, it only took us an hour and a half to get to Florence.
We left early Saturday morning and were at our hostel to check in by 11. The weather was beauuuuutiful on Saturday. We got some lunch and sat in the Piazza della Signoria, on the steps of the Duomo. (Duomo is actually just the term for a cathedral, the actual church is called Santa Maria del Fiore. But if you say "the Duomo", everyone knows what you're talking about). After eating and snapping
Duomo
Part of the Duomo. See how blue the sky was?! about a hundred pictures, we went to the open market. It is championed as one of the best marketplaces in Europe. It was a great place to get leather, scarves, or even clothing.
After shopping, we headed back to the Duomo and looked around the church, then climbed to the top of the dome. From the top, you had a 360 degree view of Florence. I was so thankful that the weather was a gorgeous as it was, the view was perfect. Climbing the 463 (give or take a few) stairs was worth it! After such a climb, we were all pretty winded and just enjoyed our time at the top for quite some time. The rest of the day just consisted of more picture taking, exploring, and dinner.
Sunday we went through museums. We started at the Accademia Gallery where the biggest attraction is Michelangelo's David. It was breathtaking. First of all, it is MASSIVE. I thought it was life-sized, but it's several times life size. Michelangelo was only 26 when he sculpted the David... the detail is so impressive, though. His hands are what was the most interesting... you can see the detail in the way
Duomo
This was our view from the steps as we ate lunch. his fingers are curved, the veins that run up his arms. There was also room of plaster models of statues that were commissioned throughout history and they were pretty cool. The biggest problem was a "no picture" policy in the Accademia, but AJ and I had a fun time playing Tourist vs. Photo Nazis. The tourists left victorious!
Next was San Marco, a church and convent that's famous for the frescoes that the monk Fra Angelico painted in each of the cells. When you first walk up the stairs to the hallways with the cells, Fra Angelico's "The Annunciation" is displayed. It is a beautiful painting of the angel telling the Virgin Mary about carrying Christ. I was most impressed with the angel's wings, they were fantastic and done in such great color.
Florence is the gelato capital of Italy, so we indulged in the frozen treat twice while we were there. I could have eaten it for every meal if I had to! I loved the small city, and I would certainly go back in the future if given the opportunity. I only had a few regrets on the trip: First, that I didn't get better pictures
Duomo
This is the baptistery across the street. The doors were designed by Lorenzo Ghiberti and are so beautiful. They've been dubbed "The Gates of Paradise". of the Communist march that was preceding through the town on Saturday. The girls I was with decided it would be dangerous and we had to walk AROUND the procession, not through it. Disappointing! The other is that I missed the painting "The Birth of Venus". I was told there wasn't much else in the museum that she's in though, so I did not, in fact, miss much. My final regret: I missed the Criminal Museum. It seemed fantastically interesting. But, there is always next time!
Oh, my roommate Thea took out my stitches for me, so I feel human again! The scar shouldn't be bad, it wasn't too deep of a cut. But I thought I'd share some post-stitches pictures with you.
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mom
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love the details...
The pictures are beautiful Dani. I can't wait to be there with you! I like all the details you give us (although a couple I might have changed the wording just a bit!) Tell Thea, "nice job!"