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Part 4: Firenze
I ended my Italy trip by spending a day in Florence. While I had a lot of fun just walking around, I did learn one valuable thing: do not go on a Monday; all of the museums were closed. On one hand, this was a good thing, as I didn't feel rushed while exploring the city as I know I would have felt if I had to divide my time among the various museums as well, but still, I did miss the Italian art that Florence has to offer: the Uffizi and David. I guess that means that another trip is in the making, though not any time soon.
Looking for the Duomo Getting to Florence was easy enough: I bought a ticket and hopped on the bus from Siena to Florence. After a relatively short ride (about an hour to hour and a half), I arrived and set about looking for the Duomo, the one thing that was on my "Must Visit" list. However, I first found another church: the Santa Maria Novella and decided to take a few pictures there and from there followed some signs I encountered to the Tourist Office where
I hoped to obtain a map so that I could make the most of visit by not wasting any time getting lost (which I'm thankful to say, didn't happen at all in Florence. I guess having a map really does help). Armed with a map, I was able to find the Duomo without any problems.
The Duomo The Duomo is kind of hard to miss: it is HUGE! I didn't realize how big it was until much later when I went out to the Piazzale Michelangelo a bit away from where I was able to look out at the city below. The Duomo dominated the landscape! I walked around the outside for a bit and then got in line to see the inside, which while nice, I didn't find that impressive. Mostly, I think that it just seemed a bit empty but the ceiling of the cupola was amazing. I got a much nicer view of it when I went up the cupola/dome, which Kana had told me I had to do. Part of the walk up the cupola involved a walk around the interior of the dome about half way up, allowing me to see the ceiling
Inside the Duomo
Ceiling of the Cupola much closer. Finally, at the end of the climb, I was able to walk around the outside of the cupola and see Florence from above.
Piazza della Signoria and the Uffizi Next on my list of places to go was the Piazza della Signoria. I don't remember why I wanted to go there, but all I remember is that it was listed in my tour book and at the time it sounded interesting. When I got there, though, I was glad. The piazza is filled with several statues and has an outdoor museum at one end. It sort of made up for not being able to go into any of the other museums. I wandered around there a bit, looking at the different statues and then decided to walk by the Uffizi, which is just past the piazza, as I was in the area. Although the museum itself was closed, I was able to see all the statues on the outside of various different Italians. I satisfied myself by taking a few pictures of them and then continued on my wanderings.
Piazza San Marco and Giardino della Fortezza Eventually, I made it to the Piazza San
Outside the Uffizi
Statues of Galileo Galilei and Pier Antonio Micheli Marco, which wasn't that impressive so I only walked through it and then looked at my map to find another interesting place to go. The Giardino della Fortezza looked to be it, as it was near and was a big green area on the map (I though that a park might be a nice break and if I could find some gelato to enjoy there, then all the better). Alas, the gelato was not to happen just yet, but the park was really big and really nice.
Rounding off the Day: Piazzale Michelangelo, Basilica di San Miniato al Monte, and Basilica di Santa Croce To conclude my time in Florence, I went up the Piazzale Michelangelo and the Basilica di San Miniato al Monte. The basilica was pretty nice, though a bit dark inside, but the view from the top of the piazzale was AMAZING! It was almost as good as that from the top of the cupola. Although I wasn't as high up, the climb up the hill was still worth it, as I could now see the Duomo in and among the rest of Florence's buildings (which made me appreciate how big it actually is). After
Random Statues
In the Piazza della Signoria walking around there, I headed down, stopped by the Basilica di Santa Croce (thought I didn't go in) and finally back to the bus station and onto Siena.
Coming Home (Well, my Temporary Home) Flying on cheap flights means that you fly at the oddest times. Initially, when I had scheduled the flight, the times looked fine: 9:40 AM wasn't too bad. I only had to be there by 7:40 but I had forgotten about traveling from Siena to Pisa, which is just over an hour, and I had to get into the city centre and then the train station in Siena as well, which meant that I was up early and traveling quite a bit that day. Still, the trip was worth it and I thoroughly enjoyed it. And as I said before, if anything, the weather was more than worth it: I believe it was in the low 20s (celsius) the entire time I was there, which up until a couple of days ago (the first full week in May) has been nowhere near the temperatures in Edinburgh (now, its back to the low to mid 50s--Fahrenheit). But I am getting more and more used to
this weather: when we were in our "heat wave" the other week, I wasn't hot but I will admit it was kind of warm (and that was when we were in the high 60s and possibly low 70s).
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