Friday

The Mysteries of Florence

Friday, October 31st








This morning we rode the train to Florence, and since this was my first time riding a train I was really excited. Once we got to Florence we checked into our motel room and got our Firenze passes. Even though the Firenzie passes are very expensive (72 euros), we all got one because we decided it would be worth it (because a Firenzie pass allows you to get into all of the museums and skip the line). Afterwards, we walked around for a little while ate at Burger King, and then made our way to the Duomo to take pictures. It was a long climb, and there were really long winding stairways. Because they wouldn't let me in with my gelato I got seperated from everyone else, but I caught up to them at the top. Inside the dome was amazing, and detailing of the frescoes was amazing! Even though I really liked the dome, the climb to the top was my favorite part. I'm pretty sure that the Duomo is the tallest building in Florence, and walking around at the top gave me a 360 degree view of the entire city. Even though we didn't make it up by sunset, we still got up there in time to see the very last rays of the sun and the beautiful colors after the sun went down. After the Duomo we walked to this one bridge (which was very touristy but cool) with all sorts of classy stores selling jewelry and nice clothes. After I walked around the bridge I followed Dave to the other side and he helped me and a couple of others take pictures. Soon after that we went to the little pizza place and found a place to buy liquor (I got a wine cooler because they look yummy). When we were done with that we decided that we would celebrate Halloween by sitting on the steps of the Duomo (which is a church) and drink and play card games (which is ironic and a little sacrilegious, but funny). Afterwards we all headed to bed so we could get up early to go to the Uffizi.

Saturday, November 1st
 
Our plan this morning was to meet at the Uffizi and race to the room to see the Birth of Venus painting before anyone else could make it up there. Sure enough, we were the first ones there and we made it to the room first. Sadly they didn't allow us to take pictures in there, but a few of the paintings were amazing! There was a lot to see in the Uffizi, and we all spent a couple of hours in there before leaving. After the Ufizzi we got kabobs for lunch (which are so good I could eat them every day!), and then headed to the Galileo museum. The museum was really cool, but I don't know much about the history of science so a lot of the stuff didn't make since to me. Thankfully, though, there were several TV's that explained what the items were used for and the theories behind them. After the museum I made my way back to the motel to take a nap, and then Elyssa and I headed towards the Duomo to walk around and explore the shops. When we were done exploring we ended up running into a bunch of protesters. Apparently they had just started, but we were excited because it gave us a chance to get pictures of them. When we were done with that we couldn't find Dave to meet at the belltower for sunset, so instead of missing it we ran up there to take pictures without him. When we got to the top we found him and he showed us the best way to take pictures of the Duomo with our cameras. Afterwards, we walked to the carousel and I took lots of pictures and videos before going to bed.

Sunday, November 2nd
I was going to get up for sunrise pictures this morning, but since is was time change back home my phone decided to change the time too. Instead of waking up when I wanted to I woke up an entire hour later and when I went down I was so confused. I saw that it was light outside, but I thought that maybe the sun hadn't come up yet. When I went down, people were asking me why I didn't go take pictures of sunrise, and I told them that I was just about to go. When I said that they told me the time and my hopes for sunrise pictures in Florence were dashed (but it gives me a good excuse to come back so I guess I'll just have to take them then!), but I was able to make it to the accadamia in time to meet Dave and run in to see the statue of David before anyone else showed up. Since we had our Firenzie passes we were the first ones in, and we were able to get great pictures! After exploring the museum we walked around Florence some more, went into the museum of modern art, walked around in a nice gardent (where I got pictures of a lizard!) and got our stuff ready to take the train back to the Villa.







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