Florence was beautiful!

More beautiful than I remember it being.  I had been once before around 10th or 11th grade of high school with my parents, but only for a day.

This time, I had two days.  Even that wasn’t enough.

But here’s a rundown of the weekend.  We left Rome at 7:00am, after a three hour bus ride we made it to the Charterhouse right outside Florence.

All sorts of beautiful.  Then we headed into Florence (after accidentally leaving an undergrad locked in one of the rooms… oops… he made it to Florence in a taxi).

Then, first on the agenda was climbing up the dome of Il Duomo (the cathedral).

500 steps.  Not bad.

Machal, me and Nancy at the top!  We grad students stuck together 🙂

Fantastic view!

After the climb, we headed to the Galleria Degli Uffizi.  I couldn’t take pictures inside but there were amazing pieces of art.  I could take pictures from outside the window though.  This is from the Visari Corridor, which is on top of the Ponte Vecchio.

Gorgeous!

After the Uffizi, we basically had the night off.  First, we had coffee in a 19th century tea room with two professors!  Sadly, we couldn’t take pictures in there but it was beautiful and everything you would want out of a 19th century caffe and tea room.

Then, Nancy, Machal and I went back to the hotel to take a shower and figure out what to do for dinner.  Sadly, I forgot to take pictures of dinner so I’ll spare you those shannanigans and skip to Sunday.

In the morning, we had a tour of the city with a Professor from Syracuse University.

The clock and the train station was super cool:

One of the stops was an old train station that has been converted into a modern art museum.  One of the installations was a house made of bread:

Literally, Italian crusty bread…

Then later, we had some free time, so we headed to the Accademia Gallery to see Michelangelo’s David, among other things.

Again, no photos allowed.  After a quick lunch, we raced across town to go the the Ferragamo Museum.

I love shoes.  I thought it was pretty cool.  If only I could afford a pair of Ferragamo shoes.  After Ferragamo, we made our way to the Church of Santa Croce, where many great Italians are buried (i.e. Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli).

By the end of all this, my feet were killing me.  Standing in one place listening to explanations is killer on the feet.  But I will say it was totally worth it!

Now I’m back in Rome, hoping my internship can finally start now that all the paperwork is done!