We're Already Done in Florence!

Oh my goodness, time is just flying by...it's so strange, as we get into the swing of this trip, three days in a city seems to be far too much time.  We sprint around seeing everything for the first two days then have to take a serious nap on the afternoon of the third.  It's definitely a strange way to vacation, and I'm not sure I'm going to be able to enjoy week-long trips for a while :-)

So what have we done in Florence?  After class the first day we headed to the Duormo, the dome at the cathedral that's in the center of Florence.  After we got a quick walking tour of the surrounding area (wearing our headsets and with our professor talking into her little microphone like all the other tourists here), we decided to climb the Duormo.  It was fine on the way up and the view really was wonderful, but I'm NOT a big fan of climbing down spiral staircases, so the way down was not really enjoyable.

After we finished at the Duormo we walked across this one bridge across the river lined with jewelry shops and then proceeded to wander around and eat amazing gelato for the rest of the afternoon.  We also visited this huge leather market that they have here, and I bought a beautiful purple purse for 11 Euro less than the asking price, which was an okay negotiation but not great.  For dinner, our friends found this restaurant by the Piazza de Michelangelo with an amazing view overlooking all of Florence, so we went there and watched the sun set over the city.

The next day we did all three major museums in Florence in one day--the Bargello, the Uffizi, and the Academia.  Although I really loved the Botticellis at the Uffizi, the Academia was by far my favorite.  Michelangelo's "David" is HUGE; it's actually the first really well-known piece we've seen that has exceeded expectations when seen in person.  After that, we went out for dinner, ate more gelato (I'm averaging about one per day), and then came back to the hotel.

Today has been much more relaxing--a museum and the Medici Chapel in the morning, then a very long nap this afternoon.  We're also getting much better at finding better and cheaper restaurants in less touristy areas--the place where we at lunch was just a tiny bakery by our hotel, but they had hands-down the best pizza I've ever had in my life.

Anyway, time to get ready for dinner!  We leave for Rome and Pisa tomorrow morning, so more updates from there!

Dara