Benvenuto a Firenze

So after a 2 and a half hour train ride I reached the wonderful city of Florence. I had never been here before so I was pumped to finally see the city but I was also so excited to see one of my best friend’s Alanna who was studying abroad in Florence. I checked into my hostel, which was amazing. For some reason the room I was in had it’s own kitchen and such so it was more like an apartment. This was great because we were able to cook eggs for breakfast and such. After settling in one of the Florence kids, Dave came to get us at out hostel and take us to the Duomo to meet the other Florence students. When I saw Alanna I ran across the plaza because I was so excited to see her. After seeing each other for a couple minutes I finally took in my surroundings and realized how massive the Duomo was. This church is the third largest Duomo. The building was beautiful on the outside with all the decorations. I went inside and the inside was somewhat plain with beautiful stain glass windows but the church was massive. I contemplated climbing the 462 steps to the top but decided against it because I do not really enjoy closterphobic staircases.

Duomo

Next Alanna and Dave gave me a tour of Florence. I learned how Florence used to be controlled by a wealthy family and they built a lot of the structures that exist in Florence today to show the city’s wealth. Also, Florence used to be surrounded by walls but these were eventually knocked down but some of the old city gates still exist. During the tour I rubbed the nose of a bronze hog, which is supposed to be good luck. I also walked across the Old Bridge or Ponte Vecchio, which is where the butchers used to live because it used to be full of meat shops, which smelt so bad that no one wanted to live by them. Now the Old Bridge is filled with jewelry stores. Also, for some reason when Germany attacked Italy during WWII for some reason Hitler ordered this bridge not to be blown up because he liked it. The I went to this wonderful panini place where I got turkey, mozzarella, pesto, and tomato sandwich. Following lunch Alanna took me to another amazing gelato place where I got chocolate mouse and the chocolate chip flavor again.

Ponte Vecchio

Since none of us really wanted to climb the steps of the Duomo the Florence kids took a group of us the Piazza de Michelangelo for great views of the city. Even through it was still pretty far uphill I did not mind the climb because it was outside. The views of the city were breathtaking from this Piazza. After hanging around up there for a little we headed back to our hostel to get ready for dinner. In order to get ot the hostel I needed to walked through this massive market called the San Lorenzo Market. It has tons of leather goods so I was able to purchase some souvenirs and presents. For dinner the Alanna took me to one of her favorite restaurants called El Gato, or the cat. I had gnocchi with pesto sauce that was to die for. After dinner we went out with the rest of the kids from Spain and the Florence kids to a discoteca known as Space. It was a lot of fun and an overall great day.

The next morning I had to wake up because I had an appointment at the Galleria dell Accademia, which is home to Michelangelo’s famous statue of David. On the way there I went through the Piazza della Signoria, which is home to the town hall and Neptune’s fountain. There is also a copy of the David that guards the town hall. It was originally built for the Duomo but was too heavy so it was placed the piazza. The hands of David are no properly proportioned because the architect built the statue as if people would be viewing from below. Once reached the galleria I was able to skip the lines since I bought tickets in advance. I headed straight to David, which was unreal. The statue is 14 feet tall and is an impressive structure. I still do not understand how someone could carve such a massive statue out of marble all those years ago. The statue is portraying David right before he killed the giant Goliath. He has a contemplative look on his face and is holding the slingshot he used to kill the giant. After marveling at the statue for some time I wandered around the rest of the gallery and saw some alter pieces that were created by Caravaggio. I learned that alter pieces were such impressive works of art because priests used to stand away from the congregation so they wanted something pleasant to look at.

The David

Following the galleria I went to lunch at the same sandwich shop I had gone to the day before because it was just so amazing. After we just hung out in the Piazza della Signoria for a while before going the Galleria degli Uffizi. This galleria is home to many famous paintings from the Renaissance. The galleria in itself is beautiful because all the hallways have these stunning frescos on the ceilings. I just wandered around the galleria for a while getting lost in the artwork. After this I meet Alanna and she took me to Café Rivoire, which is known for having amazing hot chocolate. It was as through my drink was made out of a chocolate bar and was delicious. I just wandered around the city of Florence for a while with Alanna and we just chatted about life. She took me to the paper store because Florence is famous for this type of stationary so I decided to buy some. Then I headed back to the hostel to change for dinner.

That night we went to this place called ZaZa’s. I had bruschetta as an appetizer and this pasta with mozzarella and tomato sauce that was to die for but the service was bad, which was kind of annoying. After we went to this karaoke bar for a while. I did not get up to sing but I did get to see my friend from home, Brittany. She was also studying abroad in Florence but was in Paris for the weekend and got back Sunday night. She came out to meet me and it was so great to be able to see her. I did not stay out long because I was exhausted for traveling and knew the next morning I had to wake up early for a train to Venice. I absolutely loved Florence and seeing Alanna so I was sad to leave the next morning but excited to see the city of Venice. Also, while I loved Florence it was weird because since a lot of US college students study there I was constantly hearing English, which is weird to me because hardly anyone in Alcala speaks English.