Florence Trip

I must apologize to the five or six people that read my blog for not posting on it for so long. I have been very busy with traveling and school...but mostly traveling. Two weekends ago we went to Florence for a field trip. Our Italian History and Culture professor, Marco gave us a tour of Florence on Friday and took us to see the Duomo and the Santa Croce Cathedral. Florence is much smaller and more dense than I expected. I assumed it would be similar to Rome but it was more like a giant Orvieto with narrow streets, connected buildings, and very few trees.

After our tour with Marco, my four roommates and I checked into our hostel which turned out to be pretty much a apartment that we shared with two other girls.  Later that day we decided to go back to the Duomo to climb up to the top of the dome. The climb to the top consisted of a narrow stairway that didn't have handrails and curved around and around so much that it made me dizzy. The view at the top was completely worth the climb. These are some pictures of the Duomo and the climb to the top of the dome.

After climbing the Duomo we went into the Baptistery of San Giovanni which is right in front of the Duomo. Then we went to the Museo di Opera del Duomo. The next morning we headed to Pisa which is only a 30 minute train ride from Florence. Luckily the weather was beautiful (warmer and sunnier that Florence but still a little cold) and the crowds were at a minimum. We spent all day there and then headed back to Florence for dinner at a Mexican restaurant called Tijuana (we had all been craving Mexican for awhile). These pictures are of Pisa and the last one is of my burrito at Tijuana which looks disgusting but was delicious.

On Sunday, we went the the Galleria dell' Accedemia which is where the original stature of David by Michelangelo is located. It was amazing the to see it in person but you aren't allowed to take pictures of it. We also went to the Palazzo di Medici, Ponte Vecchio and Santa Maria Novella before heading back to Orvieto.  This is a picture of me and Natalie at Palazzo Medici and the next one is of me at Ponte Vecchio. 

When we got off the train in Orvieto we were welcomed by a foot of snow which we were not happy to see. I think we have all gotten sick of the cold snowy weather. My next post will be about our field trip to southern Italy which was last week. I leave tomorrow for our second trip to Florence so I will be posting about that soon as well. 

~ Jena