Rome Is Where the Heart Is: Florence in 28 hours

Yesterday we went to Florence with our whole study abroad group, Professor McCoy, Professor Jacobs, and a teacher from the Rome Center named Emilio who is crazy awesome! We followed him around everywhere listening to all he knew about the art we saw. He's been to Florence 60 times!

Anyway, we woke up yesterday at 5:45 am...so painful. We got to the bus at 7 to make our 8 am train to Florence or Firenze (also know in the ancient times as the "New Athens"). We were so tired from walking those 10 miles the day before and did not realize we would be walking to so many museums when we arrived in Florence. But as soon as we got there we dropped our bags and went straight to the first museum. We went to several churches that were filled with art and Christian depictions. I don't know a lot of the details of stories so Anne had to fill me in with all her Catholic knowledge. Professor McCoy also helped inform me about the different saints and their stories. There were a LOT of crucifixions and each artist had a slightly different interpretation. We also got to see Michelangelo's David as well as Donatello's. They were both very different. Michelangelo's was very heroic, marble, ideal, beautiful, and huge, while Donatello's was a younger boy, bronze, and standing on Goliath's head. By that time it was 1:30 and I was so starving I was imagining stuffing pizza's into my mouth...not too lady-like haha. Fortunately I got my pizza :).

We finished up yesterday with the Uffizi and all the Italian paintings and sculpture it contained. My favorite was "The Birth of Venus". That night we all we out to dinner with some of our professors at a steak place and it was so much fun! We all splurged because it was Anne and Sam's birthdays. I had a delicious penne with salmon sauce! We talked and joked all night with our professors. I've never felt more grown up. We covered all sorts of topics and I really enjoyed getting to hear their knowledge outside the classroom setting. They are some of the most interesting people!

Anne and I ended our day walking the few streets of Florence (it's actually really easy to get around) by night and got a "Mamma mia!" from a guy passing on a bike haha!

Today we started out at 9 am and followed Emilio to a few more museums. We saw the chapel that Michelangelo designed for the Medici family. We saw some art that they moved from the Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral into a separate museum including the wooden "Maddaleana" by Donatello.

Once we finished we were allowed some free time and a group of us climbed the 463 steps to the top of the Duomo or dome and wow my legs were shaking at the end but it was so worth it! We got the most beautiful view of the city, completely unobstructed. Then we added one more museum because the Galileo museum sounded awesome! They had collected a lot of ancient scientific instruments that were really interesting to learn about. I saw lots of early electrical mechanisms, compasses, astrolabes, telescopes, microscopes, and watches.

We saw so much in our short time in Florence, I'm still trying to absorb it all. It was so much fun but I'm glad to be back in Rome!

Ciao!