Italy - Day 5 (Firenze)

Tuesday mainly consisted of museums, shopping, and eating. We started off with a Tony-guided tour of the Uffizi Gallery, which is home to some of the world’s greatest Renaissance Art. Some of my favorite pieces were Annunciation by Leonardo de Vinci and the Holy Family by Michelangelo. Michelangelo has only 4 known easel works so it was really neat to see the one in Florence since I saw two others in London (the last one is in Texas).

(Annunciation - I stole this picture off the Internet.)

For lunch a group of us grabbed pizzas and paninis from a little café and had a picnic on one of the bridges. There was a little ledge that went out over the water that we sat on and enjoyed our meal. It was fun just to chill in the warm sun.

(We had a small little photoshoot.)

The afternoon was spent demolishing the San Lorenzo market in round two. That market is a dangerous, dangerous place I tell you what.

After some valuable shopping time Tony took us to the Accademia where we saw the famous David sculpture by Michelangelo. The story of David and Goliath holds special importance to the city of Florence and so Michelangelo made a 27 foot statue to commemorate it. After seeing the statue I can now say I’ve seen Michelangelo 3 greatest works in each of his strengths: painting (Sistine Chapel), architecture (St. Peter’s Dome), and sculpture (David).

For supper the group headed to a little family owned restaurant. Liz and I decided to branch out and try a new appetizer – Tuscan bread with pate. Turns out pate is liver. Yum. Haha. It was decent. My main dish was much, much more delicious: ravioli with gorgonzola cheese. The chats we have at supper time with Tony are always delightfully interesting and I remember at this particular meal Liz (from South Dakota), myself (from North Dakota), and Tony (from England) all discussed the differences between South Dakota and North Dakota. Tony is a walking encyclopedia and kept up in the conversation quite well and frankly, sometimes knew more than Liz and I about our own states. Haha.

The rest of the evening was spent relaxing in the hotel and gearing up for Venice!

(Aerial shot of Florence.)

Italy - Day 4 (Firenze)

See ya later Rome – Hello Florence :)

Day 4 started with taking a high speed “bullet” train to Florence. Diana and I rode next to each other and we made an important discovery – both of our notebooks are made by the same designer… we were pretty excited. Haha.

Anyways – back to the actual trip. We got to Florence and of course, the first stop we make is food. Bruschetta, tortellini, and gelato…. Another standard meal. For the afternoon Tony led us on a walk around Florence. Florence was my favorite city of the 3 we visited in Italy, mainly because it was small enough so everything was in walking distance and of course, it was stunning. I've come to really like public transportation because of London but when in a foreign speaking country, walking is the preferred form of transportation. Our walk began with seeing the Duomo, its Baptistry, and Giotto’s Tower. This church is also called the Church in Pyjamas because of its unique green, red, and white marble pattern. The dome for this church is considered an architectural wonder because Brunelleschi didn’t use scaffolding at all while constructing the self-supporting dome. I didn’t get a chance to climb the 463 steps to the top of the dome, perhaps I’ll put that on my to-do list for the next time I’m in Florence?

As we kept walking around Florence, Tony gave us a brief history of Florence on how it was dominated by very wealthy, competitive families. One of these family’s was the Strozzi’s, whose palace is pictured below. It pretty much looked like a huge fortress from the outside.

We also got to see Gucci headquarters.

Then we crossed the Arno River, which had a gorgeous view.

We crossed back across the river on Florence’s oldest bridge. It is a medieval style bridge, hence the shops on top of it. The shops used to be butcher shops but are now fine jewelry stores. Next we walked through the courtyard of the Uffizi Gallery, one of the world’s greatest art galleries. Uffizi means ‘office’ – this building was formerly used as offices by one of the rich families of Florence.

Finally Tony gave us some VST (valuable shopping time) at the famous San Lorenzo Market, which is known for its Italian leather goods. I was IN HEAVEN. I wanted to buy everything. Shoes. Jackets. Scarves. Gloves. Accessories. Purses. Everything. But I didn’t. I used a little bit of self control and bought myself (only) a pair of leather gloves and a jacket and then a few gifts for friends and family.

For supper Tony took the group out to an amazing supper at Zaza’s. This particular restaurant is known for its truffle sauce which had a creamy, mushroom, biscuity taste (good description, I know) or as Tony would say “a choir of angels singing” taste (a little better than my description…). So for my meal I chose the fettuccini truffle sauce pasta – yummy.

And for dessert? You guessed it – gelato. Italian food is so heavenly.

Italy - Day 3 (Roma)

Our final day in Rome was spent touring “Ancient Rome.” We began with none other than the Coliseum! I learned that it is actually called The Flavian Ampitheater. It was constructed in 80 AD and used for contests between gladiators, slaves, and animals and could seat 55,000. The Romans were genius at engineering and building – it only took 10 minutes to fill the Coliseum. During the 100 days contests of fighting between people and people, animals and animals, and people and animals, 2,000 men and 7,000 animals were killed.

Right next to the Coliseum is the Arch of Constantine. The triumphal arch was built in 315 AD to celebrate Constantine’s defeat of Maxentius, a victory that resulted in the conversion of the Romans to Christianity.

We then explored The Forum – the epicenter of Ancient Rome. We climbed Palatine Hill and saw the emporer villas, as well as the House of Augustus and Flavia, the temple of Julius Caesar, and the House of the Vestal Virgins.

Story of how Rome got its name: There was a cave on the hillside of the Forum where brother Romulus and Remus suckled on a she-wolf and were raised by a shepherd. The brothers wanted to build a city but disagreed on the location. As a sign from God, 12 white vultures flew over Romulus’s location and only 6 over Remus’s, which led Romulus to kill his brother and build his city, Roma.

As we walked around Rome more, we passed Trajan’s Column. It was cool to see the real thing because I got to see the plaster of it at the V&A in London

We then spent the afternoon visiting 3 churches.

San Giovanni in Laterno. This is the cathedral of Rome and is significant for its beautiful Baroque architecture.

Scala Santa. This church is said to contain the stairway that led to the balcony of Pontius Pilate, where Jesus was tried before the crucifixion. Pilgrims come from all over the world to climb the Holy Staircase, as tradition dictates on their knees.

Santa Marie Maggiore. Pope Liberus found snow on August 5^th 352 AD following a dream in which the Virgin Mary directed him to build a church. So the tradition is that every August 5^th rose petals fall from the church ceiling. This church is also home to (supposedly) the manger in which Jesus was born.