First Day in Florence

On Monday, we planned on getting a bus into the city centre because my aunt and uncle live in the suburbs. However, we were s.o.l. because all the buses went on strike in Florence. Supposedly they often threaten bus this was the first time in a while that it actually happend. So of course we were there when that happened. The bus strike was planned for 3pm and would last 24 hours but there were no buses in site in the morning either. Therefore, we had to walk 45 minutes to get to the city centre which was more than an hour and a half away. We got a little later start than expected but it was well worth it.



Our first stop was at the Santa Croce Chuch (14th century Franciscan church, decorated with centuries of precious art and holds the tombs of great Florentines). We bought a walking tour that gave us the history of the church and described what everything was about. We saw the tomb of Galileo Galilei (1564-1642). However, it really isn't his tomb because no one knows where he is buried but they do know it is somewhere in the church. We also saw the tomb of Michelanglo Buonarroti (1475-1564). Michelanglo did not wish to be buried in Florence but rather in Rome where he spent most of his life. Santa Croce was just the start of all the great art that we saw during this trip. It was really cool because I took an art history class in school and I saw a bunch of art that I learned about in class. We spent almost two hours in the church but we could have been there almost all day if we let ourselves. The church was just full of art and history.



Tomb of Michelangelo



Tomb of Galileo



Courtyard of Santa Croce



Santa Croce



Reflection of Santa Croce in a Mirror at a Gold Shop



Once we left Santa Croce, we walked the streets and found a place to get lunch. We got a couple of sandwiches and went to Plazza Signoria to eat lunch on a curb outside of Chanel. In Plazza Signoria is a fake statute of David. The real David used to be there until it was moved to the Academia. This plazza also had many other statutes and fountains. We saw a man dressed as a cupid statute and we wanted to take a picture with him but instead he was on his smoke break.

(The famous women in a seashell that I am talking about in the video is the Birth of Venus for all you smart people out there who don't speak my language.)

Next, we went to a free museum and curch called the Museo Orsanmichele. The bottom was a small church but if you walked up the stairs there was a museum with big statutes of people I didn't know. The third floor had a nice view of Florence and the Duomo which is where we went next! The outside of the Duomo and Baptistery is huge and covered with pink, green and while tuscan marble. The Duomo's claim to fame is the magnificant Dome which was the first Renaissance dome and the model for domes to follow. For many years, the church had a hole in it because they didn't knonw how to build a dome. The inside of the Duomo did not compare to Sante Croce. It rather was much simpler except for the dome. The cieling of the dome is painted with the Last Judgment by Giorgio Vasari and Federice Zuccari. While my parents visited the Bapistry, Kristen and I spent 8 euro and climbed 463 stairs (extremely steep) to the top of the Duomo. You could see all of Florence with the mountains in the background.

Duomo and Baptistry

Famous Doors of the Baptistry

Top of the Duomo

After we came back down from the Duomo, we walked by an open market that had more leather stands, scarves, etc and then got more gelato. We walked to Ponte Veccio which is the most famouf Florence bridge lined with the most expensive jewelry shops. My uncle came and picked us up at 7pm and took us back to the apartment (thank goodness because my feet hurt!). For dinner that night, we heated up nutella and ate it with strawberries it was soo good yumm yumm!

Cin Cin