The next day we got up ready to explore Florence! Our first stop was the Duomo. Built in 1296 by Arnolfo di Cambio, this magnificent basilica is the world's third largest (after St. Peter's and St. Paul's - and I have now officially climbed to the top of all three!). Yet again, amazing. Pictures do most of the work for me.
Duomo!! I learned about this in art history class, i felt so cultured
so ornate
inside, very large
beautiful dome
When we were done with the Duomo, we continued to walk around Florence checking out churches. Basically everywhere you go you'll find beautiful architecture. We went outside almost every church that was free. We went to almost ten over two days!
Church of the Ossingnati
Santa Maria
One church we went into, which was pretty small, was my absolute favorite. It was called the Church of the Ossignati. It was not anywhere near as big as the Duomo, but it was absolutely the most ornate place I have ever seen. Every corner of the place was carved and sparkly. It glowed. I was in awe.
favorite church!!
Naturally Katie and I tried to recreate the sculpture we saw outside but I'm not sure if we quite pulled it off.
twins?
Continuing our walk through Florence, there was never a shortage of beautiful architecture. We walked across the river (I forget what it's called, but it was kinda gross looking) and checked out Palazzo Pitti which had really giant doors.
very large doors
We came back across on the Ponte Vecchio, which is probably Florence's most famous site. It is a bridge over the river that is covered with jewelry stores. Naturally we couldn't even begin to consider affording anything but we took a look anyway and got plenty of pictures!
jewelry stores on Ponte Vecchio!
view of river from Ponte Vecchio!
We walked past the Ponte Vecchio onto the side of the river with the Uffizi, which is the really famous art museum in Florence. We didn't go inside though because it was pretty expensive (and we had seen SO much art). We continued our walk along the river back to the Duomo, where we were going to climb to the top!
Katie + Jordan
view of Ponte Vecchio!
us!!
The next part was naturally our favorite - lunch. We managed to find a place with a 10 euro lunch special, where you got unlimited bread, a serving of pasta, and a serving of meat. This was the only full course Italian meal we had. The pasta was delicious! The pictures below give you an idea of whether or not I liked it. We had tripe afterwards which was kind of gross but at least I tried it!
before
after
Jordan had to do some stuff on the computer so she went to take care of things while Katie and I decided to climb to the top of the Duomo. The climb was very similar to St. Peter's, except not quite as long. Lots of small hallways and staircases! This one was less than 500 steps so it was a piece of cake. This is the third highest basilica in the world! Words can't describe the view. I took about 50 pictures but I will only put a few here.
Florence!!
I took a lot of panoramas
beautiful
one of my favorite pictures ever!
another beautiful day in Italy
When we got back down and found Jordan, she definitely wanted to get a similar view. I had read in my guide book that there was a great view at sunset from Piazzale Michelangiolo so naturally we made our way up! I cannot believe how much we climbed in those five days in Italy! It was a spectacular view. Unfortunately it was a little cloudy but we still got some good pics.
odd sign on the way
view from Piazzale Michelangiolo!
us at the Piazzale!
loving my life
While walking around, we looked at some of the graffiti. Let me just say, the graffiti in Italy is adorable. All of it talked about being in love. We tried to count how many languages we saw "I love you," it was at least 6 or 7 (some was in Chinese and other languages like that so we weren't positive!) and it was so romantic. Basically, Italy was the most romantic place I have ever seen or been. Here is a little taste of one.
so cute!
Next we headed up the hill overlooking Florence towards a monestary called San Mineato al Monte. We went to hear the monks chant and it was really cool! It's so interesting being in a place like that, so different from the way I live. We stayed for a little bit and then headed out to dinner!
monks!!
That night we decided to stay in because it didn't seem like there was much nightlife (I think things generally close down when it is cold because people like to stand out in the heat). We got a couple bottles of wine and some cookies and just sat in our hostel room and laughed the night away (we got lucky we were the only three people in our room!). Early bed time meant we were up early the next day!
More churches to see! We really just spent most of our second day going from church to church. We couldn't take pictures in all of them which was too bad but they were all beautiful!
how do you decide which one to worship at?
another giant one
So after seeing countless churches, we needed a break. We decided to stop at a pizza place by Piazza San Spirito, Gusta Pizza. Little did we know what we were stepping into. The pizza here was DELICIOUS. Definitely the best we had in Italy. I couldn't get over how good the tomato sauce was, Jordan loved the cheese, and all of us loved everything!
SO GOOD
We decided we should do one major sight that day so we went through Pitti Palace. The palace was owned by the Pitti family and later the Medici, who are famous for their wealth and art collections. There was so much art in there! It was like going to an art museum inside a palace. It was really cool. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed so I don't have much to show!
Later we went onto a gelato place called Grom that EVERYONE had recommended and it was AMAZING! The apple flavor tasted like actual apples. It was insane. We were exhausted and didn't really know what to do with ourselves so we actually just took a nap that afternoon. When we woke up around dinner time, we all knew where we wanted to go to. Back to Gusta Pizza and Grom! We ended up repeating both later in the day and it was fantastic. A great way to end our time in Florence.
me rubbing some statue on the way for luck (I don't think it worked...)
Gusta pizza take 2
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