Florence

Last Wednesday we headed to Florence for a 3-day field study trip. Florence was a much different experience than Rome. It was on a much smaller scale, the roads were intimate, and it just felt like I could breath better. More air. The night we got there the class went to eat at a restaurant near our hotel, and then a group of us went to a bar to watch the soccer game (Spain v Portugal I think). It was a great time. We ended up staying there pretty late because our professor, Lauren, met up with us. Limoncello & learning how to roll cigarettes were the highlights.

The next morning Lauren said she didn't even know who she was, and she had kept her sunglasses on through most of her lecture (ha ha). The morning for me wasn't very exciting other than seeing some beautiful churches. We often end up talking too much about the architecture of a palazzo, and they all seem to be very similar. We ended the lecture at the Piazza della Signoria. An amazing pinwheel-shaped space. This is where a copy of the David sits along with many other interesting sculptures.

We had the afternoon off, so some of us took a short siesta and climbed the Duomo. It is a magnificent church, and it took 436 steps to climb to the top. What impressed me the most was the painting of the interior of the dome. It was a depiction of heaven and hell, and hell was quite visual. I will not say more- Look it up if you are interested. But the view from the top was amazing. We could see the entire city of Firenze and beyond. Its pretty amazing how all of the buildings have red roofs.

That night a big group of us went to dinner. I wanted to find a restaurant that my roommate Heather suggested. She didn't know the name but just called it the purple shirt restaurant because the waiters wear purple shirts, and to ask for the waiter, Pietro. We didn't find it so we just picked something else. After dinner a few waiters took us to a nearby bar, and one of the waiters told me that we left our directions on the table and it had his name on it. Well- turns out that the restaurant we ate at used to have the waiters wear purple shirts, and our waiter was Pietro! What are the odds! We went to a club (Club 21) and were the only ones there for a while because we were early, but then a lot of people came and we had a great time dancing.

The next morning we went to the Uffizi gallery, and it was definitely overwhelming with stuff. My favorite painting was Primavera by Botticelli. In the afternoon we went to Pitti Palace and walked around the gardens behind called Boboli. The garden was immense and very fun to explore. That night we took it easy and had a nice quiet dinner in able to go to bed early.