Florence, Oct 18-19, 2012

     Although I wasn't really thrilled with the city at first, Florence was lovely. We had modest but nice hotel that served us mostly just bread for breakfast (like the one in Assisi) with a key system like that of the hotel in Siena.

     Thursday afternoon, after settling in, I went inside San Lorenzo. The marketplace by San Lorenzo was CRAZY. There is just SO much stuff to look at! Florentine stationery, leather gloves, leather jackets, leather EVERYTHING, pretty scarves. . . All kinds of cool stuff. At about 3, we all met on the steps of the Duomo to begin our group activities. Here's the duomo:

 



I love how these churches have Madonna and Child statues front and center
 outside. So awesome. I especially LOVE the ones at Notre Dame. More on that amazing church later. ;)
 

     Kind of looks like the Duomo in Siena and the Duomo in Orvieto, I know, (all three have this thing for alternating white and green marble, which I've not seen anywhere else) but it IS different. And lovely. :)  My friend Rachel described them as looking like "spun sugar."

     Oh, and let's not forget the Baptistry, which was a very popular subject for photography indeed. I got my picture in front of it on Friday, after waiting in line behind a number of Asian women. (I've noticed that about Asian tourists: it's always the husbands taking pictures of thier wives in front of everything, and several pictures with the same background, in different poses. Some of the most amusing poses were the ones I've seen at the Mouth of Truth. It's cute, in a funny sort of way.)

 

 



     The first of these group activities was gelato at Perche No! This place had the best lemon gelato imaginable. It was refreshing, not super strong, not pucker-inducing. It was sooooo good...  (Speaking of gelato, the best place in Rome to get gelato is Old Bridge, across from the Vatican walls and between the Vatican Museums entrance and the gate at St. Ann's. It's good gelato, you get more for your money than you do at other places, and the service is always both amusing and friendly. Well, it is if you're a young girl.) After gelato, we had a very long walk to San Miniato. On the way there, we crossed the river via Ponte Vecchio. Ponte Vecchio is an age-old bridge with buildings on it; not just any buildings, but stores selling expensive gold jewelry.

 

 

     When we finally got to San Miniato, we went to Mass and saw an absolutely breathtaking view of the city at twilight.


 

 

     Friday, we went to the Uffizi Gallery. While waiting for our tickets, we saw a creepy statue-guy and listened to a really good classical guitar player.

One of the songs he played was "Con Te Partiro"; excellent rendition

     At the Uffizi, we saw a good deal of art, including some paintings that I had seen in sundry art books, and some GORGEOUS illuminated manuscripts. One of them was Dante's Inferno. How did I know this? I knew from the picture. :D It felt very awesome to be able to actually remember part of the the Divine Comedy, AND to be able to identify a centuries-old book. :)

     Upon leaving the said gallery, Andrew and I happened upon some equally important manuscripts at one of the street vendors' carts.

 

 

    And there were random other buildings in the street that I found cool.

The Lindt store.... Ohhhhhh..... The best chocolate ice cream I've ever had, and a whole store
 where you can buy pounds of Swiss chocolate. Needless to say, I didn't want to leave.

Love this kind of detail. It's strangely gothic... The Italians weren't big on Gothic.