Florence (aka Firenze, in Italian) was beautiful. The first thing we did when we got there was walk to a church up on a big hill called S. Miniato al Monte. The somewhat steep trek up was definitely worth it when we got to the top and had a beautiful view of the city.
Here's the church
And here's the view!
After that, we had free time for lunch and then our usual walking tour around the city, aka class. We went to a church called S. Croce, where a lot of famous Florentines are buried, the most notable being Michelangelo and Galileo. In the evening, we had free time again. I walked around with my friend Katie for awhile, window shopping. (Well, she bought a few things...I window shopped). The big thing to buy in Florence is leather--boots, belts, bags, jackets, and for us arkies, sketchbooks. Unfortunately, everything's kind of expensive--but Mom and Dad, when we come back at Christmas? :-) Haha. Anyway, it was fun just looking at stuff. We also went down to the Ponte Vecchio, (Old Bridge), which, as the name suggests, was the first bridge built across the river. Now it's pretty touristy, with shops lining both sides, but there's still a nice view in the middle.
Unfortunately, the lighting's not too great...
The next day, we spent the morning visiting San Lorenzo church, which includes a lot of things we learned about last year: the church itself, the "new sacristy" by Michelangelo with the tombs of the Medici brothers, and the Laurentian library. All very cool. In the afternoon, I chose to go on an optional visit to the Boboli Gardens, a formal (planned) garden behind one of the palazzos. I sort of blew off my watercolor sketching assignment to do so, but I ended up having time to do it later and I'm really glad I did, because the garden was awesome. One of the professors told us a little bit about it, and then we just had time to wander.
This is near the entrance--most of the garden is up the hill and behind those trees.
The view was great from up there, and I really like this picture--thanks Evan for your good photography skills!
Sweet fountain thing running down the hill--I threw a stick in at the top to see if it would go all the way, but unfortunately it got stuck in one of those heads.
After the gardens, a few of us climbed the dome of the Duomo! It was so cool. It's a pretty impressive dome architecturally, and you can kind of see the structure as you're going up--actually, you're inside it, so that made it even cooler. The sun had just set when we got up there, so my pictures didn't turn out great...but you can kind of get the idea.
Looking down the dome
The city!
Friday night we had time to relax and just chill in the city again, and then we left right after breakfast on Saturday for Siena! There are two main architectural attractions in Siena--Piazza del Campo, and the Duomo. They were both alright, but I liked Florence better as a city. But here they are:
Looking into the piazza--apparently I struggle with holding my camera straight when I take pictures, sorry
The Duomo is the domed building behind me (Also, when I looked at this picture I thought, "Wow! My hair is getting REALLY long!" And it is).
Siena also had some pretty awesome religious items--the incorrupt head of St. Catherine of Siena, and a Eucharistic miracle: 233 consecrated hosts that have been incorrupt since the late 1700s. They were stolen, then found and brought back to the church in a huge procession. Now they're kept in a tabernacle and only brought out on special occassions, so I didn't actually see them, but I did get to pray in front of them. It was pretty powerful.
We left Siena early Sunday afternoon and after a beautiful bus ride, got back to Rome in time for dinner. It was another great trip!
So both Florence and Siena have Duomos? Rather unoriginal names.
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