Although my title pretty much sums up our two days in Florence, I'd like to share a few more details, and more importantly, pictures, to tell you all about our trip! Florence is such a beautiful, beautiful city, and I know that doesn't sound especially persuading or convincing, but it really was so much more beautiful than Rome, and a lot more special in many ways. It is much smaller than Rome, but is filled with just as beautiful and impressive buildings and very pretty views and has this quaint small-town feeling that is the opposite of Rome's bustling, chaotic personality. Friday morning, we toured a chapel called Santa Maria del Fiori, and went through various other churches with Daria (our art history teacher) then she left us for a free afternoon of exploring the city until we had an appointment at the Academia to see Michelangelo's famous "David" statue, which literally took my breath away. The statue was so much more impressive and awe-inspiring in person than I could have imagined when I learned about it in high school. We had a fun night Friday night and then met Daria and Lucia at the Uffizi Museum that held many art history treasures including Botticelli's "Birth of Venus", which is one of my personal favorite Renaissance paintings, among many others. Unfortunately they are very strict about cameras, and since I snagged an illegal picture of Michelangelo's "David" in the Academia the previous day, I did not want to push my luck, so no pictures from the Uffizi... After the museum visit, a few of us had a relaxing lunch on the roof of the museum after we finished our tour which gave us a gorgeous view of the city, and then we were off to spend an afternoon of shopping at the markets! The leather market in Florence is divine and Emily, Amanda and I spent too much time (and money) at it all afternoon. Saturday night Amanda and I went to get the much acclaimed "Gusto Pizza" margherita pizza and climbed the steep hill to the Piazza de Michelangelo at the top of a hill overlooking Florence and the Arno River and the sunset was AMAZING! There were so many wedding pictures being taken up there, it was such a magical spot!
Random picture in terms of timing/chronology but it shows you our cute Italian kitchen in the background, we love it!
This is a pretty view of the Santa Maria del Fiori, the main church in Florence that has the famous "Il Duomo" (The Dome) as part of its structure.
This is the ceiling of Brunelleschi's"Il Duomo" inside the chapel, covered by Vasari's beautiful frescos. The colors were amazing and I think I took about 20 pictures trying to capture the vibrant colors and details. (Also that little circle of blue is actually a little skylight window that shows the bright Italian sky, and not actually part of the painting.)
This is Michelangelo's tomb, pretty cool...
This is us standing next to the river before we had lunch at a little pizzeria across the river from the rest of the city.
Inside the Academia, taking pictures was strictly monitored and prohibited to protect the statues and paintings from the flash of cameras, but I couldn't refrain from trying to take a picture of the "David" statue since I had been anxiously awaiting it since I heard we were going to Florence as part of our program. So here is my stealth, contraband picture...
Friday night standing on a bridge in front of the ever-stunning Italian sunset.
Standing on the Ponte Vecchio with Amanda and Emily watching the beautiful sunset, eating gelato, while a guitarist played "Somewhere over the Rainbow"....pretty great moment!
Gelato sunset!
Saturday morning the Uffizi had amazing art, but no cameras unfortunately, but we did take a few pictures on the roof at lunch! It had a gorgeous view of the bright blue sky over the "Duomo"....
LEATHER MARKET!!
Outside Gusto Pizza anxiously awaiting for it to open at 7:00!!!
This is our Gusta Pizza friend/pizza-maker, he even made our pizzas in a heart shape!
Our adorable and delicious pizzas.
One of the many, many wedding pictures taken at the top of the hill at Piazza de Michelangelo!
Sunset from the top of the hill over the bridges of the Arno River (sorry, iPhone quality, didn't bring my big, real camera)
Happy as anything after our amazing heart-shaped pizzas seeing a gorgeous sunset!!
One last sunset picture but now taken from down on one of the bridges instead of from the top overlooking the city...
All in all, I absolutely loved Florence, I wish we had been able to stay for longer than a few nights!
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