Amo Firenze!

Buon giorno! (I've been getting a little better at these basic greetings, but not really)

It feels like an entire week has passed since my last blog post. This is only Day 3 in Florence and we have already done so much!! I've already taken so many pictures. I'm sorry that the pictures didn't show up in the last post, I was trying to post them on the Blogger app that I had to pay $4.99 for and then it derped with the crappy wifi on the way to Florence. And it looks like the same thing is happening now just on my laptop, so I'm sorry you're going to have to look through the pictures on Facebook :/ boo.

Yesterday we went to the San Lorenzo complex, which was commissioned by the Medici family, as was a lot of the art here in Florence. Among all of the things we saw were the beautiful Biblioteca in the complex, the Basilica of St. Laurence, the Chapel of the Princes, the Academia (we saw the David!) and the Florence Baptistery. You can see all of these pictures on my Facebook page or even on my Instagram (*cough cough* follow me @dani_zentz). Our hotel is literally two blocks away from the Duomo and the Florence Baptistery, Cathedral and Bell Tower complex. We can hear the bells from the bell tower in our hotel room!

Yesterday we also had a bit of free time after we visited the Academia and made friends with the statue of David, so we went and got pizza for dinner with my three roommates at a little place near our hotel and wandered a bit. We are staying at the Hotel Maxim, which is very centrally located and not a far walk from anything, really. We found a bookstore called RED, which stands for Read, Eat, Dream, and it was a cafe/bookstore that reminded me of a more modern Barnes and Noble that was three stories high. I got some really cool pens and a little journal! My suitcase will definitely be overweight on my way home... haha!

This morning we went to the Uffizi Gallery, where there are a LOT of famous works. We saw works by Michelangelo, Botticelli, Rafael, Caravaggio, and Leonardo da Vinci. We saw the Birth of Venus and the Primavera, as well as the Portrait of the Dukes of Urbino and multiple Enunciation paintings. At the top of the Uffizi there is a cute cafe out on a terrace with an awesome view of the Duomo complex. As we walk through the museums, I've been taking notes on my iPhone because I can write notes and insert pictures into the note for reference. It's so much information with so many works and artists to recognize and remember! I remember a lot of things from my AP Art History class, but that was three years ago now. 

After the Uffizi, we got in line to climb the Duomo! We waited in the line for an hour or an hour and a half, and then we climbed what seemed like a million small, steep, spiral stairs to the top. It was tiring, and my roommate had a couple asthma attacks on the way up, but when we finally made it, the view was incredible and the pictures speak for themselves. Unfortunately, the pictures are not loading for some reason... so look through my Italia 2016 album on Facebook! :) Ah, technology has been trying here in IT.

Florence is awesome and I love it (Amo Firenze!), but I'm starting to find that there are too many people here. It is a very touristy city, with street vendors selling bags and shirts that look like the same ones they sell in New York City except they say "Florence." The art and architecture of the city is beautiful, and the culture is awesome, but there are too many people here for me. There are tourists from all over the world. That's what was cool about climbing the dome; we were expressing our struggles climbing as well as our awe and amazement at the top with random strangers who did not even speak English. That kind of stuff is universal, as is music. I've heard "Time to Say Goodbye" played on the streets multiple times already... it's a beautiful Italian song that I sang in chorus at Bolles so it is special to me, and I'm sure it is special to everyone else in the city too. These common experiences across cultures are what is so cool about being over here in Italy. I'm sure I'll have more experiences as we continue our adventure. However, the introvert in me is really looking forward to Massa Marittima, a quiet hill town that will not have millions of tourists sharing the streets with us. We'll depart for Massa on Wednesday, so we still have 4 more days in Florence.

Tomorrow we have another packed day in store for us, and I'm sure Dr. Murphy has lots more amazing things to show us. Right now we're going to find food and cold/fever medicine for my roommate, who coming down with something. I just hope I don't catch it...

Ciao a tutti!
Dani