Firenze, Round Two

Friday, May 23rd

Today, our last day of official tours as a group, we went to Florence again! We saw the Uffizi Gallery, the Palazzo Vecchio, and the Ponte Vecchio.

The Uffizi was, to be completely honest, much less exciting than other museums we've seen—especially after seeing the David at the Accademia Gallery last Friday and the Bernini statues in Rome. Still, there were many impressive pieces, and that gallery is huge. I loved seeing works by Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Botticelli, and Raphael. I also loved the ceilings, which were all beautifully decorated with either paintings or gold-plated designs.

After the Uffizi, a few of us went to an amazing pizza place in the city. I got a pizza with prosciutto and artichoke, and it was ridiculously delicious (and only 7 euro!). I've documented the restaurant's name in preparation of future trips to Florence. Which are guaranteed.

We had to power-walk from lunch to the Palazzo Vecchio to meet up with our group. The Palazzo Vecchio is where the Medici family once lived and ruled over Florence. But really I loved the Palazzo Vecchio because it's where Robert Langdon runs all around in Dan Brown's INFERNO. We saw Dante's death mask, the map room (and the location of the secret door in the wall!), the hall of the 500, and lots of different works of art. It was a cool experience.

After the Palazzo we headed over to the Ponte Vecchio, the famous Florentine bridge that has jewelry shops (very expensive) lining the whole walkway and has a magnificent view of the city. Here our group got some gelato and strolled along for a few minutes. Once we had taken in the sights a few of us headed to H&M to buy some shirts, because apparently we all packed too lightly. It was an interesting/strange experience to shop in a store that I know very well while in a foreign country. But not to worry, they played American music most of the time.  Once we made it out of the store, we rushed over to the market a bit before realizing what time it was—nearly 6pm—and sprinting to the bus station to make the 6:00 bus home to Siena. We got there at 5:58pm (yesss) only to realize that—hey! look at that—we were early. Bus didn't leave till 6:10. No worries though, I'd rather be early than late any day. It also gave us time to sit down and admire/show off all the things we bought.

We had an uneventful ride back to Siena and each of us went to our homes for dinner. Instead of being active young adults on a Friday night, we all stayed in to work on homework, because everything is due on Tuesday.

But when everything is due that means we are done with the "study" part of our study abroad and we will start our internships! I'm excited to get working!

That's about it for today. Not the most dramatic of days, I know, but there you have it.

A domani,
Ciao!