Florence, Italy!

This weekend a few of us went to Florence and it was amazing!  We all liked it much better than Rome, somehow it felt smaller and more of a human scale.  Plus, the street system was easy to understand and navigate (unlike Rome, where I still need a map to get most places).

The early morning train ride to Florence:

Once we got there and found our hotel, we went back to the Duomo (at the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore)!

The bell tower:

Inside the Cathedral:

When we came out of the Cathedral, I had my first experience in bartering in which I sort of accidentally ended up buying a print for 5 ero and all my change. . .

Then we climbed up to the top of the Duomo, and I played with camera settings again. . .

After that we wandered around for a bit, and then went to the Ponte Vecchio, which was the historical gold smithers bridge, so the bridge is lined with jewlery shops today.  When they were all closed up, they looked like little treasure chests or jewlery boxes!

The view off the bridge was pretty awesome, too, and there was a street performer who enhanced the evening quite nicely!

And Amy took this awesome picture:

Then we walked down to the next bridge and I took some pretty awsome pics myself!

The setting sunlight was pretty beautiful on the face of Basilica Santa Croche:

And the sunset from our bedroom window:

The next morning we got up early and went to see Michaelangelo's David, but we couldn't take pictures inside, sorry!  It's funny, though, it really did look like it could turn its head or walk away at any moment.  Definitely worth seeing!

Then we went across the river to a hill and looked over the city, it was beautiful!

Maybe someday Clint and I will travel like this:

: )


Other than that, I spent lots of money this weekend, and had a great time doing it!!!