I Love Florence!!

It's only our first day wandering around Florence Italy and I am already in love!! This town is beautiful!!! I was completely starstruck when I caught my first glimpse of the amazing Duomo on our way to the hostel last night. This morning, after a breakfast of eggs and pancakes (first time in weeks-- if I have to eat another pizza or panini I think I'm going to barf) we went down to take some pictures in the day time.

Florence Duomo

March 23

Arg, this picture just does not do it justice! This beautiful work of art and architecture stands like a finely sculpted behemoth in the middle of town. 

Finally, a door big enough for Phil!

It is THE BIGGEST duomo I've ever seen and I was completely speechless upon seeing it in person. I never realized how huge it was when I was studying it in art history class. 

Michelangelo's David

March 23

Another work of art that I didn't realize was so huge is Michelangelo's David. This isn't the best picture of it, but you can at least get the idea of how tall this thing is. Also, it was difficult to get a picture at all because it's forbidden to take pictures here! This is our secret stolen picture of David, hee hee! It really is a beautiful work of art. We sat down and admired it for at least 10 minutes--- a pretty good length of time for the MTV Xbox generation-- so that's sayin' something!

The rest of this museum was chock full of early renaissance works of art-- many of which I studied in my Italian Renaissance art classes in college. I loved seeing the pieces I had to laboriously memorize in person. Everything is so much prettier. 

Another secret picture

March 23

Travel is so exhausting-- right now we are just hanging out at the hostel, resting our feet. We booked the place for another 3 nights and are hoping to take a day trip to Pisa tomorrow or the next day. 

Ordering Gelato

March 23

Gelato keeps us going.