What a wet, gloomy day in Florence. Firenze, as the Italians call it, has been home to some of history’s greats; Dante, Gallileo, Michaelangelo, etc. We started our walking tour in the rain, to Republic Square where we saw a beautiful carousel, as well as some amazing architecture. The first palazzo of the Medici family is here as well. They moved to the Pitti castle when the wife of one of the Medicis decided that because it didn’t have  a garden, it wasn’t good enough. The Pitti castle is where the Boboli gardens are located. The Piazza Republique also has a replica of Michaelangelo’s David, as wells as many other sculptures. The one depicting the decapitation of Meduse was forged of one block of bronze. From there we walked to a different Palazzo with sculptures of Firenze’s greats. Then we saw the Ardo River where the Old Bridge is. The Old Bridge has some of the most famous jewelry shopping in all of Florence. We walked over the the Piazza de Santa Crocce with it’s beautiful cathedral where Michaelangelo, Gallileo and others are buried (we did not go in to see the graves, and I was very disappointed about that). Dante’s home and church were next on the agenda. Finally we came to the Cathedral of Florence. This was one of the most amazing buildings I’ve ever seen. It’s enormous. I can’t even imagine the work that went into building it. It’s the 4th largest cathedral in Europe. The Baptistry in front of the church is no less amazing, though smaller in size. The gold doors were dubbed by Michaelangelo as the Gates of Paradise because they were so beautiful. After lunch (not so good) I made a quick stop to get gelato!!! Gelato is my favorite, because it’s a lot like ice cream but it doesn’t make me ill. 

Florence was not my favorite stop so far, though I’d like to visit again. I didn’t really like the tour because we had to wear these ‘idiot lanyards’ (actually called Whispers) with walkie talkies on the end attached to earphones. This way the tour guide didn’t have to shout. They warned us about pick pocketers and then made it even easier to spot us with these devices. The Whispers also made is difficult to savor and enjoy the beauty we were surrounded by, because you had someone talking in your ear constantly. However, we had a lot of luck shopping in Firenze!

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