For our travel weekend Chris, Jenni, Andrew, and I traveled to Firenze, Italia. This was
our one full day in the beautiful city, and we were able to get a lot of
exploring done. We began by meeting with Carl, Michele, Paul, Devin,
and his friend Chris. We all ate lunch at a very nice restaurant
near the Duomo and then made our way to the Galleria dell’Accademia. This
museum houses many paintings and statues, including the magnificent statue of
David, by Michelangelo. No matter how much you may know or how many
pictures you may have seen of this famous sculpture, nothing can do it
justice. It was massive and has so much detail and emotion that it
must be seen in person to fully understand. There was also a small
musical instrument museum inside, where we were all able to release our inner
band geek. In the museum we very randomly met up with Isaac, who had
already done a lot of exploring of the city. He managed to make his way
around most of the map in just this one day. The others stayed in Rome
and went to the Capitoline Museum, where they spent four hours inside.
After the Galleria dell’Accademia, we parted ways and the four of us went to explore more of
Florence. We found a huge marketplace with hundreds of
vendors. The entire area had the aroma of genuine Italian leather, a
product which all of us invested in. We all got gifts for our loved
ones at home then made our way back to the hostel. With not much
resting time, we left again to get a quick dinner and decided to do yet more
exploring of the beautiful city.
Leonardo told us that
there was a hill on the other side of the river from which you can see the
entire city of Florence. Naturally, we wanted to find it. On
our way, we saw Ponte Vecchio, the oldest bridge in the city, as well as Piazza Pitti. We knew the hill wasn't going to be the
easiest thing to find because that section of our map was covered by an
advertisement--convenient! So, we saw a very large staircase and
decided to go up, assuming it was the start of the hill that we were looking
for. After walking up for about 30 minutes and seeing some
incredible houses, we had somehow managed to discover Forte
Belvedere. This place has a somewhat dark history, as many people
have died from falling between two walls (a gap that is not very obvious as it
is narrow and covered with brush). It also just so happens to be the
place where Kim Kardashian and Kanye West got married…weird. Shortly
after we came across this place, we realized that we were pretty much in the
middle of nowhere, and it was definitely not the hill that we were looking
for. As we made our way back down, we saw a very bright tree and a
replica of the statue of David, which we knew to be at the top of the hill that
we wanted to find. After a while longer, we made it to the top and
indeed, we did see the entire city of Florence. It was beautiful and
well worth the trek.
Some day, you will make it back to the hill, I hope for you. I own a painting from that view; when you come back, come visit and we will talk about your trip and I will show you a picture of the painting from that view. I stayed on budget during my first visit to Florence until I got to the Ponte Vecchio, where I managed to buy leather jackets for pretty much everyone I knew. Then, I stuffed them in my back pack and carried them all over Europe. Ugh! All of the many lessons learned when we explore the world! Have fund and learn lots. Best wishes, Dean McKeever
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