FLORENCE DAY 2

Today was another long day, but a good one. We stated by meeting at 8:30 in the morning at the Piazza Repubblica and made our way to the Uffizi Gallery. There were some increadible Romanesque pieces. Most of them were of the Virgin Mary and the Christ child, but there were also a lot of well know piece as well like Botticelli The Birth of Venus. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to take picture because it was strictly forbidden but go to Google and type in Uffizi gallery and there you go. (Making you do a little bit of research mwahahaha). We were however allowed to take pictures of the Pontivecchio from the windows and it was a nice view.

After the Uffizi gallery we went to the Accademia where they keep the statue of David.

We weren’t allowed to take pictures of the real thing but in the Piazza Repubblica there is a copy so ya’ll with just have to make do with a picture of that.

On the real David they say that if you walk around the back of the statue you can see a “self portrait” of Michelangelo in David’s backside. We tried to see it but all I saw was… well a butt.

We had about and hour or so before we had to meet again so some of us went and got a gelato at a place that was supposed to rival Grom, but I personally don’t think that it rivals at all. Grom is way better (but I still liked it).At 2:45 we met back up with the class and went for a little walk to the Pontivecchio and as a class we sat and sketched the bridge. It was funny because people would walk past us and take pictures of / with us (in the background of their picture), as we just sat a sketched. Not gonna lie… it was kind of fun.

We walked a little more and sketched a few more things then Darrin and Susie broke us up into groups and we had little sketching tutorials. Brady and Laura were the “teachers” and their advice was really helpful.

After we were all done with the sketches it was free time and Darrin and Susie said that they would take those of us who wanted to the top of the hill to get some of the best views of Florence other than the views you can get from the dome. Well of course I wanted to go because I HAVENT CLIMBED ENOUGH STEPS AND HILLS ON THIS TRIP YET!!! (Say this in your best Richard Simmons impersonation). The hill was sooooo killer, but the views… to die for. We got to hear some Gregorian chant which was interesting and I only knew what it was because of my music class last semester at Snow.

At this point all of us were so we started on our long trek back down the hill in search of some food. We ate at another sidewalk restaurant which was actually really good. It was a lot of fun because there was a little stage set out for karaoke next to the restaurant and every once in a while people would get up to sing (mostly the Beatles which I loved). The food was incredible. I had mushroom risotto with this creamy tomato sauce. It was the best food I have had thus far in Europe.After dinner we just sat and talked and listened to music when all the sudden this group of Asians started to cheer and we turned around and there were trying to get one of their group members to sing. Finally he does and I was so surprised. He was just this little guy but his voice was larger than life. He sang opera which I am not really a fan of but this was just beautiful. Tomorrow is another free day and we have a lot planned so see ya all there.