A weekend in Firenze...

This past weekend our entire group went to Florence. We went up on Friday morning and saw the Uffizi gallery which was amazing to see because it had lots of painting in it that I had studied in my art history classes. We also began exploring the never ending Florence leather market. Florence has a great out door market that is out, rain or shine, and it is a lot of fun to wander through the stalls. Friday night we ate dinner at our hostel and went out in Florence.

Saturday was the day we had all been looking forward to. We went to the Academia to see Michelangelo's David. It is an absolutely magnificent statue and so interesting to look at. The only down side to all of the museums in Florence is that you can't take pictures, and the little women guards at the David were fierce. After visiting David, we headed over to the Bargello Museum which has the other David statues by Donatello and the panels used for the competition for the doors of the Duomo. The panels that have survived were done by Ghiberti and Brunelleschi. After our time at the museum, or entire group went and had lunch near the Ponte Vecchio. We were especially lucky because there was a chocolate festival going on in Florence and we all took advantage of that for our dessert. We then did a little shopping and I finally found the leather boots I had been looking for. They are tall dark leather and gorgeous! We finished off Saturday with a delicious meal at ZaZa, a place that was recommended to us and turned out to be fantastic!

Sunday we just wandered through the market and enjoyed our last hours in Florence. Oh, and it rained our entire time in Florence, but I guess we just wont be missing the Seattle weather.