Florence was an amazing city to see. Italy it self is just so completely different from North America. The streets are tightly packed because of when they were built and people of the modern world are still using buildings that were constructed without the thought of cars or anything of the like. Unlike Canada or the States that Build cities around the idea of modern traffic. The buildings are full of detail and history and I am not just talk about the most famous buildings in Florence. Florence is the capital city of the Tuscan region. Most people know Florence for being the birthplace of the Renaissance. This would be because of the Medici family who seemed to have their hands in everything.
From the beginning of our journey we wake up extremely early in order to catch the first bus out of Volterra to Pontedera. The bus takes about an hour. Normally I do not mind this bus ride but the driver we had was driving a little crazy and the motion sickness set in and I couldn’t wait to get off that thing! We get to Pontedera and we have about ten minutes before our train arrives for Florence. This train is about hour as well. It is an easy hour on the train as me and Michele and her sister have a steady conversation.
Florence! We made it! Now you might judge me for this next bit me and the rest of the class were a little homesick and as much as we love Italian food sometimes you need something that reminds you of Canada and for us the closest thing we could get was McDonalds. Big Mac’s here we come.
Finally made it to the hotel after ask about a hundred bus drivers which bus to take! We ended up getting a free ride too because the bus driver was out of tickets and the stand would not sell us any. Our hotel had to be the most colourful hotel in all of Italy, but it was clean and nice. After our quick nap and we headed back out into Florence to get our first real taste of the town.
Elizabeth and I walked around for while going into shops and meeting vendors and talking with other tourist. We also watch a lot of street artist, which made some pretty great representations of famous art housed at the Uffizi. The first night was just for fun and we went to the Hard Rock Café! It was so much fun and finally I found a place that actually knew how to make a long island ice tea.
The Uffizi, the famous museum that houses some of the most famous Renaissance art in the world. Some of the famous artists that were featured there was Leonardo da Vinci, Giotto, Michelangelo, Botticelli, Piero dello Francesca, Caravaggio, and Raphael. The Uffizi houses mostly the privet collection of the Medici family as the building was built by the Medici. Uffizi translates to the offices as that is what the Uffizi was suppose to be. It was amazing to see all these great works of art that I have read so much about. After being in school for five years you tend to get board of always looking at a text book or a slide in a presentation, and hearing “oh this really doesn’t do it justice”.
We also got to go off on our own and see a bunch of other great famous works of art, like the statue of David. It is way bigger then I thought thought it would be. I thought that the statue was life size. That is something I am noticing alone my trip visiting countless of places of art is that things are either a lot bigger or small then what I thought.
Bigger then you think!
