Florence

AHHHHH Florence. What can I say. It is so beautiful. When we go back to Italy one day this will definately be the area that we will go. (Don't forget to click the picture to see them all)

We took a 2 hour ride on the train to Florence and arrived in the evening just before sunset. We each stuffed into a small taxi cab and winded the small an narrow roads of Florence until we got to our apartment. We had the largest set back at this apartment because it was not ready. After speaking with the man the week before and the day before to confirm our arrival time, it was not ready. So we all sat downstairs at a cafe and ate lunch. We were however really happy with the apartment and the large amount of space it had. It could have been a little cleaner, but it worked. Evelyn got really sick by the time we got into our apartment and started running fever again. Everyone took a walk up the hill to see the city during sunset and Lance and I stayed with Evelyn and Camille in the apartment. I found a number to a 24 hour doctor service in Florence and called. A German doctor came to our apartment that night to see Evelyn and we had her check almost all of us out (since we were all getting a little sick by this time). She prescribed some antibiotics for Evelyn and Paul and I set out at around 10pm for a walk in the city to find the pharmacy. We had a lovely time seeing the city at night and enjoyed some gelato on the way. Evelyn got some medicine and was much better by the morning.

The next morning (Day 5) we all walked into the city and met our tour guide for the day. It was an excellent way to see Florence, a guided walking tour through the city ending with the Uffize Museum. She showed us what made everything so special and educated us on the effects of the Renisance. We went to the Duome first which is a church with a large dome hints the name Duomo. It was an amazing accomplishment in its time. The outside of the church is covered with white, pink, and green marble. We walked through Florence and went into the uffize Museum. Wow the paintings in the Uffize were spectacular and even Evelyn was intrigued. We learned a lot from our wonderful tour guide. Camille got tired by the time we got to the museum, but the girls held on and we made it through our tour. That evening we went to the St. Croche church were our tour guide was an American Student studying in Florence. Michelangelo was buried there. The inside was really beautiful. We did get to do a little bit of shopping in Florence since it is the place that lots of leather goods are made as well as beautiful pottery. I definately could have spent more time shopping. Lance did buy himself a really nice computer bag for work and I got myself some pottery.

The next day we went to the Pitti Palace. It was really cool because there was a section that you could see how they lived back in the day. Evelyn and my favorite part of the palace was the dress museum. Beautiful gowns from the past. We ended our tour in the gardens and then headed to the train station for Rome.

One word to describe Florence.....breathtaking.....the views are just breathtaking...