Un fine settimana in Italia--Firenze

WHAT A WEEK!! It's been crazy up in here the last week. I had to write two essays and study for a final, all for yesterday. But today is Thanksgiving! Which makes me very happy :) and though I do have one more essay due next Friday, I've decided to take the day off today, take my trip to the UK this weekend (yes, I'm going to the UK this weekend), and just have zero worries about school until I return next Thursday.

ANYWAY, now that I have the time, I must tell you about the rest of my trip to Italy. We arrived in Florence Friday evening around 9:30. We checked into our hotel, which turned out to be very comfy-cozy, and then went across the street for some dinner. I had a delicious salmon-creamy-tomato-sauce-pasta dish, which turned out to be my second favorite meal on the trip! We then settled in for a nice nighttime nap.

We woke up bright and early Saturday morning and set out for the Uffizi Gallery. We got in right away, and saw some BEAUTIFUL works. However, we didn't realize that the museum is bigger than life itself, so we only got through about half of it actually observing art work. But honestly, that was plenty. A copious amount of lovely Catholic-based paintings and crazily detailed sculptures, and we weren't allowed to take any pictures of it.

Afterwards we walked around the city a bit, on our way to the Florence Cathedral. We saw so much! There are statues everywhere, adorable coffee shops with amazing ham and cheese sandwiches, and a Disney Store!!

So the Cathedral… Holy wow. That place was amazing, outside and in. I couldn't believe all of the different colors of stone on the outside! And it is so huge, I couldn't fit the whole thing in my camera frame (first world problems). I got what I could though. 

I could have spent hours inside that place. The ceilings were so high, it made me a bit dizzy to look up. Over the sanctuary, there was a domed ceiling that was painted with beautiful, detailed images of everything you can think of--there's even a dancing skeleton up there. It was such a sight--all for free!

We took a walk down the street and ate lunch at a cute little restaurant, where I had some exquisitely made mushroom pasta. There was an open market right across the street, next to this super ugly Cathedral that cost money to go into, so we skipped the ugly costly church and went to browse the market. There were vendors selling all kinds of things--shoes, coats, purses, wallets, notebooks, masks, magnets, t-shirts, you name it. I bought myself a beautiful mask and a tiny bottle of Limoncello in an Italy-shaped bottle. A couple of great purchases if you ask me.

After all that, we went to another little Gallery to see the statue of David. But, once again, we weren't allowed to take photos. So I have nothing to show for it.

It was almost time to catch our train, so we headed back towards Santa Maria Novella, another beautiful Cathedral, which also cost money to go inside, so we skipped it and got gelato instead. The gelato was so yummy! It was like ice cream, but much creamier and sweeter. Honestly, I think I might like ice cream better. 

T'was the end of our day, so we headed to the train station with some sandwiches for the ride, and off we were to Venice.