Florence: The Gelato Capital

Italy!!
Our first stop in Italy was Florence. And as Suzy and I love ice cream we were very excited to try gelato. Thus we learned that Florence is considered Italy's gelato capital :) this is wonderful news for us. We also were informed that some places make their own and after trying some of this, know that it is probably the best I have ever had.

While in Florence we have visited the Uffizi, to see the Birth of Venus and Spring, Accademia to see Michelango's David, the Archeological Museum for the Chimera and the Francois Vase (Chimera ended up being in California), the Bargello Museum which houses Bernini, Donatello, Michelango works. Some of these museums were planned, Uffizi and Accademia and such. Others such as the Bargello was found on accident, in which we went, "hey that looks neat. let's go there," little did we know we would be seeing some amazing things. For one thing I never knew that Donatello did his own David and it is also really interesting. Then there are the churches.

Florence has some very famous churches. The two main ones we saw were the Duomo and Santa Croce. The Duomo we found on our way to the Uffizi, for as we are walking down the streets we see this HUGE green and white building, and once again think, "wow, what is that?" So we stop there, people are standing in line, everyone is taking pictures, and there are signs but none say what it is. Instead we find someone selling postcards, and there it is 'duomo.' TaDa! We found something we were not even looking for! And inside of this amazing building is even more amazing architecture! Dante has a painting of himself there and many famous people helped with its building. The bapista next door has amazing doors on it, but we chose not to go inside. The Santa Croce is also beautiful. Even though you wonder if there are a few different buildings you see that things were slowly added on and everything works together. Inside of this church was many floor plots for various citizens of Florence. Some of the citizens were quite famous, Michelango's tomb is there, as is Galileo's. Otherwise this church is a wealth of knowledge, for as we have learned you take your time and see more when you have an audio guide. Therefore I learned that during the flood of 1966 the waters came high enough they reached the church, and the water level is marked in the church. This level was higher than my when standing in front of the plaque. Also one of the monuments for a famous citizen is the inspiration for the Statue of Liberty.

And now we are on our way to Rome. Hopefully the air conditioning in the hostel works and we find Rome as easy to navigate as we did Florence. ciao!