Here we are in Florence, with only half of our program to go! Athens and Rome were both incredible, and I’m sure Florence and Paris will be too.
When we arrived in Florence, our first activity was grocery shopping. This was new to us because we had lived in hotels in the past 2 cities. In Florence, we are living in a residence where we must budget, purchase, and cook our breakfasts and lunches. So far, this has been really fun and interesting, making things like eggs for breakfast and pasta for lunch!
Next, we dove right into Florence as we visited the Accademia. The Accademia is most famous for housing Michelangelo’s David. Since David is 17 feet in height, it was nothing short of amazing in person as Michelangelo’s masterpiece towered over us. I haven’t seen a piece of art like the David. It was truly breathtaking.
In addition to making our breakfasts and lunches, we are also cooking most dinners together in our dinner groups. The first night, we made a simple gnocchi with tomato sauce and Parmesan. I must say, it was delicious, and it was a really fun time. Possibly we can get a little more advanced later in our stay. We finished the night touring the city for the first time. Not only was this evening activity a walking tour, but also a gelato tasting as we went to 3 different gelaterias. The night was sweet.
The next day consisted of visits to the Uffizi Gallery and the Duomo. The Ufizzi Gallery was not only huge, and I mean huge, but also contained some magnificent pieces of art from history. My personal favorite was a piece by Boticelli, a famous Renaissance painter, called Birth of Venus. The view from the Duomo that afternoon was unreal. You could see all of Florence and the hills beyond. It was quite the sight.
Our day trip to the city of Siena was nothing less than spectacular. This medieval city was very interesting to walk through and observe. A dish unique to Siena is wild boar, which some of us tried in the form boar ragu with pasta. Although a new dish to us, it was phenomenal! Lastly, we climbed a tower in Siena, which gave us a magnificent view of the rolling Tuscan hills. We all waved our flags of Siena as we took in the view.
Florence has been very nice so far; it’s full of so much history and culture, and it’s different from Rome as it is smaller and a bit more laid-back. Most of all, we are all having an amazing time, and as soon as we know it, our trip will be over. But until then, we will make the most of everything.
–Jack