Il Duomo di Firenze was completed in 1436 with the dome top engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi. It’s currently the largest brick dome ever constructed. The Duomo is located in the Piazza del Duomo and stands beside the Giotto’s Campanile (bell tower), and the Florence Baptistry. The three buildings are on the UNESCO’s World Heritage Site list. The Duomo and the Bell Tower offer tickets that you can buy to climb up both buildings. One ticket allows you to climb both. We chose to climb the Duomo, which has 463 steps to the top. Walking up the steps wasn't too bad because it wasn't a continuous walk. There was a lot of stopping and waiting because they can only let a certain amount of people at the top at a time. I love roller coasters because of the thrill, and usually the heights don’t bother me, but for some reason climbing the Duomo made me a little anxious. I think it might have been the tight enclosed space with not much fresh air, so keep that in mind if you ever want to climb it! In saying that, it really wasn’t too bad and even though there were moments where we stopped, it mostly kept moving. It took us about an hour to climb the whole thing. The scariest part was right before we reached the top, the steps got extremely steep. I know this isn't the first time I’ve mentioned steep steps; I guess I really don’t like them! Once we got to the top, the view made it all worth it. I really cant put it into words, so here’s a bunch of pictures. |
| Just a little nervous climbing the Duomo |
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Inside the Dome of Duomo   
Of course the climb down the steep steps was scarier than the climb up, and my arms were shaking holding the railing. But the rest of the walk was smooth and quick! We didn't have a game plan for the rest of our free day, we just knew we wanted to walk around and see everything. The weather was beautiful, and made for great photo opportunities, so we took advantage of that and went back to the Ponte Vecchio. After that, we took a walk to Pitti Palace. Pitti Palace is basically a castle, and was built in the 1400’s for Luca Pitti, a Florentine banker. In the 1500’s it was bought by the wife of Medicini. Currently, the Palace is turned into a museum. Sadly, it cost money to go in and tour the museum, and we didn't feel like spending money to do it. I sorta wish we did because it looked amazing, but maybe next time! We continued our day with some shopping, and I even got a corona with my lunch!
 
Around 6 we met in the hotel lobby for a happy hour. Donna got a couple bottles of wine and we all talked about how we spent our free day. All 14 of us grabbed dinner at another restaurant Luke recommended, but I forget the name. It was real close to our hotel and everyone that worked there was extremely nice. I ordered meatballs in a orange pasta sauce (wish I could remember what it was) and a side of soft and creamy Polenta, which tastes like your’e eating the best cheesy butter you've ever had. We had the choice of chocolate cake, caramel souffle, or a pie for dessert. We all ordered what we wanted but everyone shared because each dessert was delicious in its own way.
   
Now, it was time for round two of experiencing night life in Florence, and this time we definitely experienced it. As we were walking away from our hotel, a car full of guys were yelling at us. I had no idea what they were saying, then one of them stuck their head out and yelled New Jersey! So let me rewind back to the night before. The Italian Military always has a few men stationed on the same road as our hotel. We see them everyday when we go in and out of the hotel. The night before, some of the girls went up and talked to them. The guys asked where they were from and they told them New Jersey. That same guy yelled New Jersey when he recognized us. They stopped in the middle of the street, with cars behind them, and asked us where we were going. They didn't want to lose us so a couple of them got out while the rest parked the car. The whole thing happened so fast I think we were all stunned. So looks like were hanging out with the Italian military tonight?! We ended up hanging out with them for a little, but only one guy could speak fluent English. The rest were too embarrassed to try, because they thought they were horrible at it. Since we really didn't know any Italian, the conversations were difficult. We wanted to hangout with them but they were waiting for their friends to eat and we didn't wanna just stand on the street so we told them to meet us at a bar. We described Oibo to them and they said they knew where it was. We separated and it took us a little while to find Oibo because at the time, we forgot what it was called. Eventually we found it and hoped they would show up but they never did. We stayed anyway and were the only people on the dance floor until these two guys walked in and started to dance with us. In Italy, if you give an Italian guy attention for a second, he won’t leave you alone. Both guys were a little too much to handle, so we had to make a break away. We made an excuse and left quickly, and ended up back in the action of Florence nightlife.
It’s really cool walking around the streets of Florence on a weekend night because
theres so much going on and its such a mix of locals and tourists, especially American college kids. We were walking down a street filled with people, looking for another place to go, when we met Elvis. Unfortunately it wasn't Elvis Presley. What happened next was a typical story you hear about before going to another country, and of course we let our guard down like a lot of people do. This guy started talking to us and began to put his arm around one of the girls. A couple of us let our guard down and just had fun talking with him, but thankfully there was a couple girls in the group that didn't think it was so innocent. They tried getting “Elvis” attention by calling his name and he didn't respond. That was the first red flag. Then Elvis ran into his friends who looked like middle aged men, and they wanted us to come to a club with them. But the “club” was down this dark road with no people walking down it. (A million red flags!!) Our group of girls realized the sketchiness of the situation, and we all immediately turned around and walked away from “Elvis” and his creepy friends. Instead of asking us where we were going, Elvis kept walking away. We really confirmed that Elvis was bad news when one of the girls realized her purse was slightly open. Thankfully, nothing was missing. But it was a close call, and were extremely lucky that some of our group didn't fall for Elvis charm. It was definitely a lesson learned, and we were on our guard from then on. After our run in with Elvis, we met a couple guys from Penn that just got to Florence to study abroad. They were pretty nice and we planned on meeting up with them again before the end of our trip, but were never able to. We ended our night with some pastries at a restaurant near the Duomo. I didn't really plan to buy pastries, but half of us had to pee really bad and nobody lets you use the bathroom if you don’t buy something. Gotta do what ya gotta do! Buonanotte Firenze !  |
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