Florence, Italy....I will definitely go back.

For my second weekend trip, I went to Florence, Italy. I absolutely LOVED Italy. From Vienna, I took a plane ride to the airport in Pisa, Italy and then just took a train towards Florence from there (which was only about 35 minutes away). Since we were already in Pisa, we decided to go see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Seeing it in person was pretty cool. We were there for a little while taking lots of pictures. 

Leaning Tower of Pisa

We arrived at our hotel in Florence later in the evening. We were tired from all the traveling that day, so we just went to dinner that night and enjoyed the view of Florence in the night. The next day was a busy day. In the morning, we went to the Galleria dell’Accademia, an art museum that is home to Michelangelo’s sculpture David. The David sculpture was breathtaking. As long as the David, we saw other sculptures of Michelangelo’s. It was a fairly small museum compared to others like the Uffizi Gallery. But all of the sculptress we saw here were great. Afterwards, we visited a Leonardo de Vinci Museum, which had invention models of his designs. Some of the invention models were interactive.

Michelangelo's David

 From there, we decided to go see The Dome of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. We wanted to climb up the dome to see the panoramic view of Florence from there, however, the tickets were sold out (I guess I will have to come back to Florence for that). Nonetheless, we were able to go inside the Cathedral di Santa Maria del Fiore and see the interior of the church and the dome. We were also able to see the exterior of the Florence Baptistery (Baptistery of Saint John) and the bell tower. The cathedral, baptistery, and bell tower were all in the piazza. 

Interior Design of Florence Dome

After all this sightseeing, we ate lunch. I had some great Italian pizza. Then we did LOTS of shopping. I bought something for all six of my family members there and items for some friends back home, as well. After the shopping, we went back to the hotel to rest a little bit. Later that night, I met up with Sarah and Joanna and had dinner and gelato. The food was pretty great. I still can’t believe I had a €10 gelato, though. I had no idea how much it cost when I ordered it. But it was worth it. Afterwards, we went on a little hike up to the Piazzale Michelangelo, which had a great panoramic view of Florence. When we went up there, it was night and the view was great. The next day, Sunday, we decided to go back up the the Piazzale Michelangelo and see the view of Florence in daylight and the view was just as great. We were also able to see a replica of the David. We also went there again because the San Miniato al Monte, which is a basilica, was also up there. We were able to attend church at San Miniato and it was fascinating, although it was in Italian. 

View from Piazzale Michelangelo

Afterwards, we ate a quick bite, did some more shopping, and went to the hotel to rest a bit. We then went to go visit the Basilica di Santa Croce (Basilica of the Holy Cross). I really liked that church because it contains the tombs of great Italians, such as Michelangelo and Galileo. I liked the interior design of the dome of the Florence Cathedral, but I really liked the overall interior of the Santa Croce Basilica better. Afterwards, we visited the Uffizi Gallery, an art museum that had some amazing paintings. The next day was Monday, which was traveling day for us. We left Florence early in the morning and took a train to Bologna, Italy, From there, we took a plane ride back to Bonn. My Florence trip was my favorite weekend trip. It had always been my dream to visit Italy and I finally did. I’ll have to come back and visit Rome next.