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| Dear Diary, Ahh..... waking up in Florence! The once in a life time opportunity... lol! OMG, I'm freezing (not hot, but cold)!!! Anyways I went down for breakfast after I was set to go. Oh my, the food there was as bad as the Hotel itself! There were such a small selection of food, such as juice, milk, cereal, bread, coffee, and tea. NO eggs, NO sausages, NO fruits, ARGH!!! Oh well, couldn't let this ruin my visit to Florence. So after gulping down some food, my family and I met up with the people staying at our hotel. It's hot out, hotter than yesterday! No wonder! Florence is a valley; therefore, it is the hottest state in Italy! Some interesting facts about Florence, Italy. Are you up to the challenge of overwhelming facts? Florence, dubbed "cradle of the Renaissance", "Athens of Italy", and just plain Firenze in Italian, was over a thousand years a quiet town in the Tuscan countryside. During the 1865-1871, Florence was the capital of the newly-established Kingdom of Italy. |
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| Today the tour did not include a bus ride, but all walking, in the hot and humid weather! Our first stop was the Baptistry. It was probably built around the 5th century and is a striking eight-sided green and white marble building. The sculpted doors on 3 sides are celebrated works: the South door with Scenes from the life of St. John the Baptist, the North door with Scenes from the New Testament, and the East door, which is one of the great masterpieces of Early Renaissance art, and it is the Door of Paradise. This special Door of Paradise is sculpted with Old Testament stories by Ghiberti. Well anyways, not only was the outside just grand, the interior was just as comparitively beautiful. |
| Baptistry |
| Our next stop was the Giotto's Belltower. It is of remarkable grace and elegance. The view from the 85-metre-tall tower is well worth the climb! Ahh... awesome view! Then we visited the Cathedral, which we all had lined up exposed to the sun for almost half an hour to get in. When I was out there waiting for our turn to go in, I was burning, as if my legs and arms were on fire! I thought I got a sunburn on my legs. -_- FINALLY! We were in! Inside was filled with many exhibits as it was a museum.. There were many tombs of famous people, including Gallileo, and Michaelangelo. Also, there were altars, many sculptures and walls filled with glass mosaics. They were so exquisite and done with much details. The only thing that I couldn't believe was that all these majestic marble sculptures, and mosaic pictures were from so long ago, and were still here in great conditions. I know that they were constantly restored and repaired, but still they are now ancient and full of historical values, and I bet as gorgeous as before. After the visit, it was our own free-time. My family and I walked around Florence. We did mostly window shopping, but we did go into some stores and browsed about, and bought some small souvenirs for friends and families back home, and of course for ourselves. During our free-time, my dad clicked away with the camera; lots and lots of photos were taken of me, and my brother, a few of my mom and dad, and the rest of the sceneries. I was hot and tired, so we took a short break and headed out once again to one of the most famous scenic spots of Florence. |
| This place was called the Ponte Vecchio - a bridge - also known as the "Old Bridge" because it is the oldest bridge in Florence. This bridge was destroyed several times due to various reasons. The present one was built in 1345 with stones. The picturesque little shops which line it were once occupied by butchers, but in the 16th century by order of Cosimo I they were assigned to the silversmiths and goldsmiths who still sell their wares here. In short, the whole bridge is now occupied with jeweleries and looks like a carpet of gold. |
| Anyways, before I go on about our back-breaking journey in search of a taxi to transport us back to the hotel, we had stopped by a shop, in which the tour guide had led us to, named Peruzzi. There I saw many exquisite leather coats, and nice shoes, purses, bags, fodable leather garbage cans, belts, etc. Everything that filled the shop was made of leather, except for the jewelry of course. The special thing about them trash cans was that they have gold plated decorations and maybe even your initials! Well my younger brother got a leather chess set, with silver and gold coloured metal chess pieces sculpted to look like the role they are playing; it also came with bagammon play pieces, and board, and a wooden stand, cool eh? My parents got a few trash cans, and my dad got a reversable belt (black on one side and brown on the other). I was planning to get some accessories, but they were way too expensive and were 24K gold, I didn't get them even though some had caught my eye. Oh well, I have my eye set on this silver one with blue glass stones, and a tiny sapphire stone necklace and bracelet set... hehe! Well we were all feeling far beyond exhausted and extremely hot. We walked back to the Square and caught a taxi and rode back to our hotel. There we ate lunch, and then rested and prepared for dinner. Dinner was great! Good night now, I'm sleepy! Bye! luv Florence |
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| Tomorrow Morning is Goodbye Florence! It's so sad and heart breaking as I didn't have much time to actually explore Florence. I know I saw the famous Door of Paradise, and others, but time alone to actually feel the sensation in Florence was not felt and experienced by me. I hope when I'm older, I get to come back and really enjoy Florence! It's a lovely, romantic, and mystical place with lots of history that date all the way back. I will remember this trip to Italy with all my heart, especially today and the previous day in which I spent in Florence, Italy! - Florence |
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| Old Bridge |
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