463 Steps

Our group trip to Florence was amazing.  The city is very unique, lots of high class shopping, history, amazing food and just a generally cool atmosphere.  The worst part about the trip is that we were only there for two days.

Climbing the Duomo was definitely the highlight of the trip.  The climb took about 20 minutes, 463 steps.  It was hot, humid and exhausting.  And totally worth it.  See for yourself.

At the Medici Palace, some of the group wanted to act out Shakespeare with our Professor Marino.  He said if we could find something to read he would do it.  I remembered downloading a free app with all of Shakespeare’s plays when I first got my ipod, figuring that even though I don’t care for Shakespeare that it might come in handy sometime.  So, in the middle of the palace gardens, Colin, Arvin and Professor Marino acted out a scene from Henry VIII.  Now that is awesome.

The food in Florence was pretty awesome, too.  We had the specialty, Florentine steak.  It is basically a T-bone, lightly seasoned—cooked to perfection.  That night we had gelato for the third time that day..  Gelato alone is fantastic, something about it in Florence was even better.  The strawberry sorbet (fragola) was in a league of its own.

Our final day there was spent in museums with a little free time for shopping.  Seeing Michelangelo’s David took my breath away.  Seeing pictures does not do it justice.  I sat down with Kelsey, Susie and Mike behind the statue and after taking quite some time to simply admire the sheer awesomeness we began to take pictures.  Pictures are prohibited in this museum.  So that made it more fun. 

"Can we climb this mountain/ I don't know/ Higher now than ever before/ I know we can make it if we take it slow/ Let's take it easy/ Easy now, watch it go" --The Killers, When You Were Young