Florence for Beginners - Sept 3

We started off this morning with a group trip to Firenze. We all boarded a bus in front of the villa that took us to an old church called San Miniato on the hills to the south of Florence. From there we had magnificent views of the city with the dome of the Duomo dominating the skyline. 

We walked up some stairs to the striking image of a medieval church will an intricate two-toned, white and green marble façade silhouetted by the low morning sun.

 

As we listened to Professor Rebecchini discuss the church and its history I walked around trying to get some cool pictures. We went inside and saw more of the beautiful church. The low sun streamed through the windows in a beautiful way that made every wall, pillar and arch a perfect subject for pictures. I think I took over 100 and have since narrowed it down to about 50. But the dramatic light inspired me to get fancy with my pictures and I’m excited to have begun a collection of much more inspired pictures that I usually have on trips. We also saw a wedding at the church while we were there.

After that we walked down toward the city and crossed the Arno via the Ponte Vecchio. After we crossed the bridge we began to drift apart until we were in small groups all over the city. My group of myself and 6 girls (a statistic representative of the program at large) wondered around past all the popular sites in the Duomo area. We saw the Baptistery, the Duomo, San Lorenzo church, the Medici Palace, the piazza with the David replica and Santa Maria Novella. We also walked for a bit through the street market near San Lorenzo. I have my eye on quite a few things once the tourist season ends and prices go down. After a several hours of walking around my group decided to head back to Sesto. We took the bus back and all went inside to chill at the villa for the rest of the day.