Our first day in Firenze!

After spending our first night in the hostel- I must say, it was very nice- we headed out to explore the city of Florence. Grabbing a waffle smothered in Nutella, we headed to conquer the climb to the top of the Florence Cathedral/ Duomo. First, we headed to the interior of the Duomo to admire the marble-laden floors. After taking a few photos of the inside of the Duomo, we headed outside to admire the Lorenzo Ghiberti's golden doors deemed 'The Last Paradise' by Michelangelo that depicted Florence's escape from the Black Death plague. Finally, we headed to the side of the Duomo to start our hike to the top of the Dome. On our way up, we were able to admire the fresco of The Last Judgement adorning the dome of the Duomo. I must say, this was some of the most amazing art work I have ever seen. It was such a treat to see the artwork I have studied in art history classes in person. After admiring the frescoes, we continued our hike up to the top of the dome! Climbing through cramped hallways, we finally made it to the top. The climb to the top of the Duomo was definitely the coolest thing I have done during my time in Italy thus far... The expansive view of the city at the top was extremely rewarding. We could have spent our entire day gazing over the city of Florence from the dome but we knew there was more we wanted to see. So, after soaking in the sun for a few minutes, we headed to the Ponte Vecchio bridge. This is the only bridge in Florence that Hitler did not destroy during World War II. Spending some time at the bridge, we then headed over to the Palazzo della Signorio where Michelangelo's David was originally placed. There is now a replica of the David in its place sitting amongst an array of other sculptures in the Palazzo Vecchio. While we were enjoying admiring the sculpture garden we were determined to make it to the Palazzo Michelangelo to watch the sunset over Florence.

We began our hike up to the Palazzo Michelangelo where we curved through a hill to make it to the top. Once at the top of the palazzo, we admired the view of Florence from above. After admiring the view from the top of the Duomo as well as from atop the Palazzo Michelangelo, there was no question that Florence had  beautiful views. While watching the sunset, we were able to admire the churches and other monuments we had seen throughout the day from afar.

Once we had watched the sunset, we headed back to our hostel before we set out to see what kind of food Florence had to offer us. While we had our hearts set on heading to a restaurant where we could sample a brie ravioli, we wandered into a pizzeria instead. Our stomachs empty after walking around Florence all day, we each ordered a whole pizza to ourselves!

We thoroughly enjoyed our first day in Florence and were excited to head to the Accademia Gallery in the morning to view Michelangelo's original sculpture of David. There is no doubt that Florence is much different from Rome. Florence is certainly a less congested city that does not seem to be filled with as many tourists as Rome does. It was refreshing to be able to walk down a street without having to continually move out of the way for a macchina (car).