DAY 3: FIRENZE (Florence) Pt.1

We started off the morning by going to the local market. As is always the case, it was filled with a wide variety of products and types of shops. Some students opted to return on their own later in the day during their free (in smaller groups) time. 

In one shop, our trip guide, Nancy, had some of us try balsamic glazes (regular and white). Italians use it for cooking meats and vegetables, but she proved to the volunteers that it is pretty delicious all on its own!

We then went on a walking tour (with headsets) of Florence with a wonderful guide that was born in the city. She took us to so many amazing places and shared a lot of historical information/perspective with us. We started at the aforementioned Duomo which took 600 years to complete and is comprised of 4 major parts: the Baptistry, the Cathedral, the Bell Tower, and the Dome. The Cathedral was once the largest in the world and now is the third largest,after St. Peter's in Rome and St. Paul's in London. We learned a lot about the dome which was built between 1420 and1436 by Filippo Brunelleschi. A bunch of kids decided to climb all those stairs to the top during their free time this afternoon!

And on to other important sites...

This is the palace where Leonardo DaVinci lived for about 5 years and where he started to paint the Mona Lisa:

We visited the Dante House Museum where Dante Alighieri - considered the greatest Italian poet and the father of the Italian language - is thought to have lived/been born near. His masterpiece, The Divine Comedy, created? was based on? the core ideas of paradise, purgatory, and hell, and it has influenced many aspects of society to this day.

A few random alleys that we passed by...

At the Palazzo Vecchio (the "Old Palace") we learned more about the government building which overlooks the Piazza della Signoria. Also there, is a replica of Michelangelo's David statue, the gallery of statues in the adjacent Loggia dei Lanzi, and the Fountain of Neptune.:

Neptune (apparently) staring down the replica of David.

The replica of The Rape of the Sabine Women by Giambologna.

Perseus with the head of Medusa

We finished out the guided tour at a leather factory where we were shown the process of creating the product, working/creating with it and properly identifying it: