Walking tour of Florence! 5-30-15

Ciao! Today was very informational! We started off our morning by meeting up with a tour guide. We went on a three hour walking tour!

Santa Croce church

Medici family crest

We started off at the church of Santa Croce! The church was beautiful! It opened up around the year 1442. The church really caught my interest for a few reasons. One being that it stills operates today as a church and as a tourist place to visit. The most interesting thing about it to me however was the burial monuments inside. Inside the church, some of the burials include Bartolini, Donte, Galileo, Machiavelli, Michelangelo, and many more. There was a place for Leonardo da Vinci but, they were not able to get his remains for the burial. We walked around many different places throughout the city that sparked interest. We learned a lot about the Medici family.

Medici home

Gates to Paradise

They were the founders of the banking system and were extremely wealthy. We took some strolls through parts where they lived and visited one of their homes that was huge. The art work they owned was beautiful. They brought da Vinci into their home to live. From they family came four popes. The last stop on our tour was the Gates to Paradise. There was a competition to see who would construct these gates. The winner and the man who constructed them was named Lorenzo Ghiberti. The gates were beautiful. After our walking tour, we headed out for lunch. We decided to all stay together and take a look at some museums. This really was cool because we got to go see the real David statue created by Michelangelo!

David

The night view!

I was so cool and extremely detailed. We even went back to the Santa Croce church to go inside and see the monuments. Afterwards, everyone was tired, so we headed back to the hotel. I didn't want to just sit around so, Jordan and I went for a walk again. We were able to see some pretty cool things we had not seen before and found some cool new places! We finished our walk and headed back to the hotel. Schuyler and I headed out for the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner! It was really good but we got extremely full! We were both full on appetizers before our actual food arrived. We finished our food and decided to spend the rest of our night before bed on top of the hotel and enjoying the night view!