Staying in apartments and learning to live on our own sure has been difficult but this beautiful city enriched and filled with peoples passions, thoughts and dreams have made it all worth it.
Through our first week, we got to visit multiple churches such as the burial place for the great in Florence, the church representing the Franciscan order “Santa Croce”. It is one of the most prominent and recognizable churches. We also got to see the “Duomo” which most people might think means “dome” well…because of the dome on top of the church but what I soon learned is that the origin of the word is actually a Catholic Church.
On other days or parts of the day, we got to go to the top boutiques and shops of the town for some shopping. We soon realized many differences between fashion back home and here which was especially interesting for those taking fashion as an option. Most importantly, we can’t forget the millions of places we stopped at for some flavorful and straight-up amazing gelato. No one could get enough of the delicious sweets. Sometimes we would stop at these very traditional stands for some really good paninis or baguettes with cheese and ham. For lunch, most of the time we would have pasta and pizza, but not like the ones back home, the authentic Italian ones!
What really stood out for me during this week tho, was the beautiful sculptures and canvases in the “Uffizi” museum. Each and every one of them was so detailed and defined. The oil paint added so much value to the Paintings and made them stand out from other ones we saw in other monuments. Each one of them had incredible stories behind them. You could see that each painter and sculptor put all their effort and passion into their work. They were speaking about subjects where words failed to explain.
By,
Lynn M, Student Ambassador, Florence 2019
Walking through the streets in Florence feels like walking through a masterpiece each building brings you deeper and deeper into the history of Italy. Florence is a subtle beauty; it’s staid, unprepossessing palaces built in local stone are not showy, even though they are very large. They take on a certain magnificence when day breaks and the sun sets; their muted colors glow in this light.
