Fancy Florence and All Day Field Study #1

I think my favorite place over my 2 week vacation was Florence. Not only was it the place where we did not have to stay in a hostel, but I got to meet up with my little and other fellow DIS students! We arrived around dinner time in the pouring rain, and after lugging our suitcases across the city I enjoyed my first authentic Italian meal and then ate my first gelato! According to our Elon friends that live there, it was the best in the city. I don't doubt it! That gelato was sooo good.



After sleeping soundly in our friends apartment, Kelli, Kilby and I woke up to go meet our friends Maddy and Mike for a walking tour. While the walking tour was a little less then satisfactory, I did get to see parts of the city that I would probably have not seen. Then we went to a museum and got to see the David! Such an amazing statue in real life, I couldn't believe we got to see it, and not wait in line! After a quick lunch we walked around the city markets and we bought various leather goods and souvenirs. We had a home made meal that night and hung out and talked until pretty late.

Unfortunately that morning Kilby had to get up and leave really early, but Kelli and I also had to get up really early so we could climb the Dome of the massive church. We had to wait about an hour an a half in line but it was totally worth it. We got an amazing view of the painting on the inside of the dome, as well as an amazing view on the outside.



Kelli and I also sat in a beautiful park with Maddy and Mike and enjoyed being in Florence, then Kelli and I walked around and had some more gelato. This is a picture of us on the Ponta Vecchio where all the gold shops are lining the bridge.



For our last Florentine meal, Kelli and I took our host, Sarah, out for a nice dinner. I truly thought Florence was one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been too. I loved the architecture, which was green and white limestone and the general feeling of the city. But nevertheless I was excited to go to Rome the next morning!

Back to life in Denmark: Today was our Nordic Mythology field trip to see Viking like things. Aside from waiting an hour and a half in the freezing windy cold for the bus the field trip was ok. We saw some Viking ships and things, some areas where they live etc, we also got to see where viking ship burials took place and the place where the hall of Beowolf used to stand. Today was all in good fun, but I am way more excited to go to the zoo with my Biology of Marine Mammals class tomorrow!