The Duomo at noon

super shaky video, you can watch it in HD. I wish I could have stayed up there all day!- Sarah

Florence and Pisa

What a perfect weekend! It was filled with great food, amazing views, beautiful buildings and tons of fun. After traveling on the train for so long we finally arrived to Pisa. We fit right in with all the other tourists. Of course we had fun taking a ton of pictures with the leaning tower or Pisa.

After having enough fun in Pisa, it continued when we arrived in Florence. We all had different hotels but we decided to meet for dinner and all eat together. The best part of the restaurant was the food was in English, I could understand what I was ordering. I order tortellini's and they were amazing!

On Saturday, I climbed all 463 steps to the top of the Duomo. I was exhausted but it was totally worth it. The view of Florence was breath taking. I could see everything; all the buildings, the bridges, and even the mountains behind the city. I was so shocked by the view that I walked around the Duomo about four times.

I was also able to see the statue of David, the pig, the bridge and much more. Florence is filled with beautiful art and architecture. Besides all of the amazing sites I was able to do a little shopping.
Our last night in Florence, we decided to eat at the same restaurant so I decided to get raviolis this time. I did not think anything could top my tortellini's until I ate the raviolis. They were homemade and in the best sauce I had ever had.

If I thought Florence was amazing, I cannot wait for Rome, especially since everyone tells me that Rome is better. So far this experience in Italy has been incredible and I have only been here a little over a week.
Erin

Firenze

First I want to say sorry bout the side ways pics...couldnt figure out how to change it.

This weekend was amazing...the group went to Florence, or as they say here, Fireze. When arrived in Florence on Friday, May 28th. The ride was long, but we all learned that the ride was well worth the time. When we arrived in Florence the guys and myself went to our room to put our bags down and the girls went to their rooms to put there things away. our room was incredible and the position of the room could not have been better. Our place was 2 blocks from the train station and about 10 blocks from all of the night clubs and bars.

After we all settled in we met at a tower in the middle of the city and took a train to Pisa, to see the Leaning tower.

 

The ride was long and tiring but like everything in Italy, it was well worth the trip. All we could keep saying to ourselves was, how did people build these things in the time that they were build.

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We never figured out how they build these buildings and how much time they took, but we did have fun looking at them. They look amazing in person, if I were too just look at this picture on a computer, I would not be able to get the actual effect of seeing it live.
But, Like every fun time there must be an end. So, even though we had a really long day we got our rest where ever we could, because we did not want to stop moving because of all of the beautiful scenery.
The Next day, Day 2 in Florence, we decided that we would all go out in separate groups and see what ever we wanted to see. The guys, and I decided to go see the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, which is the largest dome in Florence. The dome is so large that you are able to see the entire city just by being at the top of the dome.

Once we saw the dome, we were amazed by the size and the beauty of the building, once again we asked ourselves...HOW????...So we decided to go wait in line and check this dome out for ourselves and see if this place is really as amazing as people say it is. So we waited in line for about and hour and a half, ya know chillin with the pigeons...

F

FINALLY WE WERE IN...i cannot explain our overabundance of shock and amazement because its just that amazing...here is just a little bit of what was painted inside the dome. Not this dome had over 400 stairs in it and those stairs were extremely steep, so this is a very very small portion of the inside of the dome

Next, We had to continue the walk, now, a dome is angled inward, so the walk began to get pretty tight and hot, now this whole time we were also getting extremely tired from walking up so many stairs...but those stairs were nothing from what we had to see next.

We were almost at the top. I cannot even explain what we saw next but here is a very very small taste

Firenze and Pisa

Ciao!  We are all back safe and sound from our first weekend trip.  What a fabulous weekend I had.  We found our train alright and made it not only to Florence, but Florence and Pisa in one day.  Pisa was such a sight to see!  It was really fun taking pictures with the tower.  We got back to Florence and had dinner and walked around.  There seemed to be something going on all the time.  Music was playing and there was a carousel.  It was a sight to see.  We also saw where the Jersey Shore lives and actually saw some of them!  The next  day we woke up and climbed the Duomo first.  It was worth the workout and my knees were shaking after climbing down.  The lines were long for everything else, so we just walked around.  Markets were everywhere so we stopped and looked around for a while.  We saw the bridges and all the statues.  We climbed up a huge hill that was across the bridge.  I was so done with walking up at this point, but once at the top you could see all of Florence!  We also stopped to see where the Jersey is working this summer.  The bigs cities are so different from Brescia.  Everyone can understand us and we are not the only Americans.  It is a lot easier to get around for sure, but it is nice being back in Brescia for the week.  Florence was such a sight to see and all the shopping was fun too.  Arrivederci!

 

Our Weekend in Firenze & Pisa!

Ciao!

So much has happened this weekend! Besides the frustration of getting lost in Florence, having out taxi driver take us to a completely different hotel and then leaving us to walk, this weekend was great! We only stayed the weekend and were still able to see so much!  The Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Statue of David, The Duomo, the Jersey Shore Cast, The Pig, Italian Boys ;) & so much more!

 The Leaning Tower of Pisa!

 The Leaning Tower & Cathedral!

 Jwow, Mike & Snooki !

 The Duomo!

 The ceiling of the Duomo!

 Our view from the very top of the Duomo!

Over 800+ steps total. Our legs would not stop twitching!

The pig in Florence! 

My coin didn't make it in, evidently I will not be returning to Florence! haha

Ciao!

Natalie

Florence and Pisa

We just got back from our weekend at Florence and it was amazing. Its a much bigger city then Brescia and has a lot more tourists. It was a huge change going from a city like Brescia where not many people speak english to a place where almost everyone did. I cant imagine another city being like Florence. There were buildings and statues there that didnt seem real. It makes you think how anyone could ever build things like that in the time period they were made. We took a trip from Florence to Pisa for a few hours and got to see the  leaning tower. That too didnt seem real. Ive seen dozens of pictures of it before but not until I saw it with my own eyes did I say 'wow, its really leaning'. What a trip.
-Lew

Florence for the weekend

I honestly had no idea what to expect on my way to Florence. I have heard of the city, like most people, but had no idea what it was all about. Emanuela, a new friend I have met in Italy, taught me that the city was once considered the center of the world. Once I arrived there, I would say it still feels that way. There were people of all nationalities and languages there. The best part was almost all of the locals understood English so we could easily communicate with one another.

The city absolutely blew me away though. It was so awesome seeing a city that looks almost as if it has barely changed within the past few hundred years. We were told at breakfast one morning to visit the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore and climb to the top. An hour long wait to get inside and four hundred and sixty steps later I saw what is easily the most amazing thing I have ever witnessed. The view of the entire city from atop the dome is breathtaking to say the least and cannot be expressed in words. Inside the dome was an awesome work of art depicting what I believed to be heaven, hell, and purgatory. The only bad thing regarding this visit was the fact that I did not have my camera on me. But nonetheless, the guys took some pictures of me and I will put them up as soon as I get a hold of them.

And then there was this guy who didn't like that I took his picture without giving him a euro..

On a side note, we actually saw where the Jersey Shore was casting and living. Go figure that I have to go to Italy to meet someone who lives in the same state as me.

- Drew