Yesterday was another day I will never forget. Nicole and I (we go on a walk every morning) went into Scandicci to our favorite cafe Mario's for a cappucino. It was our first time to go alone!! I felt very adultish..haha what a feeling.. Then we took the bus into Florence by ourselves to meet the rest of the group at the gates of Paradise...just reread that...we met at the gates of paradise...haha wow...sometimes I cant believe the words that come out of my mouth..ha. We went with the group to get ANOTHER cappucino..haha it was free..who would say no? We then made our way to a very special building. Only twenty of us out of the 39 got to experience this tour of a building belonging to an ancient brotherhood of Italian men (and as of twenty years ago women) that have taken care of the sick and elderly for free. They used to wear tunics and hats that actually look exactly like black kkk suits...ha ironic. It was very exciting to hear about these men that do random acts of kindness and make sure they are not seen so that noone can pay them or give them gifts.... God is alive.
After this we climbed the DUOMO!!!! it cost us 8 euro....but I would have paid so much more..it was breathtaking. We went to the very top and ate our sack lunches looking out over all of Florence and the Tuscan hills. I cant explain how wonderful it is...you will just have to go yourself. :)
We then met up with the rest of the group at the Santa Maria del Fiore Baptistry ( the Duomo's baptistry). The baptistry has three sets of doors...including the gates of paradise. Ghiberti is the artist that sculpted the doors. He entered a contest with Brunelleschi ( the genious that designed the impossible dome of the Duomo) and won. He was commisioned to sculpt the doors while Brunelleschi left to go to Rome and studied up so that he could one day blow the world away with the largest self supporting dome in the world. After the baptisry we went into the Duomo. Spectacular. It is amazing to see the frescoed dome from the ground and remeber that the small objects you see are actually three times bigger than yourself when you get up next to them...
Everything is so beautiful ...not just the art, but the history and stories that go along with the art.
The facade of the cathedral looks just like a dream. A french man actually designed it...and the Florentines say it is too much icing on the cake...but it is still the best tasting eye candy.
Today we had classes all day...lets just say the highlight of the day is going to be going to get gelato after dinner with Brett..its our 6th month anniversary :) haha anyways...
I'm super tired...and about to go take a little nap ...my first one of the trip ha
Buono notte
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