Florence, the birthplace of the renaissance. In my mind, Florence is one of the most beautiful cities in the world with its rich history, architecture, sculpture, and paintings. We spent two nights in this wonderful city last week. Upon arrival, we first headed to Piazzale Michelangelo for a gorgeous view of the town, with the famous Duomo at its centre.
From there, we checked in to our hotels. The girls stayed at the Hotel Rivoli, and the boys at Hotel Adriatico. We then made our way to the Accademia to see the most recognizable sculptures in the world: Michelangelo’s David.
Afterward the students had time to explore Florence’s leather market. We then rendezvoused at the hotel for dinner.
A walking tour followed and we managed to catch the sunset over the Arno river.
The next morning we visited the Uffizi Gallery. Tours were led by the teachers who explained the evolution of Renaissance art as we moved from room to room. We spotted work by such artists as Giotto, Botticelli, Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Caravaggio.
The students had a choice of tours in the afternoon. My group visited La Specola – a part of the Natural History Museum – to learn about zoological classification and human anatomy.
Other tours included a visit to the church of Santa Croce, the Galileo Museum, and a daunting climb to the top of the Duomo.
We had dinner out on Friday night. Our students had five local restaurants to choose from, each offering traditional Tuscan dishes.
The last day of the trip came too early. However, instead of heading directly back to Lanciano, we extended our trip with stops in San Gimignano and later Siena.
