Florence:

Michaelangelo's "David" statue is easily the most famous statue in the world. It is extremely impressive to see, and the most realistic statue I've ever laid eyes on. Everything from the veins in David's hands to his chest are humanistic and real...it's almost as if you can see him breathe when staring at it for long. Amazing. 

Me making fun with one of the statue's in the Medici Villa's gardens in Florence. The gardens are acres and acres of statues, fountains, ponds, trees, and little secret passage ways. The Medici family was the most prevalent family in Italy for hundreds of years (imagine the Kennedys, except for a loooooong time, and they sponsored most of the art from the Renaissance onwards on top of their political power. Pretty impressive). Thus, it was incredible to see one of their houses located in Firenze! 

Again, in the gardens of the Medici family walking down one of the huge paths leading to a main circle of fountains. 

These are some of the more recent dresses of the Medici family....the dresses went back to the 1700s until today, and it was so fun to see the transition in fashion from then to now. There was a whole collection of men and women's clothing. 

To make money, people on the street (out of a thick form of chalk) basically "paint" with chalh extremely famous paintings, ie- Caravaggio, Michaelangelo, etc...usually they are religious, such as this one- and were especially prevalent right around Easter.

This is my friend Susan and I on the lookout Piazza over the city. The huge round building in the background is the top of the Duomo. 

Typical outlook over the city. I had to climb a million steep steps to get here, and a million more to find the Basilica located near this view! But, it was of course worth it. 

These locks were all over the bridges of Paris and in Florence as well. I think it is a symbol of lovers, who "chain their love" so to speak to the fence. All the little locks have sayings on them, names, and dates. I really liked discovering them all over the cities. 

Many people refer to this as the jewelry bridge, because tons of jewelry are sold all along it. It's definitely a landmark in Florence though the name of it escapes me now! Also, it was really exciting to see rowers on this water. I miss crew so much! 

This is a view of the Duomo at night. Though Florence (known as "Firenze" in Italian) was already a huge power in the 1600s, this church was built to "show off" Florentine power...which is why the exterior is so impressive. 

Florence has a well-deserved reputation for being one of the most beautiful places in the world. I ate gelato about 3 times per day, saw the very famous statue of David by Michaelangelo, and enjoyed the views of the city from atop the hills near the river. Though my hostel was right in the Piazza di Republica, which is in the middle of town right near the Duomo (the Italian word for Cathedral), I did get bed bugs from it?!!! We had this completely crazy man named Nino who ran the hostel- a true Italian character- and though it was safe it wasn't exactly clean. That was quite the adventure.