A wintery weekend in Florence
I'm back in the States! After 22 crazy hours of travel from Geneva, Switzerland to Portland, Oregon on 22 December, I'm home, with family, and enjoying the holidays. Although it's great to celebrate the end of the year with family and start catching up with friends, I very much miss Europe. Also, America is a weird place. Grocery stores that are open until 10 or 11pm every day of the week? Weird. In Switz, they close at 7pm and aren't open at all on Sundays. It's also really strange to now have US Dollars in my wallet and not Swiss Francs. And finally, it feels especially wrong not to have a plug adapter attached to my chargers when I plug them into the wall! These are the main, random differences that I've noted in the past week, but I'm sure there will be more as I continue along and return to Denver. This American girl misses her European life, that's for sure.
Fortunately, I left Switz and Europe on a super high note! My internship finished up wonderfully (more on that in my next post), and my parents arrived in Europe on 6 December for a two and a half week visit. They explored Tuscany for a week, based in Florence, and I was fortunate to be able to join them for a weekend in this beautiful Renaissance city. We had an amazing weekend of art galleries, beautiful churches and cathedrals, tower climbing, food eating, shopping, wandering, Christmas Markets, gelato, and Italian charm. Some favorite photos and places, below:
Walking about on my first evening in town (Friday, 12 December)
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| Christmas Market and the Basilica of Santa Croce |
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| We went here for dinner on Saturday night - so delicious! Real Italian food is the best. |
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| Ponte Vecchio, a river-side view |
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| On the Ponte Vecchio, all closed up for the night. |
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| Gelato is required on a visit to Italy, no matter the weather. Pistachio and coconut, oh my! |
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| Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus" - beautiful!! |
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| Ponte Vecchio, seen from the Uffizi |
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| This statue was teaching me how to "Dougie" :-P |
Santa Croce and the Florentine Leather School
The Baptistry of Il Duomo (Florence's cathedral)
The David statue was especially awe-inspiring. It's huge!!! At 14 feet tall, this handsome, 500+ year old fellow takes your breath away the moment you walk around the corner and see him down the gallery hall. He is a stunner. The impression of seeing him for the first time will stay with me for a long, long time.
When my dad and I are in Europe together, we are tower-climbing champs. If it's a cool tower, in Europe, has stairs, and provides a great view of town, we must climb it! This tower did not disappoint. Florence is gorgeous from above, as it is from street-level.
We spent the evening in this beautiful abbey from the 11th century on top of the largest hill in Florence. We observed a Catholic service, followed by a Sunday night Vesper service. Being my first experience with Catholic religious services, I was surprised by how long everything went on, but Vespers was awesome, particularly in the small, lower-level worship space of this ancient church, performed by the monks that live in the abbey. A memorable experience in Florence, for certain! Watching the sun set and the city light up from the top of the hill was gorgeous to see as well. Florence is an incredible city all lit up at night.
I'm so happy to have been able to share a bit of Italy with my parents! They are great travel buddies and we always so enjoy exploring Europe together. It is particularly fun to watch them in such a vibrant and ancient city as Florence. They love the art, the history, the culture, the people, and the architecture of Europe, and I'm extremely grateful to them for continuing to share these passions with me and for continuing to inspire me to keep exploring, observing, and appreciating this incredible continent.
Next time on the blog: wrapping up my last weeks of work, school, and life in Switz with some quintessentially Swiss winter adventures. :)
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