Firenze

The past few days in Florence, or Firenze, has been great. Why is it that we don't call these places by their proper names? In Italian it's Firenze, but we had to improve the name to the English version of Florence. Possibly Firenze has something to do with the word flower, as does the word Florence in Spanish. But there are others too that come to mind: Milano->Milan, Venetia->Venice, Italia->Italy, Deutschland->Germany. Do we think we know more than them? Well Italy, we think you were wrong with the spelling / pronunciation of your city name, but we can fix that.... Seriously though, Florence has been wonderful.

The Florence Cathedral is really an impressive structure. We climbed to the roof of the Dome!

Yesterday we took a day trip to Pisa. I got to go up in the leaning tower. Going up the tower was a bit dizzying because the stairs weren't level nor were the walls, and it all just kind of played tricks in my head.

Today we went to the Accademia Gallery and saw David and the Uffizi Gallery where my favorite I think is the Birth of Venus.

Just wandering around the city and checking everything out has been wonderful. Tomorrow, we leave for Milan(o), our last stop with the Italy Maymester.

It's hard to believe that in a weeks time I'll be in Belgium!

The plan: tomorrow to Milan. Wednesday to Manarola in the Cinque Terre to meet up with Addie, Caitlin, and Laura Beth. I'll stay in Manarola until Saturday. I'll catch a morning train back to Milan and catch a plane to Brussels.

And if I ever get some time and some good internet at the same time, I'll post some highlights of the pictures I've taken.