Florence put my legs into Shape

We went to Florence again on friday as a class. But I didn't stay the night this time, we caught one of the later trains back to Orvieto so that we could spend plenty of extra time in Florence, once Marco was done talking our heads off at the Uffizi Galleries. We spent all morning at the Uffizi (probably the most famous museum in the world due to the fact that it has the largest collection of master artworks in the world by a number as extremely extremely famous people) You may know some of them: Leonardo Di Vinci, Michaelangelo, Botticelli.. you know.. just those B list celeberties. I only recognized a few works of art though. I'm not near as knowledge with art as I am with architecture. However, I definately recognized "The Birth of Venus" by Botticelli and "Annunciation" by Leonardo Di Vinci. But, you aren't allowed to take photographs in the museum and I could only manage to sneak one of the funky ceiling frescos in the hall. This was extremely difficult to do because there were like 3 photo nazis in every room (a room the size of 20 ft by 20 ft). I was dying to have a picture of the Venus painting, but I couldn't have one, so instead I did what us artists do best. I sketched a picture of it. I think that was probably actually better though, because that way I was forced to spend a little more time studying the painting rather than just snapping a photo and walking away 10 seconds later. Which I think becomes a common problem with a lot of people. We should all spend more time looking through our own eyes, instead of a lens. Don't get me wrong, I'll always take a billion picture where ever I go, but, just something to remember when taking photos.

After the Uffizi, I split off with a group and we hiked up to the Piazza Michaelangelo. This is a piazza (square) overlooking the entire city of Florence. Then we continued on up, even higher, to the San Miniato al Monte (The al Monte stands for on the mountain, by the way) And let me tell you, it IS on the mountain. It was quite a treck, but it was easy, because we stopped alot for pictures and things of the sort. The San Miniato is a pretty cool little church with an extremely large grave/tomb cemetary-like area which surronds the hill and looks out over Florence. It had some cool graves and an underground crypt and hundreds and hundreds of statues and "family houses". And it was more than one story, it was 3 levels of dead people. Crazy, I know, but it was really cool. And the entire thing was covered in flowers and arrangements of plants. That's the one big thing I've noticed in Italy, the can keep flowers alive in the winter! It's amazing! This entire treck from beginning to end took up our entire afternoon and only gave us enough time to find a pizzeria before we caught the train. It was a very successful day! And if you have more than one day to spend in Florence, I highly reccommend this hike! The view is definately worth it and it you have an odd appreciation for graveyards, you'll definately like San Miniato al Monte!