Camping in Florence

 On the 22nd and 23rd of October we took another trip as a group to Florence. We left early Saturday morning and headed, by bus to Firenze. We met up with Professor Giorgi (the Hum 201 teacher) and then made our way to the Duomo. On the way we stopped in a Catholic church and admired the beautiful frescoes. After we went inside the Duomo! Brunelleschi's dome! I have learned about this in multiple classes I've taken so to see it in person and actually climb inside it was pretty surreal. It is huge!!!! And So beautiful. The view from the top was breath taking. We got a beautiful 360 view of all of Florence.

Our tour guide

The walls were tilted inside the dome

And the stairs are very steep

 

After the duomo we went to the Ufizi museum which is full of many famous paintings. We saw some incredible pieces. Some of my favorites included Botticelli's Primavera and The Birth of Venus, Da Vinci's Annunciation, Parmigianino's Madonna of the Long Neck, and some of Caravaggio's pieces. We couldn't take pictures in the museum so I don't have anything to show you. I did give a presentation on one of Botticelli's paintings right in front of it. Kind of intimidating talking about one of the pieces in front of other people who probably no more about it than I do. But it was still cool being able to show everyone what I was talking about right there in the actual painting rather than from a picture from the internet.

After that we had free time. So naturally what is a group of 18 girls going to do? Shop. And shop we did. We also enjoyed Florence at night and the delicious food it has. Florence is so beautiful at night. 

 

We met up with the group again and went to an opera performance at a church. They performed songs from "The Marriage Of Figaro." The actors were so funny and it was well performed and sung. The setting was pretty cool because we were in a Catholic church and not a theater, so that was different. But I love a good show every once in a while and this was very entertaining.

 

Then we went camping... Yes, camping in Florence. It was freeeezing! We stayed in these canvas tents and loaded up on extra blankets. I slept in my jeans put on an extra jacket had four blankets on top of me and I was still freezing. Luckily I was so tired that I was able to sleep through the night fairly well. I woke up a few times shivering. It felt exactly like girl's camp. It was quite the experience but one I would not be too upset if I didn't do again. Maybe I would love it more if it was warmer.

Their faces say it all

Cool view from the campsite though

The reason we stayed in these lovely tents was to go to Regional Conference for church the next day. It is like Stake Conference for the ward members here, but because the wards and stakes are so small they expand the boundaries and meet together for Regional Conference. I'm pretty sure it was everyone in the Milan mission boundaries. We had church in a conference center.

This time there were no translators for the meeting so it was very hard to pay attention but you could still feel the sweet spirit of the members that were there. There were also a ton of missionaries. They all looked so spiffy in their suits. I can only imagine what the MTC looks like. And let me just say that I love the pictures of Christ that the LDS church has. I have seen some scary paintings of Christ here and I would not like to look at that every Sunday and have that be the mental image I have when I remember Christ. The picture I saw on that TV screen was a beautiful sight to see. 

After church we walked around Florence a bit more a checked out the big market they have everyday. By then we were all very tired so we headed home and enjoyed the beautiful fall colors we saw out the bus window.

This trip to Florence was so much fun and very memorable. Florence is one of my favorite cities. Definitely in my top three.