May 28, 2012

Today we woke up and met outside the hotel at 8.15.  We walked down to the Duomo.  This is the dome of the Cathedral that Brunelleschi designed and built.  We immediately walked to the top of the dome, literally, we walked into the building and stepped straight on the first step.  I need a little time to mentally prepare myself for that.  We walked up all 468 steps to the top of the dome.  Similar to St. Paul's dome we hiked up in London, this one got pretty narrow in places, but nowhere near as bad.  We got some pretty good pictures, seeing as the dome is the tallest building in the city, we were above everything.  We walked down and were finished for the day around ten o clock.  I walked to see the Doors of Paradise, it is this set of bronze doors that Michelangelo and someone else competed against to work on.  Story goes that the pope wanted them to work together and Michelangelo wouldn't do it so the job was awarded to the other person.  Anyways, the doors were huge, and apparently it took six years to cast one panel on the eight panel door.  After this I met up with Kendall, KK, and Drew; we walked over to that main bridge we saw yesterday and kept walking.  I wanted to see a palace that we were planning to do as a group today but they are closed on Mondays... the name of the palace is the Pitti Palace.  It was one of many Medici palaces across Florence. We could only see the bland outside and not permitted to see the courtyards and inside areas.  Then we walked to a straw market and I got some shopping done for some people back at home.  I spent a little money but I covered most of my bases in one day so that's good.  We found a food market similar to the one in Barcelona and walked around there for a bit.  They had FRESH meat, cheese, wine, and other goods.  We came back to the hotel and I dropped my stuff off and checked emails and what not. I sent some emails out last night and everyone responded today, so I have three interviews set up now, getting there.  Tucker, Kyle, Joel, Jordan, and I went and walked around some more to see more of the city.  We stopped and had a late lunch.  I got a pizza and wine for ten euros, not cheap but it was good.  I came back and packed my stuff up because we have a ten o clock train out of here tomorrow, I don't want to have to do that in the morning. Sumner, Brady, Joel, Jack, Dave, and I went and got a great dinner at a place called ZA-ZA.  Joel and I split a meat sampler, and it was great.  We went out tonight and found this place called YAB, it was pretty fun.  We met some girls from Canada who took a pretty good shine to me, that southern charm I guess.  That's about it for today, check back tomorrow.

 T