the Duomo will haunt your dreams

Every week with my Italian class we get to go to a new place on Tuesdays and learn about Florence and the history that it has. This week we went to the public library and saw where local students study and work. In the library there is a little restaurant with the most beautiful view of the Duomo.
People go to the library just to eat and see the view. Once we finished with the library, we made our way to the hospital which has a lot of history, as it was a place for worship and sanctuary for
immigrants. After our class, we had another field trip with our Italian Style class to a food court type area with every type of
Italian food locally made (it kind of reminded me of Reading Terminal Market and because the day was so nice, Brittany and I made our way to the middle of the Arno River and got to see the city from the middle of the bridges.

We stayed in Florence this weekend and did all of the touristy things. We climbed to the top of the Duomo and went through the museum where all of the original pieces are. I loved going through it because there were famous works of art that I’d learned about in class but got to see in person outside of a powerpoint presentation. My favorite part was learning about how the Duomo was built and all the work that went into making it the beautiful landmark it is today. Without realizing, we spent the day in the church on the same day as the anniversary of my grandpa’s death and it was very magical to be able to go to the service and pray for my family.

The top of the Duomo has been a part of my dreams since I went, as you can see all of the little red top houses from around the entire city. You’d never realize how big it was until you went up there and could point out all of the landmarks that encompassed my abroad experience (my house, Santo Spirito, Santa Croce, Accademia Italiana, the bridge, etc). I didn’t realize that this first time would end up being a huge part of my abroad experience as I walked around the city with the Duomo as my main center location.