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Arriving in Florence in the early afternoon, we headed off to see Ponte Vecchio (vecki-yo), the most distinctive and probably most famous bridge in Florence. On the way, we passed by the Duomo, more formally known as Santa Maria del Fiore, and the Florentine town hall, Palazzo Vecchio. We did some form studies of the bridge and the jewlery shops on top of it before the group split up for the night.
Yesterday we headed to the more modern outskirts of the city to see a model of the dome of the Duomo, at 1:5 scale, conceived by Massimo Ricci, and built by him and his students. Ricci has studied for decades the structural mystery of the dome. When the Roman empire fell, the technology for constructing large domes was lost, so upon the construction of the Duomo, the roof was left unfinished for decades before Filippo Brunelleschi won a competition to design the first octagonal dome in history. Brunelleschi left no plans behind, so his construction methods were lost. Architects and engineers have been studying the dome and potential construction methods for years, among them Massimo Ricci.
We then headed over to the Duomo itself, and climbed the 463 steps to and through the dome. Many of the stairways up to the peak of the dome weave between the dual layers of the dome, and against its curve. As part of the Duomo was being cleaned, you couldn't walk all the way around the top, but the view of the Duomo tower and the city was still amazing.
We finished out the day by visiting the outsides of both Palazzo Uffizi and Santa Croce as a group. After splitting up, some of us went and toured the inside of San Lorenzo, the Medici family's church. The chapel and library designed by Michelangelo were closed for the day so we headed back to eat supper and then to the hotel for the night.
Today, the group went to the Accademia del'Arte del Disegno, where many pieces of art by Florentines rest, including the four unfinished giants and the famous David, by Michelangelo. After looking through the gallery and sketching the David, the group split up fothe day, to wander the city, and later meet back up at our hotel in Siena.
A few of us went back to the Duomo to see the interior of the ground floor, which we had missed on our previous visit. We then headed over to see the Medici chapel and Laurentine Library at San Lorenzo. The chapel designed by Michelangelo features several sculptures by the artist. We were unfortunately too late to see the library, as it closed at 1pm.
We then went back to get our bags and headed over to the train station. The others waited while I had adventures with the Italian postal service. I needed to ship some heavy items home, but found when I got there, that they did not have bubblewrap, so over an hour later, I had finally shipped my package. I met back up with the others, and we caught the train to Siena.
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