nubs

The title of this post comes from the one and only, Mike Jones. 

We were out one night back home in Mississippi and this very interesting creature asked my girl Mike for a dance. Her response? 

"I have nubs."

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My feet are straight up nubs from walking so much last weekend in Florence, but it was totally worth it. 

Me, Sydney, and Anna right before we boarded our 1 hour train to Florence.
[the trains go over 250 mph]

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We were greeted very professionally once arriving in Florence.

thank you.

Florence was extremely busy, touristy, upbeat, and rolled at a faster pace compared to Rome. We were there less than 55 hours, so in Florence's defense, it was a lot packed into one weekend. This trip was actually set up through the Rome Center, where I'm "studying", so the professors had a ton of optional tours planned that Sydney, Anna, and I took full advantage of. 

We stayed at the B&B Hotel in Florence where we lived like the Queen of England (for what we were used to in Rome anyway). We had a HAIRDRYER, a MATTRESS, an ELEVATOR, and an AIR CONDITIONER. Seriously, we were royalty.

Our three twin beds at the B&B Hotel.

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Friday afternoon, we went to Cappella Brancacci where I broke my neck from admiring the ceilings. For the next two images: on the first one, I placed a green line separating the walls from the ceiling in the chapel at Cappella Brancacci. Above that green line, in pink, I marked the only structural qualities of the ceiling, besides the dome itself. Everything else you see is strictly paint.

PAINT.

PAINT.

SOMEONE PAINTED THE CEILING AND IT LOOKS LIKE ARCHITECTURE.

HOW INCREDIBLE.

Here's the original image before I jacked it up:

The ceilings are simply smooth, but the artist made the height look infinite. I'm amazed.

I think I'm going to have to do an entire blog post of the ceilings in Italy.

First initial shock of seeing the Basilica di Santa Marie del Flore [the Duomo] in Florence. 

Side note: The pigeons here work for the devil. I find great joy in pestering them. They're miserable.

Friday night, we enjoyed an awesome dinner at a fancy restaurant right off the Piazza del Grano. I had the best tortellini that I've ever had in my entire life. [At first, I was pissed off because they only brought out four tortellinis. But the things were so huge and so filling I could barely eat three.]

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Saturday morning, we had scheduled to go with our drawing teacher, Sam King, to the Uffizi Museum around 10am. Staying at a B&B means exactly what you think, BREAKFAST. So we enjoyed two, three, maybe five rounds before heading off to the museum.

I don't know if I should take offense or find it awesome that they created an American breakfast with hotdogs.

Mississippi girls headed to the Uffizi Museum.
[left to right: Anna, me, Sydney, Erin, Jordan, and Maura]

The Uffizi was filled with magnificent works of art but I'll only bore you with our favorite. We've seen a lot of art here in Italy that we've studied for the past three years in art history classes back in Mississippi. It's literally an entirely different perspective going from a textbook image to actually touching the art. (Sydney and I like to break museum rules. My apologies. Maybe.)

"Venus" by Botticelli

At least we didn't make out with the art. [Alive subject unknown.]

The Uffizi was rather large, so we found entertainment by modeling.

View of the Arno River from the top story of the Uffizi Gallery.

There's more than one "David" imposter in this picture - see if you can spot it.

Saturday afternoon, we went with Professor Brogi on a walking tour of Florence with his friend from high school, Count Niccolo Capponi. Just google "Capponi Family from Florence" and be amazed. Count Capponi walked us all around the city while narrating stories from his family's history. At the conclusion of the tour, he took our small group back to tour The Capponi Palace, where we saw writings from Henry VIII, documents from Parchment, and letters from Michelangelo. This was a once in a lifetime experience that we were asked not to photograph. 

The Capponi statue outside of the Uffizi Gallery where we all met before the tour.
Because this was such a big deal, Count Capponi asked for around 20 people only to attend.
Anna, Sydney, and I got extremely lucky!

Count Niccolo Capponi  [center in maroon]

The Capponi Palace

View of the Arno River from The Capponi Palace. [literally out of their front door]

After a good dinner, we met back up with everyone Saturday night to climb the clock tower of the Palazzo Vecchio. 

The view was unreal.

They basically had to kick us out because we weren't planning on leaving. 

The Palazzo Vecchio has a museum in the first few floors, so Anna, Sydney, and I stayed later than everyone else and walked through since we were already there.

The museum was basically a place where the royalty of Florence used to live.
This picture was taken on the balcony off one of the bedrooms.

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All day Sunday, we were on our own. We met up with the interior design group to tour the Gucci Museum at 11am and then just walked around the city for several hours before boarding the train back to Rome. The employees wouldn't let us take any pictures of the Gucci Museum, but it was really cool for us to see because they had just rebranded the entire museum so we got a lot of graphic design inspiration out of it. [Just google "Gucci Museum Florence" because there's literally pictures of the entire thing online.]

street art in Florence was extremely unique

we found the hog and rubbed his nose [with hopes of returning to Florence]

I finally tried the pistachio gelato. It was 100% worth it.

We had plans to go inside the Duomo, but because we waited until Sunday, it was literally impossible. The line was probably half a mile long. Or maybe like a tenth. Regardless, it was too long for me. Anna, Sydney, and I decided to go see the Basilica of Santa Croce where Michelangelo's body was buried.

The Basilica Santa Croce was breathtaking. 

Michelangelo's tomb in the Basilica Santa Croce

Obviously the Capponis are a huge deal if a member of their family
is buried in the same basilica as Michelangelo.

Before boarding the train, [our train ended up getting delayed several times and ultimately cancelled, so we had plenty of free time at the station] we all decided we needed a little pick me up from our long weekend. 

That's right, MCDONALDS! Judge me, it was delicious. 

Thanks for such a fun-filled weekend, Florence!

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A Special Thanks to Maw Maw, Aunt Susan, Uncle Dale, Aunt Cynthia, Jessica, Joshua, and Jaclyn for the early birthday and extra traveling money… I'm using it wisely and traveling to VENICE tomorrow to spend the weekend!

It's literally so hot here I might just swim to Venice.

For anyone else wanting to send money, please donate it to my pedicure fund for when I return to the states. I'm telling you, I have nubs.