I want to live here.

It would take living here for me to possibly take in everything I'd like to. I'm half tempted to drop the rest of my itinerary and just stay here until July but then I'd miss out on something else. Ah dilemmas.

See the thing with Florence is, masterpieces are literally everywhere. There is art hidden on the sides of buildings, on the stones that you walk on. Every church seems to have some great work of art adorning its sanctuary. It's overwhelming in a way.

I just strolled yesterday, visited the Duomo and the Baptistery, saw the famous Gates of Paradise Doors. That's a good example of what I mean, on of the most famous pieces of bas-relief is on a functional door. The inside is really cool too, decorated in mosaics. Then I just walked wherever I happened to go. There's something worth seeing on every corner so it seems silly to have a map and be worried about where you're going. I visited the Ponte Vecchio and saw the Palazzo Vecchio, another item from my art history class.

Today took a lot out of me. I had a reservation at 8:15 to go to the Uffizi so I woke up early and ate a quick breakfast. I spent 5 hours in the gallery, I kid you not. I had to take breaks every few rooms because there is just so much. It's one of the greatest collections of Italian art anywhere. There are Da Vinci's, Botticelli's, a Michelangelo. Room after room after room of brilliance. I saw two Venuses, many many Madonnas and way more than I could possibly get into here. I apologize to those of you who have no interest in art, I know my last few updates have been very centered around that but that is after all why I came to Italy in the first place and definitely why I came to Florence. This is essentially the birthplace of the Renaissance.

So right now I'm unwinding a bit before I try to go out and appreciate anything else. I want to see some more of Florence at night.