Firenze Synagogue
We recently discovered that our apartment is 5 minutes from the only Synagogue in Florence. The Synagogue is only open for services during Shabbat and high holidays, all other times the Synagogue serves as a museum for the traveling Jewish community. When we walked inside we were all amazed. It was one of the most beautiful Synagogues I have been into. The walls and ceilings were all hand painted with such detail. After wandering around by ourselves we got a brief history about the Synagogue and Jewish community in Florence from one of the guides. He pointed out a small but important detail on the walls. He pointed to the wall at about 7 ft high and showed us how from the floor to about 7ft the wall was a little darker than the 10ft mark to the ceiling, all around the Synagogue. He explained to us how there was a flood that ruined the entire city and 7 ft of water sat in the Synagogue for days. He also explained to us how the Nazis tried to blow up the Synagogue by placing 30 bombs in and around the Synagogue, but luckily somehow something went wrong and only 2 of the 30 bombs went off, making very minimal damage.
Gallerie dell'Accademia
The time has come for me to finally see the famous naked masterpiece of Michelangelo, the statue of David. My museum pass makes me feel like VIP. It allows all students to skip the line at most of the museums in Florence. The statue was huge and intricate! The sculpting on his body made him seem like the perfect man. I'm not really a museum person, but I walked around the rest of the museum and appreciated some of the works of art. It was a short visit, but well worth it.
We were not allowed to take pictures of the real David, but here is the David in modern times.
The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, otherwise known as the Duomo, is the main church of Florence. It serves as my landmark in Florence and is basically the only reason I know how to get around Florence. When you see the Duomo you know you are headed in the right direction. We decided it was time to finally climb the Duomo. We put on our hiking outfits and Nike shoes and set out to climb the tallest building in Florence. Unfortunately, the Duomo is not on our museum pass so we had to wait in line like ordinary people. While in line we thought of every possible staircase that we might have to climb. Would it be a spiral all the way up? Can we just take a elevator? What if we fall? We walked in an the adventure began. The climb up wasn't too bad (of course we were all out of breath half way through), it just felt like it was never going to end. We finally reached a point that was almost to the top. It was one of the steepest staircases I have ever climbed, and it had no railing. We were a little scared, but then we saw a cute old couple coming down and they gave us motivation. We reached the top and it was magnificent. We were standing on a balcony at the top of the largest building in Florence. We could see everything surrounding Florence. After about 20 minutes of admiring the view we headed back down. The climb down was scarier than the climb up. I consider myself and adventurous person, but these stairs did not seem very trustworthy. The were thin and small. Once we arrived at the bottom we decided to reward ourselves with a refreshing cup of gelato.
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