The past few days in Rome have been a mixture of exhaustion, excitement, awe, and lots of rain. It has been hard for me to think about what to focus on in this blog since there have been so many adventures. I found my favorite building in all of Italy (so far) which is the Duomo, or the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. The architecture of the Cathedral is absolutely breathtaking and was the first building that we have seen on the trip that truly made me stop in my steps in awe. When I am writing this blog, my group has not been able to climb to the top of the Duomo yet, so I am sure once we do that my mind will be changed.

The architecture and history of Florence has been extremely interesting to learn about, especially in terms of the Dante course I am taking while on this trip. It is crazy to stand beside the building Dante was baptized in and walk the same streets that he did before his exile by the Pope. Reading his Inferno while exploring the city each day adds a new layer of appreciation and understanding that could never be reached in a regular classroom back in America.

It is also impossible to skip over the day where the group visited Michelangelo’s sculpture of David. I have never been into sculpting or particularly interested in paintings, so I was surprised at how deeply moved I felt when walking into the hallway and seeing the massive sculpture at the end. My friends and I must have spent forty minutes looking up at the face of David, but we couldn’t look away. Every time the light shifted or I walked a few steps one way or the other, my entire perspective changed. I never expected to have this kind of reaction to a sculpture of a figure that I’m not necessarily very educated on, but I loved seeing him and spending time with it. I also never expected him to be so large and unforbidding.

While the time in Florence has been amazing, I’m definitely excited to travel to more cities and divulge in the culture of the country as we go.