Today we took a trip to Florence. The first big thing we saw was Florence Cathedral.

Then we went to two of the city’s many museums—the Uffizi museum, and the Accademia Gallery. The Uffizi Museum was originally made for the offices of the magistrates, but even when they were first completed the Medici family used the third and fourth floor to house some of the most valuable pieces of their art collection. The Accademia museum houses Michelangelo’s famous David, as well as many of his other works and some from a few other artists. But, I’m pretty sure most people really just come to see the David—where they had recently permitted no-flash pictures to be taken.

Afterwards we were allowed to look around the market and buy stuff if we wanted (and of course had the Euro). I listened to Mr. Hesting and saved my Euro for Florence and after. I picked up a manual wind-up watch with a leather strap for €10,00; a leather-bound book for €15,00; a wide leather bracelet for €7,00; and a hat for €9,00 (I think).

Today in class we had our model UN where we proposed and adjusted our resolutions that we had been working on involving the topics of military, global warming, poverty, and immigration. I choose Germany, which has significant problems and opinions in all four topics. Many of Germany’s goals in these areas are pretty liberal, at least at the surface, so I tried (with some difficulty) to make a realist reason for my resolution. Most of us got together to try and help write resolutions for countries with similar goals. I was there for that gathering; but was largely just left to my own resolution because immigration issues for Germany is mainly a domestic issue and every thing else is just difficult to negotiate. The resolution I presented attempted to deal with poverty by bringing skilled jobs (a shortage that Germany has) by bringing vocational education centers and businesses to impoverished nations, but it is nearly impossible for the UN to enforce anything and “fair pay” is not very well defined.

Later we went to go see the old Jewish ghetto and the Jewish history museum. The museum had two synagogues attached—one large and very ornate, and one smaller and more typical. You can’t take pictures in the museum, so of course I don’t have any.

Today we went to see Trevi fountain and the Parthenon and a few other sights (mostly fountains). Unfortunately when we got to the Trevi fountain it was closed so they could do some work on it.

The Parthenon is huge and feels huge, unlike with St. Peter’s dome where I knew it was huge, but it didn’t quite look like it was as big as I knew it was.

I can also remember looking at few different stores, and the few I took interest in were either generic types of souvenir stores, or ones that we already have back in the US. After that we all went to a plaza where there were a bunch of big screens hung up to show the game between Uruguay and Italy. The Italians that slowly gathered as the game went on didn’t react much for the most part.

Every once in while I saw a couple of them grab their heads when the Italian players missed a goal near the end, and some dissent could be heard whenever the referees made a bad call (mostly, if not all, against Italy). I could tell it was bad, and I don’t even know much about soccer. I can’t believe that the Uruguayan player, Suarez, bit an Italian player’s shoulder, and got away with it (even after the Italian player showed the bite marks).

Today, we had our class at the nearby Pontifica University. Then we took a tour of the Roman Forum, “Old Rome”, and the Coliseum.

For lunch that day I had something that is rare in Italy as they view it as something like a crime against food, ham and pineapple pizza. Italians don’t have an issue with ham on pizza, just pineapples. For dinner I had a seafood salad consisting mostly of squid, shrimp, and something else that I couldn’t really identify other than to say it was fish.

I’ve had Gelato at a few places in the US (I think at least one was owned by an Italian) and it doesn’t even compare to the stuff they make here. The flavors I tried were Nutella, crème, and the store’s signature flavor “gelatone”. I have no idea what was in the last one, but it was amazing.

After a long day of flying (thank God they had free in-flight movies) and layovers we finally arrived in Rome. After we got through customs and off the bus we didn’t have for more than 45 minutes before we had to head to the Vatican. Our guide told us about how the Italy-Vatican border changes depending on whether or not the pope is in St. Peter’s Square.  After lunch (for me, a four-cheese pizza) we headed to St. Peters basilica where we had to climb 320 steps to reach the top of the main dome.

When we got up there everyone was tired and excited. The view was insane. We saw all of Rome and the Vatican. Needless to say I was ready for a good night’s sleep after such an amazing day.