Florence and Tuscany

It's been awhile, I know. I was really hesitant to post anything on here because a bunch of my friends ( hi guys! Welcome, I'm calling you all out for finding the instagram that goes with this account) found it and probably read the really embarrassing posts I made back in 2014. Oh well, I figured I wanted to document my trip to Italy for my own personal memories, so I guess you all can read this too.

Italy was a class trip I went on with my LC or learning community and we've been prepping for a semester studying sustainable agriculture and making art materials from natural materials. Then we would go to Italy and combine the two concepts at the beautiful Spannocchia in the Tuscany countryside.

But first.... Florence

 This is the really tall bell tower that we climbed on our first full day there and let me tell you my legs were on fire. The Duomo of Florence was closed to climb on the day we were there, but I was able to take this nice photo of the Duomo from the Bell Tower.....

We also visited some art museums and gardens because these were the things we had just spent the last few months studying. Below is an illuminated manuscript which was in the 

P.S. I wrote this several weeks ago, but never actually posted it, so I'm not so secretly wishing I was back in Florence with my friends.
In just two days, we hit a majority of the major Florence spots and ate more gelato ( I miss you Grom) than I should have in freezing temperatures. We visited the Ponte Vecchio and the Piazza del Michaelangelo (thanks Jackie) for an amazing view, threw in some shopping and visited the botanical gardens.  The pizza above is from a local marketplace and it was really, really good. I checked eating pizza in Italy off my bucket list!

We visited a marbling store on our last half day in Florence before heading to the countryside, where we witnessed the most beautiful paper making.
I hope to go back to Firenze because it was so beautiful and where else can you stay in monastery-turned hotel?