Florence: Just for a moment

So we did not get a free day in Florence unfortunately, we were just taken on a walking tour by an Italian tour guide the next morning, and then had about an hour to wander around by ourselves before heading onwards to Rome.

We started off the tour by going to Basilica di Santa Maria which is located in a square called Piazza del Duomo ("Duomo" means cathedral or church). This cathedral was absolutely beautiful. Right next to the cathedral their was another building called a Baptistery, which is basically where people were baptized before being allowed to enter the church. This baptistery had these beautiful golden intricately designed doors  which were considered to be the "gates of paradise", basically giving entrance to a heavenly place. The images on the door represented that. 

Here's a few pictures of the Duomo and the "Gate of Paradise":

From there we continued our tour to go to the Piazza Della Repubblica and to the Piazza Della Signoria. Basically these are both large outdoor squares with various statues represented in it.

The Piazza Della Signoria is where you will find the outdoor statue of David, while the Uffizi Galleria is where you will find the real statue. We did not have time to go to the Uffizi, so I had to settle for the statue in the Piazza instead!

We then just took some time to ourselves to explore Florence. I decided to go into the duomo to look at the inside, and it was so pretty. The paintings and stain glass were beautiful. 

The inside of the Duomo's dome

After seeing the inside of the duomo, me and Asa decided to look through the market by the river for some souvenirs, and to get some Gelato, because this was the first city we've visited in Italy, so you know we had to try the gelato!!! It was delicious, and soon became a staple for me throughout my visit in Italy.

First taste of true Italian gelato, but certainly not the last   :P

Time to say bye to Florence and head off to Rome

Florence from the top: