Last weekend, July 10-12, Anthony, Rosemary, Erin, Leah, Amy, Alyson, Shari, and I went three or four hours away from Urbino to my favorite city in the world: Florence. I have been there before, but this city has so much to offer and it has so much of an historical background.

On this trip, some of us went to a place in Florence that I have never been before–the Uffizi. Erin, Rosemary, Anthony, and I reserved our tickets in advance so we would be guaranteed to get in. We had some problems making it in though. Anthony and I bought some wine and we had to check it in to the security and Erin could not bring in her backpack and had to check it in. So we eventually made it in.

This is "The Birth of Venus."

The museum is at the top of three flights of stairs. The climb drew sweat from even me. The first big painting we saw was “The Birth of Venus.” This also was the biggest piece of artwork the museum had (like the Louvre has “the Mona Lisa”). It was huge. Everyone crowded around it to just look at for several seconds. Me, I wanted to look at it again and again, so I looked around to make sure no security was watching and I snapped two pictures of it. I was so happy.

This museum even had several paintings that I have seen in books. There were works from Rafael, Da Vinci, and even Michelangelo.

This is "The Statue of David."

This day had been the best day in our lives, so we all said. Earlier we saw “The Statue of David,” Florence from a bike tour, and the tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo, Donatello, and Marconi, to name a few. I still say Florence is the best city in the world after this weekend trip.

This is where the artist Michelangelo is buried.