First week

Since I haven't blogged in about a week there is a lot for me to catch up on.  The first night here my roommates and I went to a club called Yab.  It was a lot of fun there until it was time to leave.  We had no idea that the card that they gave us on the way in was needed in order to leave.  Since we no longer had the card it cost us 50 euro each in order to leave.  All of us were extremely mad and refuse to ever go back.  The next day my roommate Makenzie and I went for a walk around Florence to see what there was exactly.  We wanted to get to know the city and start to be familiar with how to get around.  The streets and sidewalks here are very narrow.  I am surprised no one has been run over yet because the cars driving by are probably about less than six inches away.  On our walk we passed by the Duomo for the first time! It is absolutely unbelievable, the size and artistic detail in every square inch in just amazing.  We decided to take a look inside.  My favorite part was the ceiling where the actual dome is.  There is paintings of angels and other religious figures on the ceiling and the entire building has marble everywhere.  We continued on and found a replica of the Statue of David and a statue of Perseus holding Medusa's head.  Further on our walk we ended up by the River Arno.  It was definitely a sight to see with the bridges connecting both sides of Florence.  This is going to sound a little weird, but it was the first time I had seen a tree with leaves in quite a few days.  Most of them are bare just like the ones in New England, but these trees were not.  They have bristles like a pine tree but have a trunk and branches like a typical deciduous tree, nothing that I have ever seen before.