Florence/Milan

Here are a few pictures from some day trips that we took to two major cities. The first city that we visited was Florence. This city is known for its artwork, and is one of the most beautiful cities that we have seen thus far. This is the huge Cathedral at the center of the city.

One of the other definitive things about Florence is that is it contains Michelangelo’s famous statue The David. While we did not go into the museum where the original sculpture is, we did get to see this copy in the courtyard.

This lion was also in the courtyard. Its expression was just too funny to pass up.

We also got to spend a day touring the city of Milan. These huge cities have so much history that you could spend months in each one and not even get close to seeing everything. Milan is presently known as one of the fashion capitals in the world, however the city has a rich history as well. The city was made one of the capitals of the Roman Empire by the emperor Constantine in the 4^th century. We were able to visit the ruins of the imperial palace in the city. This would have been the place where Constantine penned the famous Edict of Milan in 313, which legalized Christianity in the Roman Empire.

Additionally we were able to visit the famous Duomo Cathedral. This cathedral is definitely the coolest one that we have yet to see. It is one of the largest Cathedrals in the world. It took about 500 years to be fully completed.

The architecture of this cathedral is actually quite fascinating. The cathedral was built in 1386, right during the time when gothic style architecture was becoming popular. The cathedral is built in such a way that the large pillars take the majority of the weight of the ceiling, leaving the walls open for the huge stain glass windows.

The last and most fascinating thing that we were able to see was the original baptistery underneath the Duormo Cathedral. It is here that the church father Augustine was baptized by Ambrose in 387 AD. The story goes that Augustine came to Milan to study rhetoric. When he heard Ambrose preach he was cut the heart, and underwent a dramatic conversion experience in the gardens of Milan. That same year he was baptized in this very place. It was pretty breathtaking to be standing right there in the stead of such a influential man of God.

I also had some time to befriend a family of pigeons. I like pigeons.