And then there were two...

Today, Grace and I were the only ones from the penthouse who had orientation today, so we spent most of the day together, meeting people and seeing the sights. We quickly toured the outside of the Duomo, as well as walked to the Arno.

The duomo is officially called the Basilica di Santa Marie del Fiore, but is more commonly called Brunelleschi's Dome, designed by Filippo Brunelleschi, the guy who did awesome stuff like this:

It's one of the defining structures in Florence, and people line up every day to tour inside. I will probably attempt to go in sometime this weekend. We'll see what the masses decide to do, as I may wait until later in the semester, when most of the tourists have gone away.

Here are other detail shots of the dome:

The Duomo is the largest brick dome in the world, and took over four centuries to build from the first laid brick to completion.

The Gates of Paradise are the famous gilded doors on the Baptistry. They were done by Lorenzo Ghiberti and depict ten scenes from the New Testament. The scenes themselves are all beautiful, and the paneling around each scene is intricately detailed as well, making it a piece that you can stare at for hours.

After walking around the Piazza del Duomo (piazzas are sort of like an open quadrangle with the attraction in the center, in this case the dome, and shops and restaurants lining the square), we went by the Arno River.

As we made our way back, we noticed one of the stop sings had been altered by PETA:

Then, because Italians are so good with their food presentation, I remembered to take photos of most of dinner tonight. We had a wonderful tetrazini and risotto, a grilled chicken salad and rosemary potatoes, and tiramisu.