Florence and Siena

We got to Florence two nights ago, and had our guided tour the first morning. I had already seen many of the places but I enjoyed learning more about the history and the specifics of the city. After lunch I climbed the dome in the cathedral, getting to see the paintings right up close. The scale of the paintings on the ceiling of the dome is ridiculous. The people are several meters tall. Then up to the very top where we saw an amazing panorama. 
Walking home after dinner, we came across a street performer. He had pulled volunteers from the audience and did a comedy show, totally hilarious. It was fantastic understanding both the Italian and the English parts of the show - he would speak in English to the mostly tourist crowd, but would add comments in Italian, usually poking fun at American tourists. 
The following morning we went to Siena for the day. Our guided tour was in the early afternoon so we spent our morning wandering around, snacking and relaxing. The tour brought us to the church of San Domenico where we learned about the story of Saint Cattarina (?), then around the city to the cathedral. I loved the music room in the cathedral as well as the amazing marble. They had wanted to make it even larger but a plague hit the city and so they were unable to continue. They got as far as some parts of the walls. Then to Piazza del Campo where they have the horse races. 
After our tour, some of us went to the torture museum, which I'll admit was mostly just really gory. Not sure I'd go back to that one. Then a walk to the train station to get back to Florence. 
Tomorrow we leave for Pisa in the morning, then from there to Rome. 
It's been really amazing being with the other exchange students. It's validating in many ways. There is more than one exchange experience, something that I frequently forgot in Palermo. It's ok to look forward to going home. It's ok that you struggled with the language, making friends, or getting along with your host family. I felt often that I was doing something wrong - that it was all my fault that I'm not the best in Italian or that I wasn't as close to my Italian friends as I wanted - but many others had the same experiences. My examples of exchange came from people that weren't necessarily like me - they spoke the language or learned quickly, or had a host family that they got along with immediately, or were better at making friends. So meeting the other students has helped me to feel a lot better about myself, knowing that others have experienced the same challenges, the same joys. 
Anyhow, that's all for right now, I'll update again as soon as I can.