Florence Day 2

I woke up early and headed to the train station in order to plan the next few days of travels and check out the train schedules. After creating a plan I went to the local market and saw all sorts of fresh ingredients and butcher shops. I walked to the synagogue again and got to go inside this time for a tour. No phatography was allowed but it was really big and amazingly decorated inside. They had a museum with a lot of really old artifacts. My next stop was the Leonardo da Vinci museum. Inside they had replicas of all sorts of his machine designs. There were things like an odometer, table saw, mortar launcher, machine gun, etc. but by far the coolest thing there was his design for a tank! It was a conical shell with 3 cannons and 4 independent wheels that had to be cranked manually.

Pretty cool stuff, but I'd say my merkava 3 is a lot nicer, wouldn't you?

On my way back to the hostel I stumbled upon an art exhibit in a random building which was a whole bunch of masking tape twisted inbetween the pillars in the building's foyer. It was super weird but I guess thats why they call it art.

Masking tape art

I headed back to the hostel to relax by the pool and sauna before heading back to the synagogue for shabbat services and a dinner at the local Chabad house. At the pool I randomly met another Jew from outside Toronoto and convinced her to join me at Chabad - small world! The services at the synagogue were very low energy and the massive synagogue felt eerily empty. It was interesting however to see how the services are conducted in a place like Florence, Italy. At Chabad there were about 50 people and we sat next to two couples - one Israeli and the other American.

The synagogue in Florence