So, I read my friends' blogs about Florence, in the hopes of recounting everything chronologically, and I made notes as everything was happening in my little black book, so I'm sure I will have no problems recounting...hopefully.
The bus ride from Cannes to Florence was 6 hours or so, which may have been a long time for everyone, but was just a "river trip" away for me. Erin had to pee all the time, and I never got off the bus at any stop because I enforced my own river rule that once the car starts, there is no stopping until we are there. Therefore, if Erin ever comes to the river with me, she will be in another car, or riding behind me via bike. Lia's car does not stop. Anyways, so I got to listen to a whole lot of John Mayer, look out the window at the changing French to Italian scenery, and think about my trip abroad thus far.
We stopped about an hour and a half away from Florence at Pisa, where we saw the leaning tower, did another dance for our video, and looked around town for about a half hour. The city of Pisa itself is a dump, aside from the tower, and I don't really recommend going out of your way to see it because there's really nothing else to do there besides take a picture and go.
At the Leaning Tower!
When we made it to Florence, we had to walk up lots of old steep staircases with our bags ( I really thought the weight of my bag was going to pull me back down them) and get the key to our rooms; then, we had to walk down another set of stairs in another hall. The receptionist was really bossy, and not nice at all, but I just ignored her and went to my room with Paige to unpack our things. The room itself was nice; we were excited for the tv, even if everything was in Italian, and we were excited about having our own bathroom; HOWEVER, the shower was not okay. In Italy, there are no separators from the shower and the rest of the bathroom. Meaning that the water can go any which way in the bathroom without a secure curtain, meaning the whole bathroom gets a shower, meaning the whole experience is awkward and unsatisfying. But no worries, they made plenty of room instead for a bidet (which is like a douche, I think). I didn't even think those things were around anymore, but oh no, Italy is chalk full of em incase you were ever wondering.
After we unpacked, Erin, Sara, Paige and I were really hungry, so we found the first restaurant we could to eat some real Italian food. Since our hotel is right by the famous duomo, we ate a ristorante, instead of trattoria which was a big mistake. In Italy there are two kinds of restaurants- ristorantes, which are more for their location and scenery than their food, and then there's the trattoria, which is a restaurant made from the food harvested from the area. Our food at the ristorante was good and everything, but it was expensive, and not exactly the mouth watering experience we were expecting. Afterwards though, we went to a gelatoria, which was the taste of heaven we were hoping for and supposedly it isn't as bad as some American ice cream like everyone says, so that just made the delicious experience all the better.
The next day we were up and out for early morning tour with a cute Italian lady who showed us around Florence and gave us all these fun facts, which I have shared with you in my Florence album. Apparently after reading Erin and Sara's blog, not everyone was as into the tour as me, so now I'm hesitating on sharing what I've learned with you. I will say a little though just so I can remember these facts for myself, and if you want, you can skip the next few sentences or so if you're as bored as Erin and Sara. So, Florence (Firenze in Italian meaning "may you flourish") was the capital of the Tuscany region, and like Philadelphia, it was also the nation's capital for a short span of time. It's said to be the birth place of the Renaissance and was actually founded by Julius Caesar in 59 BC. The duomo (Santa Maria del Fiore), which sits close to the city's center was built a top of a pagan church, and is still the largest dome built in brick and mortar in the world and is made of three type of marble- white, green and pink, which were bought locally from the Tuscany region. The Arno River, which runs through the olde city, shares a love-hate relationship with Florence because although it did bring much commerce because it enabled easy transportation, it continuously destroyed sections of the city with its floods. Also, the ambulance sirens here are even more annoying than those in France because they have one monotone sound and I swear its 10x's louder. So there.
First Section of the Duomo
The Actual Dome of the Duomo
The Little Streets of Florence
When the walking tour throughout the city ended, Erin, Sara and I found ourselves in almost every store and leather shop in Florence. It's really cool walking through Florence too because the cobblestones are mostly all original so thats like hundreds and hundreds of Italian history under your feet. And most of the streets are all so tiny that you need a special permit to even be allowed to have a vehicle in the city so most of the time you can just walk in the middle of the street instead of cramming together on the sidewalks. So as we shopped, I considered not getting any leather items since I don't wear it, but I figured that since it wasn't for me, it would be okay. I did, however, buy myself an awesome pair of charcoal boots, and tights to go with my new European style that I have expensively been developing (don't worry mom, I've been holding back) and after our tiring shopping excursion, we ate lunch at a local pizzeria, which honestly was better than the night before's food, and way cheaper. However, I felt really bad asking for my food in English, because I've become so accustomed to being able to ask for everything in French, and I felt ignorant for not speaking any Italian. They didn't seem to mind too much, but still it would have been nicer to at least be able to ask for my food in Italian. Anyways, we wolfed down our food and then made our way to Uffizi Gallery in which The Birth of Venus is held.
"The Birth of Venus" Botticelli 1486
I can't say I will ever fully appreciate all the Madonna and child paintings there. I mean all of the many paintings have the same idea depicted on them and the whole concept got old, fast. It just seemed like they were uninspired. But I guess that's okay because as Sara said, I felt that when I reached the Pagan idea of The Birth of Venus, I was that much more impressed. The bright colors are completely different from the surrounding frescos, and its size alone is enough to awe anyone.
After leaving the museum, Missy, Erin, Sara, Paige and I went to the only surviving bridge of WWII to look out at the Arno River and explore the various shoppes created along its path (big bridges all use to have shoppes and buildings built along them, which is so strange and kind of junky to see today).
Surviving Bridge
For dinner, we listened to Aude (the AIFS assistant) and found a hole-in-the-wall trattoria that she told us about which served the most delicious local Italian food for less than half the price from the night before's restaurant. The cook/owner was such a cute, stereotypical, Italian man who sang as he cooked and served us our food with a serenade. We ate Brochette, and cold cut meats and cheese plate to start, and then I had a big bowl of Spaghetti and clams to finish me off ( Literally. I could barely walk after all that food). We had red wine with the dinner too, and I couldn't believe how much I actually liked it and that's saying a lot because I am definitely a nice, dry white wine drinker.
Sara was having a hard time finishing her last few bites, so when the cook/waiter/singer/owner/etc. came over to collect our plates, he looked at her plate, picked up her fork and made her eat another bite. We were all hysterically laughing when he kept urging her to eat, and then he kissed her forehead and collected her plate. It was probably one of the funniest, most memorable moments I had abroad. There was also this really cute couple from california who were celebrating their fortieth anniversary in Florence, and their love for each other still was a sight to see in itself.
After we left, and made another trip to a galato shop, in which Erin ordered Rose gelato and earned herself the nickname Proper Flower. That night, Sara and Proper Flower went out to explore Florence's night life, but Paige and I decided to be lazy and stay in and watch weirdo Italian tv until we both drifted off to sleep.
The next morning, we were up bright and early as usual to go to our last museum, Galleria dell'Accademia, to see the world famous David. I wanted to save David for last, so I walked around looking at all the different painting of Florence by all these Renaissance artists, and it just blew my mind seeing these paintings from the 1500's depicting the plague, religious events, and historical happenings of Florence with the Duomo and the Medieval Tower of Florence peaking in the background. It really just made me wonder what happened on the ground I was standing on in a time I couldn't even fathom living in. I also learned that when an artist paints an animal next to a person, it usually depicts the person's temperament since it can't be captured by the painting itself. So I guess I wouldn't mind hanging out with the woman whose animal was a humbled sheep, or the man's who was dolphin, but the renaissance guy that was sitting next to a lion in the shadows. Yea, I bet he was a dick.
But anyways, so before I saw David, I really wasn't expecting much, I mean it's a nice statue and all, but I wasn't that excited. However, when I stood right in front of it, I can honestly say that I could not take my eyes off the statue. It was absolutely beautiful, and so big that it just commands attention. Like Sara said, every movement you make around it just brings out a new perspective to it. I learned from the tour that Michelangelo's statue is important, not just because of its absolute beauty, but because it was the first time that David wasn't depicted as a little boy like in biblical depictions, but as the true hero he was to the people. We weren't allowed to take any photos, but Sara snapped one while the guard wasn't looking so I'll share it with you.
"David" Michelangelo 1504
That wraps up my trip to Florence; I think I remembered everything I want to remember and said everything I wanted to say. Sorry it took so long to post, but I promise I will try not to let my procrastenation get the best of be again. Grazie for reading! Love you and miss yo all! Arrivederci!!
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