Florence (so far)

Arriving in Florence we walked to our hotel not 5 minutes from the train station. It started on the 5th floor up the world's scariest elevator (so far). There are four of us squished into the room but it has air conditioning, a balcony and am *amazing* view.

We left the hotel to wander around the nearby market. Florence used to be a major trading centre and in the market there were tons of leather purses/coats/wallets plus all the regular tourist crap for sale. The first rule is to bargain, and you should pay less than half what is the posted price. Two people in our group bought leather coats (got another bit of a deal with that).

Then it was off to visit the academia (we had bought tickets in advance to skip the line). The art was lovely and we took our time and then rounded the corner to an astounding view of David at the end of the corridor also filled with his partial works. Carrie has some great lines, "David is a grower not a shower". Yup, especially as his hands are so oversized. There were no photos allowed but many people were taking them, even the security guard. If they are't worried about the pigments being faded it must be to sell more postcards in the gift shop. Or perhaps the flash is annoying but in the Canadian art gallery I remember being allowed to take photos without flash.


After seeing David we wandered around. I was getting pretty hungry but also getting a bit sick of just following people around. By the time we were having dinner it was 10pm. I left the group to eat more cheaply on my own as I still have several months of travel left. Then I wandered around the Cathedral (Duomo).


Talk about an amazing site. It was a lovely warm night and it seemed like everyone was out and hanging around the steps of the Duomo. Walking on my own in the evening certainly attracted more attention from the men. Well, I guess it was just the night etc.

The next morning we headed out to the Uffizi but first it was a stop in the square to look at Fake David.


We spent a lot of time wandering around the Uffizi. One of many important works in this musem is Botticelli's Birth of Venus. As I saw more of his art work I discovered I quite like his stuff. The Medici family was an important family in Florence for something like 300 years. They appear as kings etc in many of Botticelli's work (Carrie quote "ok, this time paint me as Jesus"). I bought what I guess is my first souvenir of the trip, the official Uffizi guide so that I could understand at least what some of the art I was seeing was. I recognized a lot of Christian stories etc but certainly not everything. Of course, by the end of course we were pretty maxed out "So who are those guys" "I don't know, the standard naked entourage".

After the gallery we had a late lunch and split up. I wanted to head up the hill to get a view. I started by crossing the famous bridge covered with stores and the only one not blown up by the Germans. I started walking uphill and left the tourists behind. I bought some fruit at a grocery store (I've been majorly short on fruits and veg). I passed the Piazza Pitti with the gorgeous garden that I didn't pay to go in and way up the hill eventually to Piazzale Galileo. If I had gone the right way I could have walked to see a beautiful (free) church (Chiesa di San Miniato al Monte) and then to Piazzale Michelangelo which were supposed to have great views. However I took the wrong way down the hill (Machiavelli street) which was a lovely winding road and there were tons of motorcycles and scooters on it as it wound through a park. I was pretty tired by then and the thunderstorms were starting so I walked back to the hotel. Now I am writing on the beautiful balcony and on the tv is dubbed in Italian some story about a woman moving to Canada.

Update, in the evening we had a lovely evening. The group went back to the Uffizi gallery and we sat outside listening to a busker. He had a fantastic voice and sang popular english songs (i.e. Beatles) and we just enjoyed the evening.