Florence

We got up early to try and beat the crowds at the Academia to see the David. While we got there around opening time (8:30), we still had to wait a bit outside. We were glad that we skipped the tours, because we were able to squeeze past the fudgies with their headsets and go straight to Michelangelo’s statue of David. It was truly beautiful, and much bigger than I had expected (I thought he would be life size, but he is certainly more than that). We saw the rest of the museum fairly quickly and then squeezed our way back out.

We walked to Santa Croce, a beautiful cathedral full of famous dead people. The Italian cathedrals feel less crowded and disorganized than the French and English ones, which is nice. Here the people are buried in an orderly fashion, not willy nilly in walls and floors like in Westminster. We saw the graves of Galileo, Michelangelo, Machiavelli, Dante, and several others.  We then fought the crowds to the Duomo, the tourist mecca in Florence. We chose the tour that goes to the top of the interior of the dome and ultimately to the outside with a view of the city.

There were a lot, I mean A LOT of steps, and while the view at the top of the dome was cool (the people below looked reeeeally small), the climb up to the outside was not for me. I was proud that I wasn’t too winded, but the stairs were getting narrower, windier, and steeper, as well as more crowded, hot, and uneven. The last bit of the climb involved steps so steep that I looked up and got dizzy. I told Andy I would meet him at the bottom, as this was no place for a vertigo attack. Some random tourist tried to convince me that it wasn’t much further and that I could make it, but let’s just say that I quickly convinced her otherwise.

In order to get back down, I had to re-enter the dome on a different level, even higher this time, and go all the way down those awful stairs while people were squeezing past to go up. Bleh. I’m glad I headed down when I did, as that was not a place you could get out of quickly if you needed to. By the time I reached the bottom, I was so hot and sweaty! I waited for Andy, who arrived also hot and sweaty, so we ate a RIDICULOUS amount of gelato, and then we didn’t eat gelato for several days. Andy said the top was pretty, but not necessarily worth the climb, as the top of Notre Dame was better.

The Medicis, the family who ruled Florence for centuries, have palaces and such all over the city, so we checked one of those out, but it was pretty underwhelming, so we continued on to the English Cemetary where several famous English writers and poets are buried. The walk was long, hot, and crowded, and IT WAS CLOSED WHEN WE GOT THERE. We were so frustrated that we sat on a curb in the shade, rolled up our pants, took off our shoes and socks, and just sat for an hour.

We recovered enough to redress and head to where every American goes when they are hot, tired, hungry, and need a clean bathroom: McDonald’s. We decided that we had had enough of Florence, so we grabbed our luggage and headed to the train station early. The people were so unwilling to give me space on the sidewalk that my suitcase fell off the curb into the street twice in the whopping 6 blocks to the station. Those people have no idea how close to death they were at that moment…

We used the scary station bathrooms to clean up and change clothes, and just as we were beginning to feel optimistic, we boarded the train and sat next to a really rude couple. We decided to wait in the dining car, where we stayed for the entire hour and a half ride to Rome. I must admit, when the couples’ luggage got stuck in the door leaving the train, I chuckled a maniacal “serves you right, you jerks” laugh. Andy even suggested we get in front of them walking somewhere and then stand still.

We were thrilled beyond belief to be in Rome! We took the metro to our hotel, which was beautiful and had a view of the Colosseum! Andy immediately got in the shower and I heard him yell “I’m washing the Florence off of me!” We enjoyed a late night dinner on the rooftop terrace overlooking the Colosseum. The air was cool, the sidewalks were wide… It was good to be in Rome.

Traveling to Florence

Because our hotel had weird breakfast, we enjoyed a more traditional Italian breakfast– a croissant and cappuccino (Andy had orange juice) while standing up in a small coffee shop/bar. I am enjoying all of the coffee here, and the orange juice has actually been really good as well.

We packed up and rolled our suitcases down the cobbled streets to the station, where we had a brief ride (a few hours) to Florence. It was neat to see the Italian countryside (complete with vineyards!) roll by. The trains in Italy have been nice, so we watched some more movies on the laptop. After the tranquility and cooler temperatures of Venice, Florence was harsh and startling. We really went from one extreme to the other, as Florence was hot, crowded, and noisy. I had read as much in the travel guides, but it was worse than we had anticipated.

We had heard so many good things about Florence, as people who visited there say it is so beautiful, but we really disliked Florence. The sidewalks were incredibly narrow and bumpy, and if you moved at all to accomodate someone walking past you, they completely took up all of that space. We had met two women from New Jersey on the train who had more luggage than two people should have, especially since they were in Europe for 12 days! They were amazed at our small luggage and we were not at all envious of them hauling all of that stuff through those tiny streets!

I think if you are into shopping for leather you might like Florence, as it was full of markets selling the stuff. Once we had lugged our stuff up 3 flights and settling into a small room, we set out to explore in hopes that we would like the city more. We didn’t. We tried to see a few sights, but things closed fairly early, so we walked (read: shoved) around for awhile. We saw the Ponte Vecchio bridge, which is supposed to be one of the most famous sights there, but after the bridges in Venice, it couldn’t compete! It was fun to walk across, though, as the sides of the bridge are full of gold and silversmith shops that have been there for hundreds of years.

We did come across a lovely piazza that turned out to be on our lists of things to see, which was convenient. The Piazza della Signoria is full of gorgeous, famous statues and is near the exterior of a palace that is lined with statues of famous artists, writers, and scholars. While we didn’t really like the city, we did appreciate that a lot of important people lived here throughout the ages.

The big redeeming part of our walk was encountering two black and tan dachshunds (Goobers is cuter!) and chatting with their owners. It was nice to pet some doggies!

We turned in early, hot and tired.