Florence

So David and I spent Friday, Saturday, and most of Sunday in Florence. For people with such low energy levels, we did a lot of stuff!

On Friday we decided to skip class and go directly to Florence. After a little stress about possibly missing our train or having it be full (we were only about 10 minutes early and I think we got the last two seats) we made the 7:55 a.m. departure. We shelled out the extra 10 euros each for a seat on a high speed train, so we got there in about an hour and a half instead of four hours.

We slowly realized on the way to Florence that we weren’t going to stop at the downtown train station. After ascertaining from a reluctantly helpful fellow passenger on the coffee shop car that we were headed to a different station in Florence (I think she felt sorry for me because I spilled a cappucino all over myself) I was prepared to exit in a random suburb of Florence. We did, but fortunately were able to catch a regional (as opposed to high speed) train back into the center of town with no hassle. After disembarking, we entered into a crowded piazza and then made our way down a shady and slightly less crowded side street. We walked through the leather market, which is pretty much what it sounds like – a couple dozen stalls set up with people selling various leather products (coats, wallets, and purses primarily). There were also signs out advising tourists that it was against the law to buy fake products – kind of bewildering until you saw the chutzpah of the people setting up, sometimes right in front of these signs, with obviously funny business going on with their cheap “designer” handbags.

Our B&B was great – air conditioned, a comfortable bed, clean room, and a bathroom that was actually the size of 2 closets instead of half of a closet. David did a great job finding a nice and afforadable place to stay,just a few blocks away from the Duomo. Werested up a bit from our train ride, and then we set out to find the Stibbert Museum.

The Stibbert has the best collection of arms and armor in Florence. It’s about a 30 minute walk from the Duomo, which is in the historical center of town. The way out was kind of sleazy – lots of graffiti and dog poop on the sidewalk. I was glad when we made it to the hill that the museum was on. It’s a huge renovated mansion from the 19th century in the middle of some very quixotic and interesting grounds.

We had almost an hour to kill before the next tour left, so we walked around the greenery, saw the pond with a little temple in the middle, and enjoyed the local wildlife.

When our tour left, we were completely enthralled by the collection. The first few rooms had beautiful armor on painted mannequins from as early as the 14th century. Then, we found a room in which one wall was entirely covered by a glass case containing dozens of rapiers. David and ignored the rest of the room and admired the weapons for as long as we could before we were hurried along. Same story for the next two rooms. Then we were shown some boring Boticellis, some clothes that Napoleon wore when he was crowned king of Italy, and other dull and unswordlike things. We really wished we could have skipped that part of the tour and spent more time with the swords. We also wish the swords were more clearly labeled – it was really hard to tell which sword was from what period, though we could always hazard a decent guess based on the morphology of the weapon.

We skipped home, singing happy songs about how great the swords were, even while quietly mournful about our lack of time with them. Then, we hung out in the air conditioned room for some of the hottest part of the day and looked up information about places for dinner. We set out to find a place to eat and explore the city.

We were completely shocked by the Duomo. As we walked down the street, we suddenly emerged into a piazza completely dominated by an amazing green, white, and pink building. We were stunned by its beauty and presence and had to take a few minutes just to sit down on a nearby step and admire it. We wandered to the southern part of the historical city, across the Arno on the Ponte Vecchio bridge (the only bridge that survived WWII). The bridge is crammed full of jewelery shops, the majority of which are still operated by the descendants of the artisans from the 17th century originally granted the space. After checking at our preferred restaurant and finding a one-hour wait, we walked back into downtown to a little place called I’Che C’e’ C’e’ – “it is what it is.” I had the best meat sauce I’ve ever experienced there on some penne – David had spaghetti with meat sauce. I actually didn’t realize it was possible for it to taste as good as it did. Afterward, we went back home and went to bed early.

On Saturday, we made it our mission to seek out antique bookshops. We found a couple open, and one even had a book related to fencing. Unfortunately, it was from the 19th century so we weren’t really interested. There were more closed bookshops, which gave us the excuse to walk all over the centro storico (historical downtown) of Florence.

On the way, we stopped in at Santa Croce church where Michaelangelo, Machiavelli, and other luminaries are buried. We also went into the Duomo and admired the frescos. Then, we actually were able to climb up to the top of the dome, almost 500 steps high. We climbed up between two layers of the dome and were only feet away from the gorgeous frescoes that adorned it. The stairs were narrow, dusty, and steep, but we had a real feeling of accomplishment when we made it to the top. We took lots of pictures of Florence from this excellent vantage point.

In the late afternoon, we went over to see the David. The line was only about 15 minutes long – earlier in the day it was probably closer to an hour. We were both surprised at just how imposing and impressive the David is – the statute itself is huge, and the attention to detail is incredible. The veins are sculpted into the back of his hand, his face is expressive, and his stance is contemplative. It was another sit-and-stare instance.

For dinner we went to the place we wanted to go the day before – this time with reservations in hand. My pasta with truffles was probably very good, but I guess it wasn’t really my thing. The house wine was excellent, however, and they may have had the best cheesecake I have ever tasted. It was amazing. We made it home and went to bed early again – walking 5-7 miles every day around a city will make you sleep really well!

On Sunday we went to mass at the Duomo, complete with Gregorian chant and some parts in Latin. The majority was in Italian. We were polite Protestants and stayed in our seats when the Catholics took the Eucharist, but otherwise we particiapted as much as we were able. Possibly some more thoughts on this service later.

After mass we went to the Bargello museum, but their armory was closed so it was a waste of time. Then we went to the Uffizi museum and stood in line for an hour and a half. They also didn’t have swords but we looked at everything anyway. The highlight of the experience for me were the Caravaggio paintings – including, but not limited to what Jasper Fforde calls “Frowny Girl Removing Beardy’s Head.” Then we caught the train home, footsore and exhausted, and were treated to the loudness of bratty children the whole way back, a few seats over. Overall, a great trip, though not as relaxing as our time in Venice.

David, still perky after almost 500 steps up the Duomo, poses in front of the Santa Croce Church