FLORENCE, ITALY
24th May 2002 to 29th May 2002
Ciao all....of to see the most famous statue in the world....
Ciao (which also means hello)
I hope my email finds you all well and surviving the on-coming cold. The weather here is "bellissimo", just in case you were wondering:)
If you found my last email rather long, imagine what it was like writing it.. like the never ending story it was:)
Promise this one will be a bit shorter, in fact it will probably be a lot shorter.. unless I start waffling which I have a tendency of doing it seems:)
oh well... better get on with this story....as I imagine you are waiting with baited breath for our next adventures:).... This time we head down to Firenze, or Florence as better known by us English :)
Having jumped on our train and found our seats, we spent most of the journey to Florence listening to some very loud Americans complaining and whinging about one thing or another. One thing that we have discovered on our travels is that a lot of Americans are extremely rude and demanding people without an ounce of courtesy between them. Now I don't know whether this is just their nature or due to the fact that things are just sooooo perfect in the good U.S of A, that they just expect to say something and have people jump for them.
One thing that one discovers when traveling new and different countries, is that you have to leave all your expectations at home and live according to the way of the country that you're in... "when in Rome..." etc etc..... Europe runs on its own sense of rules and if you even dare to compare it with the way your country runs for example, you will end up bursting a blood vessel, end up with a headache and have a rather unpleasant holiday.
Now the trains in Europe are excellent as I have mentioned, but sometimes there comes a day when you cannot get what you want. For example: if you have a 1st class Eurorail ticket and do not make a reservation, there is no guarantee that you will have a seat in a 1st class carriage. All the seats may have been pre-booked. This means that you have to either wait for someone to get off at a stop and you can then get their seat or go down to 2nd class and have a seat there.
Well these girls were saying that they were not going to sit in a carriage without air conditioning if they had paid for a 1st class Eurorail etc etc. Now the rules are clearly stated on the tickets and you if you just jump on, you do so at your own risk. Rob and I couldn't help but snicker every time the poor conductor tried to sort everyone out. I wouldn't want to be in his shoes.
Florence Photo Gallery and more...
Anyway, our trip was pleasant enough and we arrived in Florence in no time. After strapping ourselves with backpacks etc we started heading towards the tourist info department to find out about accommodation. As expected we got accosted by various touts (which is what we wanted). After a bit of negotiation with this one really pleasant lady, we agreed to a room with it's own toilet facilities and satellite TV for 85Euro a night, which is not that bad considering that we have now entered high season. Unfortunately when she phoned her place to confirm our reservation, all her rooms had filled up, so we were back to square one again:(
Again we made our way to the tourist office only to be approached by this rather round little man in khakis. He asked if we wanted a room and told us that the price was 75 Euro a night with all the facilities that we wanted. ( I had seen him listening to us talk with the previous lady, so was not surprised at the price). Price was excellent, the pamphlet looked even greater, so we waited around for about 10 minutes while his wife came with the car to pick us up. WOW!! now this was service at bargain prices finally!! :)
A pretty young blonde came up to us (his wife) and we followed her to the car, which turned out to be a great big silver Pajero. Plonked our stuff in the back and got into the back seats. Rob the clever one, put on his seat belt. Me on the other hand, just sat and hung onto the hand rail. (in Europe it is not compulsory to wear any seat belts at the moment, and if it is.. nobody does.)
Anyway, this woman drove like a bloody maniac whilst Kylie was singing "Can't get you out of my mind" in the background. We came to a pedestrian crossing with a lady pushing a pram across it. Our driver came to a screeching halt, almost running the poor lady down and very nearly getting me into the front seat.. well.... at least the drive was exciting:)
Arriving at the hotel, we realised that this was not exactly like the pictures in the pamphlets. Our room smelt hot and dank, there was no aircon, no TV (they would hunt one down for us though) and there was no separate bathing area in the toilet that we could notice. Upon closer inspection we discovered that there was a shower hidden between the basin and the bidet with a curtain separating it from the door... (you see, Europeans would rather have a basin, toilet AND bidet rather than get rid of bidet and have more space..) our towels, large as they are, turned out to be pieces of sheet rather than toweling material and the walls were covered in mossie splatters. The coup de resistance though......a window that looked into the next apartments' bathroom:) wooooooooo hoooooooooo.. let the good times roll!!!
Our bathroom, you shower between the toilet and bidet!
Rob and I looked at each other and decided that this would do for the night and we'd see in the morning if we wanted to stay further or not. A bit of entertainment in the next room would definitely keep us there...if you know what I mean:)
Dropped our stuff down and made our way to the nearest internet cafe to continue writing our massive Venice/Milan saga. The internet cafes here require an ID before they allow you to use their computers. This is for security reasons I believe and have been implemented in Italy since January 2002. Having spent about an hour plodding on our email, we decided to have an early dinner and then call it a night. Lotsa planning to do for our sightseeing of the next day. Pasta turned out to be unimpressive but the tiramisu was excellent.
Nighttime provided rather poor entertainment in the form of mossie chasing all night long (hence the mossie splatters) and lotsa noises coming from all over the hotel. The walls, you see are very thin, one can actually hear the people in the next room flatulate and sneeze.. makes for rather interesting bedtime conversation:) Now I know you are wondering about the room across our window... well you voyeuristic perverts.... no, nothing interesting to report, as the windows fogged up as soon as they turned on their shower:(..hehehehe...
Next morning saw me waking up with a sore back and Rob with no problems at all. Our nice double bed consisted of 2 singles next to each other. Robs' is nice, new and firm... mine has this deep hollow that you sink into and can't climb out of...thus sore back and crick in neck...oh well, you'd think my years at the hostels would have made me immune to such things:)
We got up, showered and went down for breakfast, as the room rate included breakie as well. yummmm... coffee.... Breakfast saw us desperately trying to clean our plates with saliva and checking coffee cups for floaties from the person before. Needless to say, we are very happy that we got our Hep A/B shots, 'cause if there was a place were we would get it.. this was it.
We chomped on the bread rolls provided, just to get something into our tummies and then made our way to the station, vowing never to have breakfast there ever again.. eewuuu ;(
We stopped at the tourist office to check out some more accommodation offers and whilst we were standing there listened to the other tourists doing the same thing. Prices for a 1 star place started from 90Euro per night, so we really did have a bit of a bargain going (if we could survive the experience without being airlifted by mossies). This one poor Canadian guy even asked the lady in a hopeful tone "Is it beautiful?" after booking a 1 star hotel for the required 90 Euro plus 3 Euro booking fee per night... Rob and I packed up laughing as the lady told him that it WAS a 1 star place and if he didn't like it, he could come back and try something else... poor thing:)
After much consideration, Rob and I decided to bite the "luxury" (read CNN) bullet and stay at the hotel we were at, as it allowed us to stay within our budget whilst enjoying a few more things at the same time.
We grabbed our map and made our way to the Duomo of Santa Maria Del Fiore and once again the church and bell tower were stunningly beautiful. This church was less Gothic in architecture than the ones in Venice and Milan. It's beauty stemmed from it's amazing design which was made solely from white, pink and green marble. You could go to the top and get panoramic views of Florence. Piazza del Duomo
There were two queues, 1 to the church steeple and the other to Giotto's bell tower. The bell tower had a shorter queue, so we decided to climb up that one instead. A gasping 418 steps later showed us why this queue was shorter, the church steeple had 460 steps...:)(fools!)
View from top of the Duomo Church, Florence
The view was amazing though and it was nice to see the city from this perspective. When you are on the ground you get a very one-sided view and can't get an overall picture of landscape and design.. from here it was great. Florence, like most European cities that we have been to, is pretty flat as well, with buildings not going higher that maybe 5 floors. Where Athens has white buildings climbing up the mountain side and is very densely populated, the buildings in Florence are various shades of sienna and a little further apart. Although the buildings are not as elaborately built as the ones in Venice, they all have their own unique charm and history.
Getting back down was a hell of a lot easier than getting up, that's for sure:) Our next stop was the Piazza Della Signoria, where the Palazzo Vecchio, the Loggia De La Signoria and the Uffizi gallery was. The Piazza del Signoria is a large piazza just like all others with the obligatory gelatterias, cafes and tratorias but the difference is that this is where the royal palace of the Medici's is; I should really say was because a) they are dead and b) the Medici's decided that the palace of their rivals was much nicer (Palazzo Pitti) than theirs and moved into that instead. The Piazza has the amazing "Neptunes Fountain" carved out of marble and bronze to the one side and the palace in the centre.
Kat and Neptune's Fountain
In front of the Palazzo is the replica statue of Michelangelo's' David (the real one is housed in Gallery de la Academia which we would visit the next day.) which is very impressive. Statue of David.
Kat and the "replica" Statue of David
Down the other side of the piazza is the Loggia de la Signoria (also called The Loggia dei Lanzi) wich is an open-air, covered display of several statue masterpieces by various artists including Cellini's "Persius with the head of Medusa".
Kat and the Piazza Del Signoria
This is quite cool and creates great ambiance in the piazza. Further back is the Uffizi gallery who's claim to fame is Botticellis' "Birth of Venus" and various other paintings and sculptures. Whilst standing there admiring the statues, we noticed carabinieri (police) or as Rob likes to call them "The carbonaras", cordoning off the Uffizi area and making way for a swarm of police vehicles and black sedans that came zooming down the corner. We also noticed some Chinese bystanders holding banners and waving at one of the cars. All of a sudden, dozens of Secret service men in black ( with the obligatory earpieces and dark sunnies) jumped out of the cars, surrounded the Chinese dignitary and bundled him inside the gallery. We still haven't quite figured out who he was but it was all over in a matter of minutes. Secretly we were hoping for some action like an assassination attempt or something..:)..something to write home about you know :)
Deciding that the queue to the Uffizi was just too long, we decided to leave it for the next day and carry on to the Franciscan church of Santa Croce where Michelangelo, Macchiavelli, Galileo, Dante and other famous Italian people are buried. Even though the church has a typically simplistic design due to it's Franciscan heritage, it is an artist's dream with painted ceilings, frescoes, stained glass windows and icons and crosses that leave one in awe. There are also tombs under the floor which have been intricately carved out of marble as the floor was laid or inserted at a later stage. The tombs of Michelangelo, Machiavelli, Dante etc are impressive in their own right and don't seem out of place or gaudy in this church. It all just blends into a place of worship not only of God but of great talent and inspiration as well. More Santa Croce Church
Having completed day 1, we found an excellent Cantonese takeaway and had a sumptuous meal in the park. Yes, I know we're in Italy, but I'm beginning to think that I should be offering Italian cooking lessons :)
Later on that night, the mission was to figure out how the hell mossies got into our room, even after we had the doors and windows closed all day :( ... After a bit of searching, we found this huge gapping hole in the wall behind a desk (probably where aircon used to live).. aha! ..so we plugged it up with a pillow, added a few more of our own splatters to the walls, changed beds and went to sleep.
again.... sorry... no action:)
Waking up nice an early to avoid the queues, we stopped and had a scrumptious cafe latte and brioche (otherwise known as croissant to the rest of the world) at this little cafe - standing up, before we made our way to the Gallery del Accademia to view the magnificent specimen of manliness: "David". Just in case you are wondering why we drank our coffee standing up instead of leisurely sitting at a table, the reason is that the price for standing at the bar is a quarter of what you get charged for sitting at a table, we are finally getting with the program...:)
Interesting marketing, notice the pigs sitting down for dinner in this butcher shop!
The queue outside the Gallery del Academia went round the block and we ended up waiting for an 1.5hrs before we got in. We met an interesting father and son team from America, who gave us background history on "David" and kept things real:)
David has to be seen to be believed and appreciated (re-click on link above!!!). It is hard to believe the perfection of the sculpture's proportions that have been achieved by Michelangelo. Story has it that the 17ft tall block of marble that was used for the carving of David was first commissioned to be the statue of a pope (I think). The sculptor deemed the marble unworkable and Michelangelo got it for free to do with what he wanted...and thus David was born:)
It is said that Michelangelo used to hire people to steal corpses so that he could study the human anatomy in greater detail. The proportions and detail of David are amazing and I can't even begin to describe the overpowering and humbling feelings that one gets. One ancient critic said that " Once one has gazed upon the perfection of David, one need never look at another statue again". I know exactly what he means. When you compare David to other statues you can see that the others, magnificent in their history and beauty as they may be, are often lacking as the proportions are not always correct or the details are not as fine. You can actually see the tendons and veins in David's hands and arms...wow!!
The statue is the only thing worth seeing in the Gallery de la Accademia, but they have positioned David to perfection. He stands right in the middle of this great hall, under a high domed ceiling with the light reflecting his majesty. I know I'm waffling, but I have never been as spellbound or as appreciative of a piece of art as I was with this. Even Rob, my "I don't like art" darling was suitably impressed, and I don't think it was just by the size of David's manliness:)
And finally the penny dropped, the David in this sculpture was actually David from the "David and Goliath" story from the First testament in the Bible.
When the original David was placed in front of the Palazzo Vecchio all those many centuries ago, he represented freedom and liberty for the people of Florence, and the ideal of the brain instead of brawn in overcoming their more powerful foes...
From there we made our way back to the Uffizi but again the queues were horrendously long. We decided to walk across the Ponte (bridge) Vecchio instead and go see Palazzo Pitti.
Ponte Vechio connects the two sides of Florence across the river Arno and is one of the most important bridges in the history of Florence. It was also the official "royal bridge" that connected the two Medici palaces to each other.
Before the Medici's took over Pallazo Pitti, the bridge used to be lined with butcher shops. After the Medici's went across the river to live in the Pittis' palace, it was decided that it was best if the butchers left and jewelers took their place. That way it would be less noisier, less messier and anyway, jewelry making was a much more regal and impressive profession. When you look at the bridge form a distance, it reminds you of drawings that you would find in nursery rhyme books. The buildings on it look awkward and haphazard but are seriously quaint:) Walking across, almost transports you into a bygone era as everything looks exactly the same, old and cobbled... the only thing missing would be people all dressed up. Come to think of it... I might suggest it to the Florence council:)
Palazzo Pitti proved regal looking with extremely impressive fountains and gardens, but we decided not to go inside. Instead we made our way to the Piazzale de Michelangelo which is this piazza/garden just on the outskirts of Florence. It is built on a hill and offers superb views of Florence as well a bronze copy of the statue of David (can't get enough of this man:). Getting there proved as interesting as the views themselves. More Piazzale Michelangelo
Our route took us along the Arno river on the opposite side of the city. Whilst walking hand in hand and peering into the waters, we noticed this rather large looking thing swimming in the water. On first glimpse it looked like a badger or otter but on closer inspection showed that it had a rather long tail, very much like a rat. Now we know that rats don't swim, but there are no badgers in Italy as far as we know, and otters definitely don't have long tails, so deduction says... must be humongous rat. Maybe rat that has mutated into super swimming rat! After taking lots of photos and contemplating with other passers-by as to the species of said animal, we made our way to the piazella.
The views were indeed beautiful and very different from the ones we got from the top of the bell tower. These views were of a more holistic Florence from the outskirts. If you are ever in Florence, it is definitely worth the puffing walk up the hill:)
After a much needed rest, we decided to give the Uffizi one more try. This time the queue wasn't as long, only 1.30 hrs instead of 3 :( Our wait proved rather disappointing though as the gallery failed to meet up to my expectations, in fact I found it rather limited. Even though the "Birth of Venus" was masterful, Raffaellos' and Botticellis' proved few and far between and all the paintings by other artists proved to deal mainly with Biblical scenes and were from the same art period. There was no real variety that one could discern. No Dantes, Dalis, Picassos, Matice etc etc. Personally I found it very disappointing, but others could disagree.. as this one American girl said " If there is one gallery that you must visit in Europe, it is the Uffizi in Florence"...mmmmmmmm I beg to differ.. wonder if she's been to the Louvre?