Day 06 - Europe 2010

I was not prepared for the jaw-dropping awesomeness of Florence!

We arrived early, at 6:15am, and I was happy to have had an unexpectedly good night’s rest on the train, though my legs were definitely feeling the strain of lots and lots of walking.  We had no hostel reserved for our first night, not that we would have been able to check in that early anyway, so our first quest was to find a place to stay.  Of course, we would be able to tour the city at the same time so we were just fine with this plan.

And what a tour it was!  Wow!  There was one incredible site after another: the huge old church (Santa Maria Novella) just by the train station, the incredibly large and intricate Duomo cathedral, with the third longest nave in Europe and cool twisted columns, the old baptistry building nearby with its impressive doors, and then… and THEN… we came near the Uffizi where are housed many great works of art, and outside was a collection of sculptures so impressive!!!  Oh, I was so excited to see these sculptures that I had actually studied just a few months before for my sculpture class!!!  And I wasn’t even expecting them to suddenly pop up, completely accessible, in front of me.  I am speaking especially of the works by Giambologna, The Rape of the Sabine Woman and another with Hercules and his centaur foe, the name of which escapes me.  I put my camera away and just studied and stared for a good long while, takig it all in.  This was definitely a moment for me, surrounded by such awesome artwork that can be admired from every angle, touching these items that bring me back in time.  So cool.

As if that wasn’t enough, the city itself it just so romantic and other-worldly.  Almost all the streets have cobble stones, all the buildings are about five stories high with cute little shutters, there is some piazza with a statue or monument or church every couple of blocks, and a large canal cuts through the city.  Even the bridges across the canal have sculptures on them!!!  I was just in love with Florence and so excited that we had three full days there!  But I was especially grateful for my first tour through the city, done in the quiet peaceful hours of the early morning, without the hustle and bustle that you normally see in tourist-filled Florence.

Then, our journey of hostel-searching began, which I learned was one of my least favorite things to do.  I will spare you the details.  It took quite a bit of time and a few hostels before we found a Bed and Breakfast.  It was a cute little place and a little more expensive than a regular hostel but we had a whole room to ourselves with our own bathroom and a double bed.  That was quite a treat and we were grateful for a semi-affordable place to stay with some privacy and “luxuries.”

We took a taxi ride with two guys who were leaving the hotel and headed to the train station, sharing the cost.  We needed to get our bags we had left in lockers there early that morning.  The taxi ride was quite like an amusement park ride, with a mix of speed, fast turns, and thrills.  We zipped past parked and moving cars, mopeds, bikers, and pedestrians with maybe one foot of clearance.  At one point, we were rushing toward an old woman and I wondered how she would hop out of the way in time.  The whole thing seems like a big game.  The goal is to not die and there are no rules in achieving that.  Luckily, amazingly, we achieved our goal.

It was annoying though.  Our fare getting there seemed pretty reasonable.  We drove up to the train station with a total of about $15.  Then we parked and the driver suddenly pushed some button and the price nearly doubled!!!  I was like, ‘What the heck is that?  The tourist-who-doesn’t-know-any-better button!?’  So, as Nick said, our ride quickly went from a good deal to a rip off.  Oh well.

We got our bags, walked back to the hotel (about a 35 minute walk) and took the opportunity to take nap, take a shower, and freshen up.  Then, it was on to more exploring!

We went back over to the Duomo and went inside.  The interior was rather bland compared to the exterior, with drab walls and just a few small statues.  Most interesting was the huge clock at the far end, with 24 hours instead of 12.  There were also beautiful stained glass windows.  At the other end was the huge impressively painted dome.  The size was the most striking part.  It seemed like they kept building up and up and up, thinking, ‘No, we can still go a bit higher.’  There was a pretty big crowd in the church and every once in a while this “Shhhhhh… silencio… shhhhhhh… silencio…” would come on over this loudspeaker.  Nick and I wondered if it did that every few minutes or was triggered by decibels.

It was free to go in the church but it cost money to go up and see the inside of the dome up close, about $10.  There was also a smaller dome at the peak of the dome that you could go into (or so I thought).  Nick and I debated over the price and whether we wanted to do it.  He decided to skip out and I would go up to take pictures.  The whole trek up to the dome was 463 steps – I didn’t count, they posted it at the beginning as a warning – and took you up right by the painting inside the dome, which turned out to be rather frightening.  Basically, it was a painting of God damning people.  It showed these miserable naked people getting stabbed or strangled by these grotesque demons using tridents or spears.  This huge disgusting beast with multiple faces, obviously Satan, was devouring people.  There were a few redeemed folk in the background, oblivious to the plight of their neighbors, but the damnation was definitely the focus.  Well, if that doesn’t whip you into shape, I don’t know what will!  Scary stuff.

I wanted to make my way up to the little dome within the dome so I trudged up more stairs and suddenly found myself on the roof of the dome!!!  Wow!  I didn’t even know it went up there with a fantastic view of Florence and the surrounding countryside!  OK, now I felt bad Nick hadn’t come.  I took picture after picture, walking all the way around the crowded rooftop.  The whole city is just beautiful and the surrounding hills are a beautiful green dotted and lined with those darker juniper trees.  It was an incredible site and well worth the money.  I hopped on down the jumble of steps back to Nick and told him of my adventures.  It was too bad he didn’t go but maybe there was a lesson learned there.

Afterward, we headed up the street to the Accademie, where is housed the famous David by Michaelangelo.  And honestly, that was about the only thing worth seeing inside.  We waited in line to get in, maybe about a half hour, and then paid about $20 to enter.  The paintings were old, around 500 years, but were generally lackluster.  The coolest was to see the Florence baptistry that we had seen earlier depicted in some of the paintings, with people in old-time clothes surrounding it.  It made it seem more real how old everything is in Florence, all this awesome architecture at least.

And then there was the David with its own great room to house it.  I admit, it was pretty impressive.  It is very large, I am guessing around 15 feet or so.  I stared at it for quite some time, checking out the excellent craftsmanship and the undeniable beauty of the man.  No pictures were allowed but Nick was not having it.  Like a crafty little fox, he put the camera in his hand, hung it by his side and snapped away.  I was laughing at his deviousness, though I was mildly disapproving of his breaking the stupid rule, and at his trying-too-hard-to-not-look-like-I’m-doing-anything-wrong face.  Nevertheless, he got some good shots.

On the way back to the hotel, we passed this exhibition of Italian cars that were seriously SWEET!  I think they may have actually been out for a good washing because they were a tad dirty.  Nick stopped and was dumbfounded.  He said, "There is seriously millions of dollars worth of car here."  We took a few pictures next to these incredibly expensive cars we will probably never get that close enough to again.  It was cool and an unexpected bonus to the already awesome day.

We were planning to blog and make reservations for our trip when we got back to the hotel but the reception was closed so we couldn’t get a passcode for the internet.  DRAT!  Another day gone by with no internet, no blogging, and no planning! I tried to stay up and blog a little but I was so sleepy I only got through one day before passing out.

PHOTOS:

This church, the Santa Maria Novella, is just outside the train station, and was our first site in Florence.

Then we came upon the baptistry with its famous doors.  This is just a sample.

The front of the great Duomo.  I had no idea it would look so awesome!!  There is so much to look at, so many little details that add to an overall awesome work of art.  The green stripes on the right are those on the baptistry across from the Duomo.

This should give you an idea of how large the Duomo is.  Look how small I am!  Can you even see me in front of the doors?

And from the Duomo doors you look across at the baptistry with its golden doors.

I wanted to include some detail from the exterior of the Duomo.  Here you can see the cool twisted columns that I thought were really fascinating and elegant.

This is from the back.  You can see the big dome where I was headed later in the day.  What an incredible building.

This is one end of the Uffizi, home of many great works of art, especially Giotto, Botticelli, Rubens, and others.  Inside are also many sculptures dating back to the time of Christ!  Awesome!

The most awesome experience, discovering these sculptures outside the Uffizi.  I was in awe.  I love this sculpture by Giambologna, the movement and expression.  And what a setting here in Florence!

Amazing how an artist can make stone look like flesh.  Such skill!  I seriously love sculpture.  I love what you can do with it, creating 3-D art and allowing the viewer to appreciate your work from every angle.  I was definitely studying these sculptures from every perspective and enjoyed every bit of it.

I love this sculpture, also by Giambologna!  I think centaurs are cool anyway, but the power of Hercules and the strain from the centaur are so present in this piece.  I enjoyed exploring the different angles with my camera to try and capture the awesomeness of it.

Here is the side view so you can see the whole piece.  That centaur is going down.

Poseidon was nearby, poised on a fountain decorated with swimming horses, shells, and fish.  I caught him with the sun rising at his back.

The Arno Canal and Nick is happy to be here.  Such a enchanting city.

This was taken on our way back into the city after finding ourselves a place to stay.  Do you see the fisherman?

Here is the view from inside the Duomo!  Do you see the little dome up there inside the bigger dome?  That's where I thought I was headed.  Nope!  Oh well, I got to see all of Florence instead!

On my way to the ticket counter to head up the dome.  There was a line and lots of scribbling on the walls.  I just thought this was humorous.

Detail from inside the dome.  Not exactly uplifting.  I suppose obedience by fear is one way to go about it.

Looking down from the rooftop of the Duomo!  Hope you're not afraid of heights!

Beautiful, romantic, enchanting Florence!

Nick next to the impressive Italian cars.

There they are in all their glory.  Pretty sweet!!

That is one sexy ride!

And we ended with a gorgeous sunset over the Arno Canal.  Aaah, what a day and what a city!