After a sad goodbye with Guiseppe, Conchetta,
Kasia, and Chiara (perhaps!) and four hours of killing time in the Catania airport, we arrived in Florence in the early evening on Thursday. And then there were two. Luckily, and much to our surprise, our modest little hotel was about 100 feet from the main train station so that was key since we were so hot, tired, hungry, and hot. Oh and we were hot. August heat has really brought it’s A-game apparently. Pretty much everywhere we go we look like those sweaty desert wanderers you see on Oracle and Grant, just with half our body weight on our backs and much better hair.
ANYWAYS, we get to our hotel and bad news ensues as we come to find we do not have air-conditioning and we are on the 5th floor with a tiny little oscillating fan circa 1982. Thus we turned to all the beauty Florence has to offer to set us out on the right foot for what really felt
like the beginning of our adventure.
Florence is absolutely stunning. Minus the pickpockets and ex-crack heads relentlessly petitioning against drugs. One of the first plus’ we came to learn about in this city is that you can walk everywhere. It is so tiny, and so jam-packed with beautiful things to see, statues, museums, history… that you can hardly get over the one thing before you are face-to-face with the next. We ended up having dinner at one of those picturesque little bistro candle-lit in the cobblestone alley ways. Delicious food…. Bruscetta, pasta with pesto, mint, mushrooms and some sort of sweet chicken thing. OH, and how could I forget… bonus #2 about Florence, you can walk around the streets with your own 1.50 euro bottle of wine and sit down at a restaurantwith it (or so we think).
The city is divided into neighborhoods according
to what major church it is near, for example we are staying in Santa Maria Novella and our hotel window looks down into the courtyard of this gigantic temple. My point is that the Italians are obviously very religious people, amongst other
things, and these ridiculously immaculate churches are everywhere. The most renowned of course being the Duomo. Today it is the 3rd largest church in the world, and let me tell you it is absolutely
insanely huge. Its almost a joke. The next morning we took a walking tour throughout the church, out up onto the balconys and eventually after climbing about 1000 stairs in what felt like the film set for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, we got to hang out on the very top of the dome
which overlooks the whole city. Bellisimo! Next we went to one of the famous Piazza’s where free-standing statues and fountains dating back to the mid 15th century, including the
slaying of medusa and a replica of Michealangelo’s David. One of the smartest things we have been doing thus far on our trip has been waking up stupidly early, not by choice, more by my insomnia or Brandon’s snoring, because we have been beating the tourists masses by at least and hour or two.
Hey Cheryl, if your reading, the best espresso you’ll ever have made into the best cappuccino you’ll ever have only costs 1 euro here.
After lunch at an awesome little deli/restaurant which my lonely planet directed us to and a quick nap followed by workout on the front lawn of the train station (normal) we decided to get some shopping in. By shopping I mean half “just looking because I could never afford you “shopping and half “ 10 euro’s? I’ll give you 4” bargaining with the street vendors. Florence is insane with their fashion; I have never seen so many well dressed dudes in my life… all serving as serious inspiration for B.Cohen as you can imagine; lets just say a purchase of purple loafers are in the near future. We pass 3 different
Gucci stores before we even get to our morning coffee spot, even the crickety boned old man bumping down the cobblestones on the vintage schwinn is pimped out. I’ll let Brandon write further about this later, but the men’s fashion is incredible and somewhat addicting to explore; its like the Italians care more than anything about looking good whilst not caring at all what anyone thinks.
At night in Florence everyone just gathers in the dimly lit piazza’s, drinking, eating and people watching. After grabbing some quick and cheap chicken schwarma from the kebab place next door we went and sat on the steps of the Duomo with a bottle of wine and joined the people watching crowd. In the other piazza’s and streets on our way there were opera singers, jazz bands, and comedians but where we settled there was just one lonely guy and his saxophone. He was good, and without an amp provided just enough background music permitting us to still eavesdrop on all the travelers conversations around us. By midnight we were tucked in bed with our cans of Heineken and a night cap of How I Met Your Mother on the laptop.
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