Okay, phase three of my fall break adventures: Florence and Venice! I must say, after the craziness of Rome and Paris, Florence and Venice were somewhat of a relief. In both cities, we were able to relax a bit more. It was less of a race to see everything we could possibly cram into as few hours as possible, and more of just soaking up the local color, as they say on I Love Lucy. Which in my case, means eating as much gelato, pizza, and pasta as physically possible. Oh, and traipsing around is important too, I guess.
Florence was a two day sojourn after Rome, and all of us immediately fell in love with its small town feel, quaint Italian character, and the fact that it was a lot cheaper than Rome. haha. For instance, we ran across a huge leather market within the first hour of being in Florence, where some of the girls were able to barter and get some good deals on their souveniers! We also found a fantastic indoor food market where we could get amazing enormous slices of pizza for less than four euro and delicious homemade muffins for one euro each. We definitely ate there three times during our stay in Florence. I’m sure those people appreciated our loyal patronage.
The sights in Florence are quite picturesque. It really has the feel of a somewhat medieval town that has yet to modernize. There is a medieval bridge still standing which houses a enormous jewelry market. Also, during Renaissance times, the renowned Medici family were the Dukes of Florence, and so their family crest is carved on many of the buildings because they basically owned the entire town. The Duomo, which is the big cathedral in Florence, is incredibly ornate and gorgeous, but it has a strict no-shorts policy, so some of my friends who were wearing shorts weren’t allowed inside. Sad day. There is also a square, the name of which escapes me, that houses many awesome statues. Seriously. You would not see the likes of this in America, or even England, for that matter.
Our main tourist attraction in Florence was the famous statue of David by Michelangelo. Oh my gosh, it was awesome. The statue is much bigger than the pictures in textbooks make it seem, and being up close to it makes you appreciate even more the talent and artistry that went into creating it. The attention to detail on David’s hair, his hands, and of course, his muscles, is really astounding. I don’t even know how an artist can see such a masterpiece in a block of marble, and then make it! Between David and the Pieta, I have so much more respect for Michelangelo than I used to.
I don’t really know much else to say about Florence, since we did not do many activities there other than see David, walk around, eat, drink, and be merry! But I really did enjoy my time there. It was so beautiful, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it. Now, Venice was a similar situation in that it was very relaxed like Florence, but SO much harder to navigate. Those canals! Those bridges! All so lovely, but not easy for finding your way around at all.
Our hostel in Venice was probably my favorite. It was so nice and felt more like a hotel than a hostel. The guy who ran it was really friendly, chill, and basically let us do whatever we wanted. The girl who shared mine and Ellen’s room was American, and really nice too. No complaints at all. Most of our time in Venice was spent wandering the labyrinth of streets, canals, and bridges, eating delicious food, and stumbling upon great points of interest. Like the myriads of Venetian glass shops, artisan mask shops, and random places, like the Piazza San Marco (THE PIGEONS. OH MY GOD.) and a random music museum that was once the site of a church where Vivaldi used to learn violin!! I died and went to violin nerd heaven. It was awesome. Oh! I forgot to mention that in the museum in Florence where we saw David, they had a music section that had real Stradivarius instruments on display! Beyond exciting.
After 8 days traveling through Europe, I was so exhausted. Although I was sad to leave beautiful Italy and all its beautiful, friendly people, I was definitely more than ready to return to the familiarity of London. And there is so much to look forward to still! We just got back from a visit to Stratford-upon-Avon and Warwick Castle, which I will post about later, and there is still Bath, Canterbury, the Tower of London, Amsterdam, Hampton Court Palace, and other little excursions and events in between! The time is simply slipping away! If only I had a pause button…