charismatic megafauna since 1985

Florence, day 0.5

(This only gets a half day because I got into town at 1130)

Venice gave me one last kick in the teeth as it made me pay 15 for a reservation on a train that wasn’t even close to full.

Right off the bat, Florence was nice. The weather was nice, sunny without clouds, and warm. The first person I talked to, the woman at the tourist office across the street, was friendly and helpful, and pointed me towards a hostel close by. She also pointed out where some other hostels were, and explained what the various hostels had in terms of amenities.

The hostel I’m staying in doesn’t have a kitchen, but that’s my only complaint. It’s clean, it’s got free wifi and it’s got a fridge I can put my perishables in. After looking up my grandmother’s address to send her a postcard, I wandered off into town.

Florence has a lot of history from the Renaissance, so I started at the Duomo, a church with a giant dome that sits in the center of the city. Michelangelo said “I can build its sister—-bigger, but not more beautiful” of St. Peter’s in Rome. Another fun fact: the church was built with a giant hole in the roof where the dome was supposed to be. That seems obvious, right? The fun fact is that when they left the hole, no one knew how to build a dome that big when the church was started. They just assumed “Hey, it’s the Renaissance, I’m sure someone will figure it out in time” and someone (Brunelleschi) figured it out.

Rick Steves has another audio tour for a Renaissance walk, from the Duomo to the Ponte Vecchio. It was about an hour and gave me a nice tour of the city without having to look at too much artwork. It’s another place with a lot of tourists, though.

Aside: I feel strange sometimes, wishing that all the tourists would go away while I’m on myself. But I really do feel that way, that all the people are ruining the experience for me. Not ruining it, I guess, since I’m still having a good time for the most part, but detracting from it.

After my walk was finished, I wandered back to the hostel to pick up my keys and figure out where I wanted to go with my 2 and change days here in the city. It turns out there are lot of places:

• Accademia (with Michelangelo’s David)
• Duomo (preferably going up to the top of the dome) and the Duomo Museum
• Uffizi Gallery (greatest Italian painters)
• Museum of San Marco
• Bargello (sculpture)
• Medici Chapels
• Science Museum
• Pitti Palace

That’s a lot of stuff to do in two days!

To make it easier on myself, I did the Accademia today. I figured it would be bigger, especially for 10, but David was worth it. I’d only ever seen picture of it before. It’s massive! It just towers over you if you get close. There are also some unfinished Michelangelo’s, collectively called the Prisoners because they’re still trapped in the stone. There’s also a plaster gallery which is impressive just for the sheer number of plaster sculptures they’ve fit into the room.

I wandered around there for about 90 minutes before I started back towards the hostel and the grocery store. I stopped to make a couple phone calls on my way back, too (happy Thanksgivings to the Swartz, Geers and Misak clans) but I was pretty hungry by the time I got out of the museum. I looked for Thanksgiving-y food at the store, but didn’t find anything so I just got bread, cheese, apples and tomatoes.

After dinner, I tried to go out an find some lemon meringue pie but the bakery didn’t have anything with lemon (see below post). I’ve since finished my Gatorade knock off and have started in on a beer from Milan. It’s not bad.

I think my plan for tomorrow is to get out early and hit up the top of the Duomo before the lines get long. After that I’m just going to wing it.