Alright, I get it. Italy's kind of a big deal and not without reason. Having now been to Florence, the city that gave birth to the Renaissance, Machiavelli and Michaelangelo, it's hard to not give this country props for how much it has contributed to the world over the years.
I had expected a lovely train ride into Firenze (Florence) from Milan through miles of sun-drenched Tuscan fields of sunflowers and vineyards. What I got was intermittent pitch black tunnels for two hours, since apparently it struck the railway engineers as easier to bore through the mountains than to travel over or around them. Oh well.
Florence was also a bit quiet, though definitely livelier than Milan, though it was mostly in sheer volume of tourists. I met two awesome fellow Canadians, Krishna and Seema, at my hostel and wasn't shy about inviting myself along with them to check out the city centre.
The Duomo was incredibly impressive. I had no idea it was green and red up close and it was too big to fit in one photograph even from a block away. The inside was also fairly spectacular and free to see (my favourite!).
Afterwards, we wandered by yet another castle, then by the Uffizi Gallery (the Louvre of Italy), through the markets where knockoff designer purses and silk ties for 3 Euros were on offer, and ended up at the train station. On a spur of the moment decision, we hopped the train to Pisa for the afternoon to picnic at the leaning tower, which despite its hype is still a pretty interesting sight, as it defies gravity.
That night at the hostel we were treated to an impromptu concert with a drum, piano and guitar featuring classics such as La Vie En Rose and Redemption Song. The jam session was broken up by a MASSIVE bee that attacked the party out of nowhere and it was a team effort to capture and release it from the common room.
Seema, Krishna and I all had such a blast that we agreed we'd do Rome together as well, so I cut Florence short by one day to join them in the Eternal City. Stay tuned.
No comments:
Post a Comment