Florence!

This weekend I was able to travel to Florence!

Earlier this week, we had heard that there would be a lot of snow at the end of the week and that trains would possibly get cancelled. However, Friday proved to not be too bad of a snowfall and Saturday dawned with no snow and a bit of sun so there was no problems there.

I got up early since the night before we had all planned a departure time from the villa of 8:30am. But, due to one thing and another, we actually ended up heading out sometime around 9am and arriving at the station around 10am. Unfortunately, it looked like we had just missed the 9:51 train and would have to wait until 11am for the next one. However, I noticed that it looked like the 9:51 train was 25 minutes late and someone else in the group noticed that our tickets were for any train at any time going from Arezzo to Florence. So Mimi and I decided to run for it (others decided not too due to one girl having a foot injury and other reasons). Luckily we got on the train just before the doors closed. There were a couple of moments where we were a little nervous about possibly having boarded the wrong train, but, at the end of the line, we had arrived in Florence.

The first thing we decided to go see was the Duomo since it was in such a central location and because it seemed like a thing we had to do.

When we got to the square it was in, I was immediately impressed. Something about the shapes and colors combined with the size created a striking and interesting look. Mimi and I wandered around the outside for a bit and then headed into the main church to look for where we could climb up to the top of the dome from. In comparison to the outside, the inside of the Duomo wasn’t that impressive. The architecture was pretty but very plain, and the art on the walls was mostly unimpressive (save for one piece that glittered in the light. That was beautiful). Honestly, the designs on the floor were far more interesting. Eventually we realized that the entrance for going up was in a different spot, so we walked the entire way around the building, taking it in.

The Duomo

During the walk around, Mimi and heard this man yell very loudly in a language that was obviously not Italian. As soon as he stopped, I turned to Mimi and started to ask what language she thought he was speaking when he suddenly turned revealing a coat blazoned with “Russia” along the back. We both burst out laughing, and I said that I must have hit the easy button for today. Amusingly enough, that would not be the last time I would.

Eventually, we made it to the right entrance, paid for our tickets, and went through a door leading to a rather narrow stairwell. And we began to climb. And climb. And climb. Mostly through tiny spiraling stairs though, at the top, it was mostly narrow and incredibly steep stairs. On the way down, I actually counted how many stairs (starting from where the painting on the ceiling of the dome ended) and got to around 267.

Stairs and stairs and stairs

Anyways, we eventually made it to the top and it was amazing. I mean, yes, it was cloudy, and the wind on one side was really cold, but the view of the city in 360 degrees was amazing. Everything seemed to stretch on forever with tall castles and churches creating beautiful points of interest. Mimi and I attempted to see if we could locate some of the places we had read about (Ponte Vecchio, some piazzas, etc…) but were only able to find a few. Even so, it really gave us a good sense of direction for later.

At the top of the Duomo!

While we were up there a really sweet Japanese couple offered to take our picture, and we returned the favor. We chatted with them a little after, but they only knew a little English, and my one phrase in Japanese (“Tom eats the spoon!”) just made them laugh.

Eventually we both got cold and headed back down the stairs. Since the stairways were so narrow, the exit staircase actually took the walkers right under the painting that graced the ceiling of the dome. When standing at the bottom of the church, the design hadn’t seemed that interesting, but this close up it was phenomenal to look at. The painting showed scenes moving from Hell (which was basically right where our walkway was) to Heaven, so we got to go really close up to some amazing and terrifying images, and the inhabitants of Heaven, from this perspective, really seemed to be looking down at our walk. It was really amazing.

A scene from the hell section.

Once we got down to the ground again, we decided that we should try to contact some of the people who got on the later train. Amusingly enough, as soon as we said that, Arthur (who was on the later train) ran up to us and said that we had just walked right by them. Easy button score: 2.

So everyone gathered and eventually Mimi and I decided to head off together again to get lunch since everyone else wanted to do the Duomo. After lunch (it was a quick and ok pizza), we decided it was time to go to THE CHOCOLATE FESTIVAL! :D

Yes, this weekend in Florence they were holding a chocolate festival in the Piazza della Repubblica. And it was amazing. About a third of the piazza was filled with vendors selling chocolate bars, kebabs of chocolate covered fruit, truffles, chocolate sculptures, chocolate cake, and, of course, hot chocolate. At first, we just had to walk around it just to take it all in and take pictures of the wares, but, once we were ready to buy, there was just so many good looking things that it was incredibly hard to choose. Eventually I settled on some chocolate cake (which was really good but ended up having a layer of some fruity jam that wasn’t as nice) and a mixed bag of some cream filled truffles and chocolate covered dried lemons (both of which tasted amazing! So good!).

The Chocolate Festival! 

Some of the realistic looking chocolate tools.

More examples of what was being sold.

When we were finally able to tear ourselves away from all of the amazing chocolate, Mimi and I decided to go see the Ponte Vecchio. I hadn’t known about the famous bridge of jewelers before she told me about it, but I figured that it was important to go see a famous landmark (especially since it was free to visit and nearby!). Neither the bridge nor the jewelry ended up being that exciting (my mother makes far prettier earrings), but I really enjoyed the old architecture of the shops and the interesting layout of having so many shops on a small bridge.

The Ponte Vecchio

After we crossed back and forth over it, I took over as exploration leader and declared that we should try to find this large outdoor market that I had read about in a guidebook. On the way to it, we stumbled upon a smaller market, the statue of a boar that gives you good luck if you rub it’s nose (so of course I did!), and the Piazza della Signoria. Unfortunately, at this last stop my camera decided to die before I took any pictures. There was enough battery when I had left in the morning, but apparently it had lied. Luckily, this piazza was really the last place I ended up wanting to take pictures of, and I could easily go back since mom wants to see Florence so—easy button number three!

Eventually we made it to the market, but it ended up not being that exciting. It was mostly vendors selling scarves, novelty/touristy items, not great quality leather goods, and jewelry. Some of the rings were pretty, but most of them were way too big on me, and the one ring I really liked looked like the stone had been cracked. Not worth it.

During the walk through the market, Mimi and I decided to contact some of the other people in Florence since we weren’t sure what we wanted to do next. Amusingly enough, as soon as we remarked upon this, we bumped into some other people from the Accademia! Easy button number four! We ended up not sticking with them since they weren’t sure of their plans yet and finished walking through the market. At that point, I knew I wanted to go see the statue of David, but Mimi had already seen it and didn’t want to go again. So she pulled out her phone and found out where some of the other people were, and we pulled out a map to figure out where we needed to go to get to our separate destinations. Sure enough, easy button number five reared its head and showed us that we were on a road that would both take us the right way. And easy button number six showed up soon after by making the block that I split up with Mimi on be the block with the museum on it.

The museum itself wasn’t too exciting, and I will admit that I got a little lost attempting to find the statue (I know it was a small building! There were just so many doors and a lot of them were either one way or were off limits and didn’t have any signs saying so!). Even so, I knew it was completely worth it when I got to the hallway with David at the end (especially since there were so few people there that I didn’t have to wait for anything at all!).

I ended up not really enjoying the half-completed statues that lined the hall (Sorry dad!), though I definitely made sure to not quickly skip past them on the way to the most famous piece there. I think I just love realism and soft looking stone too much to like their rough forms. I also stopped in almost every other room just to make sure I wasn’t passing over any other amazing pieces of art on my way to David, but nothing really appealed to me.

Except David.

Oh my goodness. When I first walked up to him, I was just in complete awe at the amazing craftsmanship displayed and beauty in the subject. Very slowly I walked around him trying to take in every perfectly replicated muscle, bone, and action shown on the statue. Eventually I ended up sitting in a chair facing his front and trying not to cry at how amazing he was.

I did not at all expect to have an emotion reaction to him, let alone such an intense one. I have personally found that many of the most famous pieces of art have little affect on me and my opinion of them being, ‘incredible technique and it’s pretty, but not interesting enough for the hype.’ But David…oh my goodness. I’ve always known that I’ve absolutely loved realistic stone statues of people and how, through dead-on representations of how our body looks when we move, their skin looks like it is truly soft, but David amplified these feelings ten-fold.

I don’t know if it was the size or what, but I was completely floored by his body. I could not stop staring at the veins in his arms, the hand clutching stones and touching his thigh, the creases around his hips that separated his torso from his legs, his bellybutton, his pecs, the muscles showing from his neck being turned to the side—everything was not just incredibly realistic but felt as if it were in actual motion!

I ended up sitting there for over thirty minutes. I had had set aside time to just sit, but eventually I knew I would actually have to get up, turn my back to him, and leave. The thought was awful and, when I actually did finally get up, each step away felt heartbreaking. I’m so glad I was able to go though.

Immediately after leaving the museum, I got a call from Mimi—Yay easy button number six!—saying where the group was. I ended up meeting them back at a store near the chocolate festival, and, from there, Mimi, Arthur, and I ended up looking for a hotel to spend the night at. Eventually we found one that was a little less cheap than we had hoped (doubly so since the fourth person who planned to stay there too ended up not showing up making the two doubles unnecessary—we three could have easily shared the bedroom Mimi and I ended up in), but which turned out to have an amazing employee who directed us to a non-touristy restaurant. Which ended up being right next door (easy button number eight! WOO!) and had absolutely amazing food!

After dinner and dessert, we explored Florence at night (the Ponte Vecchio is so much prettier then in my opinion) and ended up dancing until 3am at a club our Italian teacher recommended. (Long story short, the wait to get in was really long, the line was so tight that I wasn’t holding my own weight at all, the dance floor was incredibly packed but we still found spots to jam in, and the club was more expensive than we’d hoped, but we all had a great time).

In the morning, we checked out of our hotel at 10am, headed back to the train station (via a route that took us near an old fort), and caught the train back to Arezzo soon after.

 I mostly chilled in the villa for the rest of the day, but for Sunday night dinner Gianni, the head of the dance department, took out all the dancers for dinner, and it was really lovely. I ended up trying liver for the first time (not bad actually) in an appetizer and sharing a huuuuuge but delicious stake with another girl. After dinner, he drove us back to the villa, and I ended up heading to bed early (yeah, only one 3am night for me in a row).

Overall, I had an amazing weekend, and I already have a list of places to go back to when I return to Florence!

(Again, there are more pictures on facebook for those who are interested.)

Ciao!