A Room with a View

Katie and I rushed to the train early Monday morning and watched the sun rise over Tuscan mountains and vineyards as we made our way to fabulous Florence.  Before I go any further, I need to take a moment and explain my need (yes, need) for visiting Florence.  Now this may come as a shock, but Florence first came to my attention when I was reading a book.  It was E.M. Forster's A Room with a View and it was magnificent.  Of course Masterpiece Theater was showing the film version of it one winter, and while I can assure you that the book far surpasses it, the movie did prove to be a source of inspiration as well.  In one scene the main character is walking around a pizza full of statues in the style of Michaelangelo's David.  I fell in love with that piazza as well as several other sights shown in the movie, so I made it my mission to find them.




Despite my mission, our first stop after dropping our things off at the hostel was Florence's Duomo.  Just like the one in Milan, the outside is beautiful with green, pink, and white marble designs, but the inside is very gray.  The best part of the Duomo was climbing 463 steps up to the dome (which is the largest brick dome in the world) and looking out onto the city.  Just see for yourself how beautiful it was!

After climbing back down, Katie and I walked to Santa Croce, which is a church that I first saw in A Room with a View.  Santa Croce can't really compete with the Duomo, but it was still very beautiful.  Inside are the tombs of Michaelangelo, Galileo, and Machiavelli among many other famous Italians.  There are several sunny courtyards just next to the church as well.

Before leaving I had tried looking up where the piazza of statues was located.  I thought I was successful in finding it but I misremembered the name of the piazza and led us to the wrong one.  However, this turned out to be in our favor because when I asked a guard for directions he had no idea what I was talking about but suggested that the Piazzale Michaelangelo might be what I was looking for.  So after stopping at Santa Croce, Katie and hiked up a steep hill to get a dish of chocolate and pistachio gelato and admire the magnificent sunset that turned all of Florence pink and purple.  I was extremely
                                                                                     jealous of the bronze copy of the statue
                                                                                     of David that stood watching over the city every day. 
                                                                                     What a view!

 

We took a quick peek at the Church of San Miniato al Monte before climbing back down the hill and crossing over the Ponte Vecchio, a bridge that is home to the gold market.  The entire bridge is lined with little shops with windows filled with jewelry of every kind.  You literally cannot turn your head without something glittering and catching your eye.  We continued past the bridge and followed the twinkle lights back towards our hostel.  On the way we passed the piazza della Republica complete with a carousel all lit up.

On the second day in Florence I finally had success in finding the piazza...sort of.  I remembered the name I had looked up online, so Katie and I went to the Piazza della Signoria and saw the Palazzo Vecchio.  The original statue of David once stood just outside the palace, but a copy has taken its place.  Next to the palace is the Loggia dei Lanzi, a brick building with large arches that are completely open to the piazza.  It serves as a kind of open-air gallery of statues.  It wasn't the piazza full of statues that I remembered but I guess my memory is flawed.  Still it houses some impressive statues.

My mission being officially accomplished, Katie and I took some time to shop.  Florence is known for its leather and everywhere it has stands selling belts, purses, gloves, and more.  We went to the Straw Market first.  It's not very large because it's in a building like the Loggia dei Lanzi with wide open arches allowing shoppers to walk right inside.  The Straw Market is known for a bronze statue of a boar.  There is a tradition that if you rub the nose of the boar then one day you will come back to Florence.  So many people have rubbed the snout that it's become shiny.  After giving the nose a good rub ourselves, Katie and I continued on to the leather
market which is huge and goes down several streets.  I don't
think I'll ever get used to the pushiness of vendors but
I'm proud to say that I practiced my haggling!

After seeing so many copies around the city, our next stop was the Galleria dell'Academia to see the real statue of David.  I had seen pictures of David before but I never expected it to be so big.  There were a couple of artists working on sketches of the statue and of course several tourists were milling about.  It was especially entertaining to watch other tourists try to sneak pictures but fail as the guards spotted them and called out, "No photo!"  Learning from their mistakes, I had Katie act as a shield so that I could steal my own picture.  After the museum we had just enough time to walk past Fortezza da Basso before we finally called it a night and tried to rest up for our train to Venice the next morning.