Firenze

I am back from Florence and I will never be the same-just to be a little dramatic haha! One weekend in Florence is not enough to accomplish everything worth accomplishing. My feet hurt terribly at the end of the day from rushing around the city, getting lost numerous times, waiting patiently in museum lines, and reaching many places after they had already closed for the evening. My feet were consoled with the amazing gelato I found nearby the Duomo.

Our first night in Florence consisted going to the Da Vinci museum, walking along the Ponte Vecchio, enjoying the city lights reflecting on the River Arno, and then a quiet dinner at Trattoria Nella. One of the girls with me ordered an amazing spinach and ricotta ravioli dish with a sweet walnut sauce. It was amazing! (The next night I would try to order a similar dish at a different restaurant, but it came nowhere near to as delicious as the first dish). When we asked the owner’s son how to make the dish he simply replied that it was a family secret, but that it was simply baked walnuts, cream and butter. I’m going to try this for sure whenever I can because I fell in love with this dish!

 Da Vinci's flying apparatus and a mirror grinder.

 Spicy Spaghetti for dinner-yummy

 Rubbin his snout to make sure I return to Firenze, gave him some money to further the bribe.

 Yeah, climb those once a day for the rest of your life and you would look like Hercules! Sheesh!

 Look at that View!

 Chocolate Time!

Ponte Vecchio was beautiful! The Arno was so peaceful and magical reflecting light from the love-locked lampposts—it’s tradition, an illegal tradition, to place locks on the lampposts along Ponte Vecchio to seal the love of two lovers. Walking along the bridge there are hundreds, possibly thousands of these locks, many with names and hearts etched on their sides.

The next day I went to the Accademia first thing in the morning. The halls are filled with magnificent pieces of art, but truly the only one I will recall in the years to come is Michelangelo’s David. I had no idea how huge he was! Michelangelo certainly had a lot of patience to sculpt something of such an enormous size with such precision. After standing in awe of the David, I climbed the Duomo. Let me tell you what a hike that was. I actually got dizzy at one point from continuing up the spiraling staircase for such a prolonged period of time. When we reached the top I glared at the women—many much older than I—who were able to make the trek wearing high heels! How?!?! The views from the top of the Duomo were spectacular! You could see all of Florence and I was quickly able to distinguish where I still wished to visit before the end of my time in Florence.  In the distance was Santa Croce, the burial place of many famous people such as Galileo and Dante and also the home of a leather-making school.  I could also see the Uffizi Gallery sitting quietly next to the river and the Accademia (the home of the magnificent David) which I was very eager to see. After spending more than enough time on top of the Duomo—enough time even to share a little chocolate snack—we headed to the Uffizi. The lines were incredibly long so we instead went to the cold church of Santa Croce, watching everywhere we stepped to insure we didn’t step on an important burial site. The evening was filled with walking around seeing the city’s different sites, eating and of course walking the street market, attempting to haggle. I have learned that I am not a good haggler. I think it is mostly because I pity these men and women who stand outside, no matter the weather, displaying their wares, hoping they will be able to make enough of a sale in the day’s time to feed their children at home. Of course they are all probably millionaires and I am just a naïve American girl, but I still find it difficult to talk down the price when I know what my money could do for that person. But hey, I did still manage to walk away with some deals, but I’m not going to tell you what I got te he, you’ll just have to wait and see.

The next day we rushed to the Uffizi gallery very early in the morning to avoid the long lines. I could have spent a lifetime in there and never fully see everything. I spent the most time staring at The Birth of Venus and an unfinished sketch by Da Vinci. I even attempted a sketch myself, feeling prompted by the kind, painted eyes surrounding me, as if urging me on in my mediocre attempt to compete with majesty. Toward the end of my stroll through the museum we were practically running because we hadn’t realized how long we had already been inside and we had to rush back to the hostel to pick up our belongings before our train.

I wish I knew I would one day return to Florence, although I did rub Porcellino’s snout to ensure my return, so it is pretty much a sealed deal I will return someday.

Today, I had my first lesson in Tuscania with local jewelry makers Rita and Marco. Learning a new craft with a language barrier is an interesting experience. I found myself learning so much new vocabulary along with learning about how to make jewelry. Today, we focused on sketching what I will be soon making into a navello (ring). I’m returning next week to begin a wax mold of my project.