Feb 2 - Florence

7:14pm

OMG I am in LOVE with Florence. Unfortunately STILL no wireless internet ... so that's a bummer. I literally walked the ENTIRE FREAKING CITY today ... I took notes everywhere I went so let me go through those so I don't leave any part of this AMAZING city out ...

So, I get to the train station and manage to get off the train seconds before it starts to pull out to head to Bologna (yes, I am fully aware that my travels today could very easily have come from an "I Love Lucy" plot line. Silence. I hop into a cab and have a very lovely ride around the Santa Croce area before being unceremonily dumped out on a street corner with all my belonging and told that the hostel is "thata waya" Stellar. So I'm dragging my luggage (super cute Vera Bradley rolling duffle with a handle that sticks ...) over the medieval cobblestone streets.

After some confusion, I arrived at the Hostel, dropped my stuff and headed out to see the city! First up was the Basilica Santa Croce (which is almost right behind my hostel!). So many famous people are burried there (Galileo, Michaelangelo, Machiavelli), and the church is simply magnificent. The cloisters are very serene and peaceful, but I think that I might actually like the ones at New College, Oxford better!!! After walking around the museum in the old refractory for a while (which had SEVERAL old frescoes AND all the art from the Church that was no longer used (so some of the oldest stuff!!!).

After Santa Croce, I was STARVING so I grabbed lunch at a little cafe. Nothing special. I realized that it was 12:50 ... and the Bargello Museum closes at 1:50 .. so I raced over to see it (only a few blocks) and got in. SUCH amazing sculpures!!! It was REALLY cool seeing the early Michaengelo works and some over GREAT Renaissance sculpture (Adam and Eve, for one, was AMAZING).

Continuing by foot through the city, I stopped at Duomo. Which, actually, wasn't that impressive from the inside! They had the area under the dome blocked off, so you couldn't really get the full effect. I paid the EXORBITANT sum of money for the privilege of climbing 417 stair to the top of the dome and the view was SPLENDID. Unfortunately ... the battery in my camera chose THAT MOMENT to die ... so no pictures. I just walked around the top for about 20 minutes taking in the absolutely amazing view ... and then climbed down. I walked back to the hostel to change the battery in my camera and left the other to charge and headed BACK to Duomo to check out the Baptistry. I decided that I did NOT want to pay another 6 EUR to climb ANOTHER 100+ stairs in the bell tower, so I just observed it from the outside! I walked around the baptistry several times checking out the different doors (replicas of the originals which are in the museum for the church -- another 6 EUR ... which I passed on!). These bronze doors were truly beautiful! I can imagine them them taking 27 years to complete!!!

I finished circling and paid to go into the baptistry, which was a complete surprise!! The ENTIRE ceiling was covered with gold mosaics. The different panels of the ceiling all told a story!!! You'll have to check out the pictures on Facebook to see what I mean, but it was very, VERY cool. I sat in there for a while just staring up at the ceiling and then took some pictures, including one of the Baptismal font (where Dante was baptized!!!!). And went my merry way.

I managed to find the Galleria Della'Academia and went to see The David. Simply STUNNING. Michaelangleo was truly amazing! At first glance, the statue just seems pretty ... and when you look closer you can see that Michaelangelo put SO much detail in ... including the veins in his arms and hands (there are other anatomical details as well ... but I'm just going to leave it with the arms and hands). I found myself flexing my own arms just to see my OWN veins pop a bit!!! I just wanted to sit and bask in the glory of this work of art for a while ... and the guards went CRAZY when they saw my phone!! They thought that I was trying to take pictures, when I was ACTUALLY messaging Cristen!!! They were so rude about the entire thing that I decided to take a picture just to spite them (I was perfectly willing to follow the rules until they were hateful. Hmph). Got a GREAT one with my Blackberry and went through the rest of the museum. Not going to lie, the rest of the museum is rather lame. There are some interesting tapestries and wood panels ... but nothing compared to David. It WAS interesting, however, to see so much art from the the 12-14th centuries all at once (no, David is NOT from this time period, the REST of the art was) because you really got hit with the fact that they ALL DID THE SAME THING!!! There were slight differences in setting or hair color (the Virgin Mary as a blonde was a favorite of mine!!) and SO much of the artwork venerate MARY and Jesus is a completely secondary figure!!!

While on the subject of art, it really is fascinating to me to see the MANY MANY representations of God in Renaissance Art. Michaelangelo in the Sistine Chapel DEFINITELY gets the award for the most uses of the Divine Image ... and it's strange because that's not at ALL how I picture God! I don't think that I DO picture God ... I realize that we are made in His image ... but I see much more as the pillar of fire and smoke of the Hebrew Scriptures. The idea of him looking like an old man with a long beard is bizarre to me. ESPECIALLY coming out of Israel because in Judaism depicting God in an image is FORBIDDEN.

After leaving the Gallery, I stopped for a VERY early dinner (whatever, I was hungry and tired) and found this little spaghetteria. SO GOOD!! A bit pricy, but it was worth it for the homemade pasta, focaccia and tiramisu. And the through in a complimentary glass of lemoncello nommmmmmmmmmmm.

I made the decision that spending 75 eur for a bus tour of Tuscany was DEFINITELY in order for the next day. I was feeling the need to see some scenery and get out of the museums for a while (I was starting to say "oh, another Michaelangleo, yawn" which is completely unacceptable.) And with visions of a day on a nice bus driving through Tuscany in my head ... I went to bed.