Part III: Florence (The Halfway Point)

We left on a midmorning train for Florence on Easter Monday. The ride was very pleasant, with beautiful, mountainous Tuscan scenery to watch the whole time, and a six-person compartment that put us in mind of the Hogwarts Express.

The train stopped at a different station than the one we had directions for, since we took a later train than we had originally planned on, and it took us to the station on the outskirts instead of the one in the center of Florence. Thankfully, Megan had met a nice man on the train and we happened to run into him as we wandered the station, trying to figure out where to go next. Conveniently, he was going the same direction we were, so he said we could follow him and he’d let us know where to get off. Thank the Lord for good Samaritans! After the bumpiest bus ride of my life, we arrived at the other station, and were now in the town center. From there, it took a little bit to find our hostel, as the streets are very poorly marked in Florence (what else is new, right?). By the time we got settled into our room, we were all getting a bit frustrated because we’d been hoping to head to Il Duomo that day but were quickly realizing that there wouldn’t be time since it closes in the early evening. So we made a change of plans – Lauren and I were feeling hungry so we went to find a place to split a pizza and a focaccia sandwich (which turned out to be delicious!) and Megan wasn’t feeling like lunch just then, so she went to scope things out and check on opening and closing times of some of the places we wanted to see.

After lunch, we met up again and walked around a bit. We saw the famous Old Bridge (really cool-looking! It’s the only bridge I’ve seen with houses built on it), the fake David, and the front of the Uffizi art gallery. And then we crossed the bridge and had the best gelato of our lives at a great little shop that a couple of Megan’s friends who have studied in Florence told her about. I’ve never met them, but I’m grateful to them, all the same! After that we made a stop at the grocery store to buy some fresh pasta and pesto sauce in hopes of cooking it in the hostel’s kitchen later.

Next, Lauren went on her own to look around a bit, and Megan and I relaxed and soaked up some sun in the main piazza for a while. Then we checked out the prices and schedule for the Pisa tickets that we’d need in two days, and then hung out by the river Arno. The river is pretty from afar, but is VERY dirty up close – envision a river full of cappuccino, and you’ll basically know what it looks like. And apparently Arno is famous for huge river rats, though we didn’t see any (Rodents Of Unusual Size? I don’t think they exist). Not for lack of trying, however.

When we had tired of that, we went to the hostel to try to make our pasta for dinner, but the kitchen was occupied all evening, and we weren’t sure what to do/weren’t sure if we were allowed to use it. Especially since the owners were kind of awkward, and apparently live in the hostel itself, and so were no doubt making dinner in there. And it seemed like every time we talked to them, something got lost in translation, and we didn’t want to bother with it this time around. So we ended up cracking open our pasta and eating a little of it like popcorn. Before you get all judge-y, let me tell you that it was actually quite tasty! Fresh pasta is soft enough to eat – granted, the cheese would have tasted better if it were melty and not all dry…but you do what you have to do sometimes. We snacked in lieu of dinner, and watched some Italian TV (first hostel I’ve seen with a television in the room!). We understood about one word in twenty, but it was still fun to watch Zach Braff speaking in lilt-y Italian. After that it was off to sleep in our comfy beds!

The next day, Lauren was in the mood to strike out on her own, so Megan and I made plans and got started early. The first stop was the David at the Academia museum – we were both very excited to see it, and were not disappointed! This was another of the trip’s highlights for me. What a stunning work of art – it’s one of those intriguing things that one feels like staring at for a good long time. The huge head, hands, and feet that you always hear about were very apparent and quite interesting. And it was so detailed – you could see the veins in his hands, his muscles, his pupils, his…well. Let’s just say the guy could’ve used a leaf. But anyway, it was so cool! Definitely worth our time.

The museum itself was fascinating as well – for once, each piece of art had a plaque below it with information about its creator, origin, and history, so we actually knew where stuff came from and what it meant. This made every piece about ten times more interesting than it would otherwise have been, and consequently I was quite fascinated! I absolutely loved that museum. My favorite room was the one where they had plaster replicas of a great deal of statues which are apparently in several other locations. Even though they weren’t the originals, they were absolutely beautiful, and I got to find out who they were this time! I’ve decided that I am pretty much in love with classical statues…there’s just something great about them.

After the museum, it was time to go to Il Duomo, where we got in line to climb up to the cupola. The wait was rather long, but was made slightly less boring by the entertaining British family ahead of us, and the group of German boys playing soccer beside the line, who kept kicking the ball over by us accidentally. Finally, we got in and started the climb. It was yet another large set of daunting, narrow steps, but this was getting to be old hat by now, so it didn’t faze us too much. The view from the top was gorgeous – it may have been my favorite of the trip. The buildings themselves were interesting, more or less, but it was the green and grey mountains that made the view. So beautiful! And the inside of the dome was amazing as well – it was completely painted with vivid pictures of heaven and hell – around the rim, there were various demons and people suffering away, and as it got farther to the top, things got better and better for the painted people – around the top rim was heaven. Yeah, kind of hard to describe. But it may have been my favorite painted ceiling (wow, lots of favorites in Florence…) so far, which is saying something, as I’ve seen a LOT.

Once we’d seen Il Duomo, we went back to the hostel for round two of Pasta-Making Attempts. And failed once again…we found out the kitchen was not available for our use at all. Figures. So we had raw pasta once again, rather than wasting it. It’s remarkably filling, so whatever. With our bellies reasonably happy once again, we made another gelato run, and went back to Il Duomo to see the actual cathedral part. It was fairly uninteresting, but it was free, so whatever. After that, we had completed all of our sight-seeing goals for the day, so we went back to the hostel and took a lovely and much-needed two-hour nap. Then it was off to the piazza to relax again and another pizza-and-gelato run. And on our way, we ran into Edgar, Val, and Sol, three other students in our exchange program at the U of Navarra! What are the chances?

Then it was back to the hostel yet again, where we rearranged our luggage and settled in for the night. We were surprised by a knock at the door later on and yet more surprised to see the owner of the hostel standing there with a serving of homemade tiramisu for each of us! This raised him rather higher in our esteem than he had been before, I daresay. Yum!

And that about did it for our Florence trip. Next stop: Pisa and Cinque Terre!