Firenze, the Cradle of the Renaissance
Florence, Firenze. While Rome sports its millennia of ancient culture Florence holds its own being the birthplace of the Renaissance. Moreover I personally think Florence is a much more photogenic city, but you may judge for yourselves When I first arrived I ran into a 76 year old man whose influence on me will be the subject of a separate post. Nonetheless, I will say I spent my entire first evening with him, wandering around the city and chattering. I will certainly admit I prefer to travel alone now, as I hardly got to see anything with the constant conversation. Sometimes, when the goal is incessant fascination, company only gets in the way of the present. While I need my human interaction, just like any social human being, I still believe that some hangings are best done alone, and now I am firmly of the opinion that backpacking is one of them.
But alas, my first evening was uneventful save a sighting of a fortress that is off limits to tourists. As I wanted to go to Pisa too, a two hour round trip, I knew I would have to get a LOT done my first full day, as the dawn of my third day would be my trip to Venice.
It was on this note that I resolved to wake up at 600 to catch the sunrise on a particularly picturesque plaza, the Piazza le Michelangelo. Fortunately for me, I woke up early at 530 and couldn’t fall back asleep, so I left early. It turned out I massively miscalculated the sunrise and would have missed it on my normal time (again, Daylight Savings Time). But instead, after a brisk jog through Florence at dawn and many wrong turns, I arrived at the plaza for a great view. Not ten minutes later, the sun joined me, and I was rewarded for my efforts by the photo you saw at the beginning.
Spurred by this fantastic start to my day, I explored the hilltop briefly before heading over to the Uffizi Museum, a premier art museum, 15 minutes before opening. Again, Lady Luck rewarded my proactivity. The museum lets people in about groups of twenty people very fifteen minutes, and within ten minutes of my arrival the line ballooned to four times its earlier size. By being ten minutes early I saved at least an hour of a wait.
It was here indeed that I booked my audioguide, and while I’m still not the biggest fan of the heavily religious renaissance art, I certainly enjoyed the museum much more given the narrative. I was aided by many passersby gawking at certain paintings, my criterion for whether something was good (the audioguide was inconsistent in identifying enjoyable artwork).
Two hours later an art Luddite left the museum reinvigorated and better educated. I then headed to the Basilica of Santa Croce, the Temple of Italian Glories. Oh boy that was great; outside of the usual Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Galileo that lie there I also ran into Enrico Fermi the physicist and Cristofori the inventor of a key mechanism in pianos. This latter I was very proud of finding, as he was in a very out of way, very faded grave, yet my insistence on reading every sizable gravestone of this short alley brought me to this hidden gem.
I then made my way to the Duomo, supposedly the biggest attraction in Florence. While the exterior was indeed stunning, the interior lacked significantly. Perhaps I have been simply inundated with the grandeur of reknowned Basilicas; see for yourself
I then found my way to the Medici chapel where the Medicis are buried in a splendid dome designed by Michelangelo, and to the Galleria containing Michelangelo’s masterpiece David.
Finally, I tried to rush back to the Piazza le Michelangelo for the sunset, but missed it by a mere six minutes.I stayed behind for a bit and got a great nighttime shot of Florence still; much prettier than Rome
The next day I started by going to Pisa, after a four euro buffet breakfast that quickly became brunch for me. The tickets were flexible time by default, so I could leave whenever I woke up and come back whenever I was done! Great news for a very sleepy and tired Yubo, who after much laziness and eating eft the hostel at 10.
I left for Pisa on a train that arrived at 1150. My original plan was to beeline to the Tower and come back to Florence by 2 to do everything I wanted to, but I ran into a lovely American family also going around Italy and tagged along for the trip. While it meant we could discuss the sites (and trade pictures, and I got to learn a bit more about the sites than I deserved since they had a booklet and prior knowledge), it also meant that I went much slower than my solo pace. As a result, I only got back to Florence at 3, a full hour less than expected, meaning I had to make some crucial choices about what to visit.
