Monday, September 8, 2008

Florence!

I arrived today, safe and well, despite Germany's attempt to lose me in the maze they call Frankfurt Airport (if the map shows only one security gate between arrivals and my departure gate, how did I end up going through three different ones?). I'm still recovering from my cold, which made cabin pressure changes lovely. Tonight, I'm in a hostel called "Tourist House", and boy is it sweet. I'm going to try to get a good picture of my ceiling tomorrow, the lighting isn't good enough, but let's just say there's naked people up there.

I went out into Florence and ate by myself, and scoped out where my school is. Tomorrow I join up with everyone, and we head to Pescia. So, not much of Florence for now. Here's my sunset-is-coming-I-just-arrived photos:


This is, I believe, the church of Santa Maria Novella, for which the train station is named. When I saw all the lovely colored marbel, I had such a flashback to my first time in Florence that this is when I fished my camera out of my backpack. I don't think photographs (based on my quick check of Google images) can capture how beautiful this multi-colored building is.







I don't actually know where this is, but I'm guessing it's the Piazza della Republica, from behind. Trying to figure it out in Google is making me realize what I missed when I bypassed this Piazza to try to find my hostel before sunset!















Museo Bargello. It's two blocks down from my hostel on Via Ghibellina, *squeal*. Can I just say how awesome it is to be in a city where ancient history is so familiar and comfortable that people literally sit on the steps of a statue carved by Rennaissance artists (not Michelangelo, that one's fenced off), gossiping? Making out? Smoking and looking bored? Well, regarding the art with such nonchalance isn't exciting, but the fact that there's so much of it that you simply can't sit in awe of it all the time or you'd be paralyzed IS.

Also, I saw a broken off piece of a scooter's wind-shield, and avoided a motor-vehicle accident as smoothly as an Italian (that is, I neatly stepped out of the way and gave the driver a dirty look). Sometimes, watching scooters manuever around traffic, or cars driving backwards on a street at nearly 25 mph, I feel like there are no rules of the road here. Just don't hit or be hit.




And! I saw this just walking down Via Ghibellina, these two dudes were just ripping out the guts of this totally historic building, and they thought it was really amusing when I stopped and looked in. There's always something undergoing renovation here, including part of the Uffizzi Galleria right now.




I BELONG here. You can't have me back.

<3

1 comment:

Esther Gregory said...

Grah! You have no idea how much that last line aggravates me!