A Renaissance blur

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We had to get up extremely early this morning in order to board the bus for our drive to Florence. The bus stopped a few times along the way so we could all take bathroom and coffee breaks. We soon discovered that the rest stops in Italy are much nicer than they are here in the United States. Each stop featured at least two different kinds of restaurants and very elaborate gift shops. One of the ones we stopped in was about 45 minutes outside of Florence in the Tuscany region of Italy.  The gift shop here sold a variety of things but seemed to specialize in  pasta, various cured meats,cheeses,Olive Oil and Chianti wine.  We each ate a light lunch (which was served cafeteria style), paid a Euro to use the restroom and boarded the Florence-bound bus. 

Our tour director explained to us that we would stop briefly at our hotel before meeting our local guide.  We exited the bus and put all of our luggage in the hotel's storage room before heading out to the Academy of Arts Museum.  We had to wait outside the museum's front entrance for about a half an hour before we were ushered inside.  This amount of time was nothing since I've heard that most people have to book about a month in advance to gain access to most of Florence's museums!  On this brief visit, we saw many finished and unfinished sculptures produced by Michelangelo.  It culminated with a viewing of his most famous sculpture, the David. Throughout my life, I've become very familiar with the image of the David but never really gained a true appreciation of it until that moment.  Michelangelo is truly a master.

From the Academy, we were escorted to Florence's most famous structure the "Duomo."  The Duomo, is the Italian word for dome.  There is an enormous cathedral in the heart of Florence that took centuries to complete. It's called Santa Maria del Fiore (Saint Mary of the Flowers) and is incredibly detailed on its facade.  The inside is much more plain with the exception of the intricately painted dome featuring scenes of the "Last Judgement."  Our visit here was very brief so we were unable to go up to the cupola or even climb to the top of Giotto's famous Bell tower (attached to the cathedral).  Instead, our local guide escorted us to a somewhat famous Florentine leather/gold factory. We learned about the significance of these two products and were then given time to shop in the attached  gift shop.  We later found out that charter companies receive financial "kick backs" if they bring  groups of tourists into these kinds of stores. (The shop that specialized in mosaics in Rome was also one of these stores.  We just didn't realize it at that time.) Normally, it wouldn't have upset me so much but our visit to Florence was rather limited timewise.  To see Santa Croce church so closeby certainly didn't help my mood either.  In this church are many important works of art, several famous people are interred here too including: Michelangelo and Galileo. I would've loved to have had the opportunity to go inside but it closed at 5 pm and we were in the kickback store until 4:40 pm!

When we were set "free," I pleaded with my two friends to walk down towards the Ponte Vecchio ("Old Bridge") before heading back to the hotel.  Before I had left the states, my dad had told me a bit about our family's history in the city of Florence.  The Gherardini family (In Italian it means the "Geralds" and Fitzgerald means "Sons of Gerald") founded a church called Santo Stefano al Ponte Vecchio (Saint Stephen at the Old Bridge) in the year 1116.  I had done some preliminary research on where it was located before going on the trip and desperately wanted to see it.  Christy and Mike granted my wish and we were able to find it!  A local art exhibit was going on within the main entryway but the church itself was locked so I was unable to see my family's chapel.  I took a few pictures and the three of us took a quick peak at the Ponte Vecchio before returning to our somewhat dreadful hotel.

We had a room at the Hotel Mediterraneo. In most respects this hotel wasn't too bad. Their gift shop was very nice and you could even connect to the internet on one of the computers in the lobby but we all thought that the food here was terrible. Very salty.  Our shower was awful too. It reminded us all of a cheap shower that you would find in a camping trailer. It was in a corner of the bathroom and the shower surround and door didn't quite mesh up.  Everytime you took a shower it would flood the floor in the bathroom!

Mike and I decided to take an evening stroll though the streets of Florence.  The city  is beautiful during the day but positively spectacular at night! We headed towards "Signoria Square" where there was a live band playing and we even stopped to watch a street performer. I took a picture of a carousel in the square that wasn't there during the day.  (Mike didn't think the picture would come out but it did!) I could've stayed out there forever if I wasn't so tired. 

As we left the city limits the next morning, I felt extremely "cheated."  Florence is known as the renaissance capital of the world and to only spend one day there was really difficult for me. Throughout our one day visit, I felt as though the charter group rushed us from sight to sight without really allowing us any time to truly appreciate what we were seeing.  The entire day became a golden blur in my memory.

Daily lesson learned: The city of Florence has far too much to offer in terms of importance, if you're ever planning a visit there allow yourself enough time to truly appreciate it!