Florence

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You'd think after getting so many trains on my trip I'd be fairly good at it by now. I caught the train from Interlaken to Spiez okay, which took about 20 minutes. The next train was from Spiez to Milan, which I also caught okay. The only problem was that I got on at the wrong end of the train. When you reserve a ticket, the carriage number is printed on the ticket. At the station, there are signs that indicate where on the platform your carriage will be. Somehow I didn't manage to follow those signs and boarded carriage eight ... a long way from my allocated carriage two. Distance-wise it's not that far, but when you are lugging a backpack around and trying to navigate a narrow aisle with people's legs hanging out, it can get a bit tiresome.

I got into Milan at about 10.30am and waited at the station to catch my next train at 11am. Although I only saw a bit of Milan from the train, I did notice the smog in the air. Not very nice at all. When we passed through Bologna I saw some more smog. Still not very nice. Luckily when we got to Florence the sky was nice and clear, and blue. The hotel's website had directions which I tried to follow, but I came across a man selling maps and bought one. I mentioned my hotel's street to him and he kindly gave me directions .... what a nice man. Now, in Florence, even though you are in the right street, the numbers are still an issue. They have a system of red and black numbers which denote either a business or a residence. It makes it difficult to find an address, but I just found the street I needed and walked up and down until I found the hotel's sign.

After I checked in (and finding the biggest shower head I've even seen) I went for a wander to get some lunch. I figured that since I was in Italy I may as well have some spaghetti bolognese. I picked the worst spot to have it .... it was cold and really oily. Oh well, I just had to have an icecream to wash it down. And there are so many icecream, or rather gelato, shops in Florence that you don't have to walk far to get a feed. Plenty of flavours to choose from, and you simpy spend the next half hour wandering around devouring this huge cone of cream. Ahh, the inconveniences of travelling.

The river running through Florence is call the Arno, and one of the famous bridges crossing it is the Ponte Vecchio. I wasn't too impressed with the river, and was equally unimpressed with the Ponte Vecchio. Hundreds of years ago boats used to travel the river, but there is nothing on it these days. And the Ponte Vecchio is just an old bridge that has a lot of jewelry shops on it. I don't really see what all the fuss was about, but at least I can say I've been there and seen it. After a while I tried to find an internet cafe near my hotel, but they wanted to have my passport while I used the computer. Being as paranoid as I am, I kept my passport and went on my way. It's apparently to do with anti-terrorism, and it's actually a law that requires the internet people to have your passport.

The next morning I did the hop-on-off bus thing. The mornings were a bit chilly but the days became quite warm, meaning it was hard to decide whether to take a jumper or not. Final decision was not to take a jumper ... it wasn't cold for too long. I got off the bus at a place called Piazzale Michelangelo, a sort of elevated lookout built in the 1860's on the south side of the river. There were nice views over the city and it was really striking to see all the red-tiled roofs. Needless to say that were there are a lot of tourists, there are the Africans trying to sell fake handbags and watches. They are all over the place, even though Florence has big signs stating the penalties for knowingly buying fake merchandise.

Above the Piazzale Michelangelo is a church with a graveyard. I wandered through the graveyard just to see how much effort people go to when they bury their relatives. There were a lot of aboveground tombs as well, something I wasn't used to seeing. From here there was a winding road that went to the bottom of the hill, passing a few different gardens. A word to anyone thinking of going to Florence ... don't expect nice, lush, well-maintained parks and gardens. I'm not saying it was horrible, but I don't think it's what you would expect form such a 'romantic' city. The walk down the hill was nice though, although it was the warmest I had been on my entire trip.

I found the hop-on-off bus again and took an alternate route up the the north-east of the city. It took me to a separate town called Fiesole (pronounced fee-ez-ol-ay) in the hills overlooking Florence. It's bascially all the same city, but historically they were separate places. I spent about two hours in Fiesole, mainly looking at some old Etruscan and Roman ruins. The Etruscans were people who lived in the Tuscany region before the Romans took over the place. Some of the ruins are a combination of the two cultures, but I just liked seeing things that were so old. There was a small amphitheatre, a bathhouse, and a temple with some altars. Even though I didn't understand it all, I still found it really cool. Got the bus back to the hotel and found a pizza place just around the corner. Mmm, yummo.

The next morning I went to the tourist office to see which places outside Florence were worth a visit. A lot of the information there was to do with paintings and music, probably what you would expect in a town like this. I managed to find a map of the surrounding area and decided that Siena would be worth a visit. I was told that the buses were a much more efficient way of getting there, so I went by the bus station and got some timetables. (It was mostly in Italian, but the numerals still looked the same.)

I decided the rest of the day would be my 'science expedition'. There was a small place called the Leonardo da Vinci Museum, and it had scale models of various machines he invented. Only about a fifth of his total writings still exist, and they were written in his "mirror" handwriting (left-to-right, in reverse .... because he was left-handed and didn't want to smudge the page). Leonardo had an amazingly brilliant mind, working on things from painting and sculpture, physics, human anatomy and botany. I didn't really know just how diverse his knowledge was until I went there. The models are made out of wood, string and some metal, and you get to play with most of them. In the afternoon I went to the Intitue and Museum of History and Science. I mainly went the to see Galileo's telescope, but there was a lot of other historical scientific intruments as well. There were a lot of old telescopes to see, but even though they tried to simplify all the info about optics, I still struggled to understand it all. Galileo's telescope actually looks like a few cardboard cylinders stuck together, but I guess for it's time it was a major technological breakthrough. What I unexpectedly found was one of Galileo's finger bones on display. Go figure.

On my final morning I caught bus down to Siena. It took about 90 minutes, and I actually slept some of the way. I was glad to get out of Florence for the day and escape some of the smoggy feel to the sky. Siena was much clearer, and as it's a small town I could walk around to most of the sites. Somehow I found a tourist map which had a suggested walking route, so I roughly followed it and came across some interesting sites. The town is on a hill so you get a nice view of the countyside. Of course this does mean that the streets are a bit steep and narrow, but it was awesome to wander around and watch the Italians do the daily things. By about 2pm I was ready for the bus back to Florence, but I saw enough of Siena to appreciate a smaller town of Italy.

Florence is a nice city if you like lots of art and culture, but there was still enough to keep me occupied. I'm heading to Rome tomorrow for four days, then it's all the way back home. I'm expecting to see a few old Roman ruins, but hopefully not the smog.

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Photos

Ponte Vecchio
It has jewelery and souvenir shops. Not that much to it really, apart from being old.

Piazzale Michelangelo
The Duomo (a church) is next to my right shoulder.

Artists in Action
I guess the city is known for its artists, so these people are getting in on the act.

Etruscan/Roman Ruins
These were in a town called Fiesole.

Sunset over Florence
On top of a hill in Fiesole. The walk was a bit steep, but it was worth it.

Piazza del Campo
This is a central square of Siena and lots of people just sit around sunning themselves (and eat icecreams).

Street artists.
The street has three of these spots, and each day people draw something new.