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Published: February 21st 2009
well last night i went upstairs, read my stupid book for a while, then passed out early even for me (around 830). wasnt too noisy, i'm not even sure what time the rest of the crowd came back, altho i did hear something around 2....
anyways, got up early this morning and woke up the whole room (and didnt feel bad one bit!), but i did good and before i went to bed had my towel, soap/shampoo, and change of clothes all ready to go so i made minimal noise. got my shower and was off just after 8.
headed straight for the accademia museum to get there before the crowds. thats the museum with michaelangelos david. some other sculptures and paintings but really, i am starting to get a little jaded with the art thing so i sat and appreciated the main event for a few minutes, did a quick loop around the rest and headed off again. so the statue is huge, and amazing (i would hope so to be so popular). hes super tall, every detail chiseled out, including veins showing, six pack abs, toes and fingers all with nails cut just right, lots of curls on his head, and no shame (no leaf covering the unmentionables!). pretty impressive indeed.
i then headed down to the duomo (cathedral). got there just as it was opening and foolishly went inside first before going to climb the dome. 3rd biggest church in christiandom apparantly. altho i'm not a huge fan of the color scheme - pink, green adn white marble. lots of crazy art inside as expected, beautiful floors, wlalas, ceilings, everything. and mobbed with tourists. good thing its the off season. so then i went to climb the dome and the lineup is crazy long, and not moving at all. so i skipped it and will try to be there tomorrow when it opens, or a little before so i dont have to wait half the day. i dont know what it is about climbing up in buildings but i love it.
so then i headed towards the uffizi gallery. its THE italian art museum with all the goods supposedly. but of course, huge lineups again. best bet is to reserve tickets ahead online, but i didnt know what my dates were looking like, and to be honest, i'm not too sad about it. i'm not a huge art kinda guy. so i hung out in the courtyard place with statues of famous people (donatello, amerigio verspucci, etc), watched the suckers in the horrendous non moving lineups, and made my way to a place a little more up my alley. the history of science museum.
well good news and bad news. good news, its 2 euros cheaper than usual. bad news, 3/4 of it is closed for renovations. its going to reopoen later this year as the galileo museum. they did have some cool old telescopes, an exhibit on time and timepieces, compasses, geometry stuff.. but i wanted to see the maps/cartography section but it was closed. not bad, but a short visit. another reason to come back i guess!
so once i left there i found myself wondering what i was going to do with another day and a half here in florence. not much else i want to do. so i figured i'd head out of town for the afternoon. walked up to the train station and headed off to siena, about an hour and a half away.
so siena, florence and pisa were all rivals back in the day (think 1200's or so). florentines used to pee in the arno river that runs through town, because they knew it would eventually run through pisa downstream. siena was hit with the plague in the 1300's and decided it got them because there were still pagan statues around and it was gods wrath that brought the plague. so what did they do with those statues? why cut them up and bury them around florence of course. i thought this was hilarious.
so siena is a beautiful medieval town perched on top of a beautiful tuscan hillside. narrow streets curving around old buildings and walls. and gelato shops as far as the eye can see! haha walked through town to Il Campo - the main square in town. its built sort of like an ampitheatre, sloped down towards city hall on one side of the square. everyone was just hanging out, sitting around on the stones, soaking up the sun. so i joined them for a while, had some gelato (of course - double scoop one meringue, one stracciatella). this was after discovering i was 10 minutes late to climb the tower of the city hall. the views would have been superb too, of the countryside. oh well wasnt meant to be.
then i went in to a pizza shop along the side and had a 1/4 pizza, dont know what it was called, and not quite sure what the meat on it was, tasted vaguely like bacon. but it was delicious.
then headed off to see sienas duomo. not as big as florences, but still very beautiful. the floor was covered in mosaics (dont know if thats the right word to use but anyways) of different scenes, like slaughter of the innocents, the nativity, etc. a cool library on the side with beautiful artwork top to bottom, and some old books on display. they had been planning on making it even bigger, to make the length of the original cathedral be the short arm of the newer, larger one, but part way through the plague hit and they never could finish it. there are still columns and partial walls in place, now incorporated into nearby buildings. very interesting.
then i just got lost in the twisty turny streets of town, got treated to some great views of the city, countryside, clock towers, old churches, stylin italians strutting around town, nearly getting rundown by the ever present motor scooters... quite a nice change of pace from the chaos of florence.
then back to the train station to head back to florence. i swear the whole car i was in was filled with americans. they're a funny bunch those americans. not to be stereotypical (always nice to start a sentence that way) but they are loud. well a lot are anyways.
oh yes that reminds me of a man i met on the train yesterday from pisa. when we arrived in florence i saw his suitcase had one of those canadian flag name tags on it so i asked him if he was from canada. he said no, from italy, but had lived near toronto for 35 years and taught at mcmaster. so we had a chat as we walked down the platform. interesting the people that you meet. guess i'm not as antisocial as i thought (says the guy sitting in the hostel by himself reading his book as all the youngsters staying here get drunk because their mummies aren't here to scold them)....
anyhow, thats about it for today. one final day tomorrow. i'm tempted to head out of town again for the day, but i alwasy get nervous the day before flying out that something will happen, i wont make it back to town and miss the flight. that would not be cool. also the italian train peoplpe are notorious for holding random "strikes", and i saw a poster yesterday that i thought talked about a strike starting tonight, going into tomorrow (it was in italian so i cant be too sure, asked upstairs but they hadnt heard, but said it could be anytime and definately possible)... so i'll just have to busy myself with something here, or maybe try a bus. sundays are a bit of a down day anyways, not much going on. we shall see!
see you all on tuesday. not looking forward to 18 hours of travel on monday, and arriving home at 3am (which will be 8 italy time, and i will be ready to start my day after no sleep)... gotta love it!
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Lori
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Well jason, I have to say that I have certainly enjoyed reading your travel blog!! Just wonderful! You sound like me the day before travelling, dont want to venture too far just in case! I do hope that you have a safe and uneventful trip home....and that the plane is quiet enough for you to sleep alllll the way home! safe travels my friend! Can't wait to read your last blog entry for this adventure!