Who doesn't LOVE Firenze?

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because I'm incredibly behind, I'll post both of my weekend trips first and then my sight-seeing in milan. Enjoy...

Weekend 1: Florence to visit my cousin Jonny

I had a fantastic weekend with my cousin Jonny. He's a junior at Skidmore and is spending this semester in Florence and wherever else his travels take him. He lives in a sweet flat about 15 minutes walk from the Duomo with 6 others guys from his program. Typical bachelor pad except that instead of beer bottle after beer bottle on the mantle there was about 50 different empty wine bottles 😊

We had a weekend filled with stellar music and did some touristy things as well. Friday evening we went to a reggae concert... I wasn't necessarily a huge fan until that night! An italian group opened up for Black Uhuru, an unbelieveable group who's been together since the 70s or 80s. (If you want to check out the albumn they played most of, which I highly recommend, it's called Sinsemilla). Anyway, the concert was in this tiny venue a 30min walk from his apt... fabulous ambience... i think my lungs are STILL recovering for what they took in second-hand that night. ha. in all seriousness, it took about 1 week for my voice to recover from yelling and singing, etc. anyway, thank god I left the stilettos at home because we danced until about 4am. Saturday night we went to a local Jazz club where the "Sultans of Swing" played. It was also open mic and it was neat to hear all these italians come up and sing AMERICAN jazz.

As far as touristy things go, we climbed to the top of the duomo (about 500 steps- another time I was glad NOT to be wearing stilettos! you'll understand why I keep writing that, later!) for a gorgeous view of the city. We also went to the central market, the Boboli gardens, walked the historic Ponte Vecchio, and The Uffizi Museum (home of Botticelli's The Birth of Venus). All of these things had to take place sometime after 1pm... 😊 = 😊

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Photos

me and jonny
The view was incredible and it was well worth the climb... just around sunset on the top of the Duomo

the central market
we went here while we were on the wait list for lunch... it was torture! everything looked fresh and amazing

Ponte Vecchio
fun fact: during WWII, Hitler had every bridge in florence bombed EXCEPT the ponte vecchio... because he liked it. (Instead he bombed both ends so that still no one could cross.) Therefore, it's the oldest and most famous bridge in Florence

fat man in Boboli Gardens
how often to you see statues of fat men???! This one was GREAT...

who's a good photographer?!
check out the reflection in the pond! pretty neat. anyway, the Boboli Gardens were owned, like much of the rest of the city, by the influencial Medici family.

Bell Tower of the Duomo
It took over six centuries to complete the duomo and bell tower and we see it today (13th-19th). To me, the colorful facade makes it distinctive from many others.

view from the duomo
one last view...

Comments

[Lori]

Fat man
Now, Melis, we all know that you were secretly attracted to that fat little man...be honest!