Firenze

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Florence, Italy:

Finally, we have arrived in Italy. We have been waiting to get here practically since we arrived in Europe. Every day of rain and sub-50 degree weather, which was every day until now, we kept Italy in our sights. We knew that heading south into Italy would bring us the weather we wanted, and we were right! Not only was the weather that much better, but the people were too! We immediately found a lot more Americans than we were used to finding in Northern Europe, and more people that spoke English. And the food! After weeks of eating Dutch, German, and Czech food, we were really ready to get to Italy! Our first meal, and every meal since then, has consisted of some type of pizza or pasta, and a bottle of wine. One thing that I have found is that Italians eat in multiple courses, so when I ordered our first meal I made the mistake of only ordering a 1st course pasta, which wasn’t by any means a full meal. A lot of places here offer tourist menus, which give you a 1st and 2nd course, a desert, and a small pitcher of wine for about 20 euro.

So our first night in Italy we went to a bar where all the Americans go, and we were told it was a good starting point and place to meet other college aged kids. We met so many people there, and a lot of Americans studying abroad here in Florence. The local Italians are actually very hard to communicate with because most of them speak such broken English that it is impossible to understand them. We basically just walked around the city that night with a bunch of people we had met, and took it easy on our first night.

The next day we did a lot of walking around the main part of the city across the Ponte Vecchio near the Duomo. Our hotel is right on the Arno River, just on the east side of the city, so we have about a 15-20 minute walk into the city and back. It’s a beautiful walk down the river looking down the bridges and to the Ponte Vecchio that it isn’t bad at all. At night especially, you can see all the lights of the city and the buildings lining the river that it’s really great to make that walk.

Early in the afternoon, Mike had sent an email to his roommate who was also going to be in Florence that day, hoping that by some chance he would check his email, and meet us at this bar at 10:30pm. At about 10 o’clock, we were just getting into the city to eat dinner, so we wanted to eat quickly so we could get to the bar by 10:30 in case by some chance Mike’s roommate had checked his email and was going to show up at the bar with the 2 other guys he was traveling with. So after walking around for a bit passing up very nice restaurants looking for something quick and easy, we just gave up and went into this snack shop to get pizza. As we walked towards the back of the restaurant, I saw 3 kids about our age sitting in a booth, and it turned out to be Mike’s roommate and his 2 friends! We sat down with them, and they had no idea about the email Mike had sent, and was not planning at all to meet up with us. Not only were we lucky to find them by chance; they were lucky to find us as it turned out. They had just spent the last night sleeping on the floor of a train that was sold out, and when they got to Florence, their hotel told them that their basement had flooded and they would have to find another place to stay while they repaired the hotel. So they were sitting in this restaurant with all of their bags, just eating so they could get up to go find a place to stay. It was Friday night in Florence, and nearly everyplace in the city was booked. So we took them back to our hotel so they could at least sleep on our floor instead of in the train station, and it turned out that the hotel had an open room for them for Saturday night. So they really lucked out with us running into them, and we had a great time that night with the 6 of us walking around the city.

The morning we left, we woke up for a 9:00 walking tour that we had made reservations for so we could get the tourist side of the city before we left for Rome in the afternoon. The tour was rather short compared to most of the tours we have been on; Florence is a relatively small city with 2000 years of art and history packed into a very tight area. We began with the medieval art and architecture of the city, and worked our way up through time, which was pretty fascinating. We really got to see some of the famous Florentine families over the years, such as the Medici and Strozzi families, and learned about their histories through the buildings and artwork that they commissioned. The medieval buildings were very plain, brick buildings, with little or no decorations on the front. However, the crest of the Medici family was found on nearly all of these buildings as well as on every church in Florence, no matter how great or small. (Including the Duomo.) Medieval buildings that still remain include the main city hall, which is still used today, the Ponte Vecchio, the Duomo and many other churches and former family palaces that are now museums or one that is the Salvatore Ferragamo shoe store and museum. Then we moved into the Renaissance era, where the buildings were a lot larger and more ornate. There were lots of great stories about how the major Florentine families used to compete in all aspects of life, from church to politics. Once, when the Strozzi family attempted to take over the Medici family and killed one of their heirs, the Medici family successfully ended the family tree of the Strozzi’s in 4 days, and the last Strozzi died in less than 100 years. Now, the Italian word for an idiot is “strozzi.” The assassination attempt occurred in the Duomo, which we were able to stand in exactly as it appeared when it occurred during an Easter Mass in the 15th century.

Most of the tour was walking around the many piazzas of the city, some older than others, and listening to the tour guide recount how history created the city that exists today. The many sculptures and artwork that line the streets and building facades are all original, mostly dating back to the 13th and14th centuries. You can walk the streets exactly as Donatello and Michelangelo did during their time, looking at their original masterpieces in surprisingly good condition.

However, the obvious highlight and the ending point of the tour was in the Duomo, began in 1290 and finally finished in 1436. For over 80 years, they were unable to complete the dome, and in its place was a large gaping hole. One plan that was proposed was to fill the entire church from floor to ceiling with dirt and to build the dome on top of the dirt. Then, they would hide coins in the dirt and tell the peasants they could keep all the money they could find if they cleared the Duomo of the dirt. Surprisingly, this was the best idea anyone could come up with until a young 20-year old boy finally devised a plan to build the dome without scaffolding. They were skeptical of him at first, but he eventually won their trust and built the dome in 16 years. He didn’t want the dome painted so that people could appreciate its architectural impressiveness, so for over 100 years it remained unpainted. What they eventually painted on the inside of the dome, which is what you can see today in its original condition, is magnificent. The Church was incredible, inside and outside, but the outside might have been the most impressive. Made of white and green solid marble, which was the style of Medieval Tuscany, the façade is incredibly ornate and detailed for a building of its time. It was far beyond its medieval years, and when it was built it was the largest church in the world. More than just appreciating the Duomo, I really enjoyed being able to eat Gellato on the steps of the Duomo after an incredible Italian meal, exactly as one might have done 600 years ago. The ruins of Rome and Pompeii I’m sure are all very fascinating in their own way, but the Duomo and most of the buildings in Florence are in incredible condition for their age, and being able to walk amongst them today is really great. If you look at some of my pictures from one of the medieval churches we went into, there is a scene that features the main piazza of the city, and another that shows me standing in it today. The entire scene is almost entirely unchanged, only the people in it and the restaurants around them have changed. But now, it is time to go even further back into history, so we are on our way to Rome!

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Photos

Florence by Night
View of the River Arno and the Ponte Vecchio

Ufizzi Gallery and Piaza Nacionale
The tower in the back is an original 12th century palace, used now as the headquarters of the city and the mayor's office.