Today we rolled out of our hotel around 11ish and set out to see Florence. I could tell that I was beginning to like Florence just from having walked around the previous night. But after we got tickets for a hop on/hop off bus and were an hour into our tour, I knew I loved it. It's a peaceful historic town with enough bustle to keep it interesting. We toured the whole city including an outside city called Fiesole. I could talk to you at some length with all the sights I've seen but per the usuaul I'm just going to sum up the highlights.
There was a small plaza that overlooked the entire city, I took some of the pictures and posted them on Facebook, but they really don't do a quarter of the justice they should towards demonstrating the beauty of the city. But they do give you some idea. In that plaza there was a bronze copy of Michelangelo's David sculpture, it was quite astounding. I was anxious to see the real one. I also saw the duomo, a beautiful church that is made of some incredible materials, not all of them I can recall, but the majesty and craftsmanship of that church just took your breath away. I also saw the hills where Galileo put his telescope and discovered some of the celestial beings we know today. I also saw the streets where only the rich shop; hermes, ferragamo, fendi, gucci, and other shops flanked streets where only the rich and famous were known to come.
As the evening fell, Bella and I happened to come across a crowd of renaissance style dressed people. We decided to follow them through the streets and see what they were up to. It was a good decision. It was apparently a festival that they did every year. The mayor of Florence was there, as well as his security, still it was fun to pretend to be apart of it all and see it unfold. They wandered through the streets and when they came to a plaza where famous sculptures where, I lost interest in the festival.
Bella suggested we split up for an hour so we each could things we were interested in doing. I went straight for the statues and sculptures.
I don't really think of myself as a person who appreciates sculpture but you couldn't not help appreciating these incredible forms and their life like qualities. I wandered around for awhile, allowing myself to get lost, and stumbled across this artist who was playing his songs underneath the sculpted buildings. The guitar strings and his voice reverberated off the buildings and the people crowding around to sit and listen added a charming atmosphere to the moment. I sat for a good 40 minutes enjoying his music and watching the deep blue Venetian sky turn black. It made me sad that I was enjoying the moment alone. It's so much more fulfilling to share those moments. But I was were I was and I determined to enjoy it as best as I would allow myself.
I soon had to meet up with Bella so I left my corner spot next to a sculpture of a male who was holding up what I think was medusa's head in victory. I met her at the hotel and we reviewed how we would get to Nice, France.
It was going to be one of the longest nights I've had in Europe. The train left the station at 12:38 and we changed trains 4 times throughout the night and arrived in Nice at 10:30 the next morning. Hotels and hostels are both really pricey in Nice so I don't think we're going to spend the day/night in Nice, but if we pansy out maybe we will. But for now our plan is to go 36 hours without sleep....roughly speaking. This is going to be a challenge. I'm pretty sure this will be rock bottom for both of us.
Cheers.
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