Coty's Adventure to Italy and Return to Belgium: FLORENCE (FIRENZE!)

highlights -

Pisa stopover
Meeting Miray, couchsurfing host
wandering Florence
museums, paintings, chuches, oh my!

aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh......too many photos to choose from!!!....aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!
ALSO, this post is very link heavy for the history-more info buffs!

DAY ONE - September 17

The image of Florence - the Duomo and it's
famous dome - the first of it's size,
that still amazes architects today

Well I am now sitting on a train on the way to Bolzano/Brixen (Italian and German name) to go do a bit of hiking in the Dolomites. I'm sure when this actually gets posted I'll already be off to something else, but right now I am thinking of my time I just had staying with couchsurfing host, Mariangela (post to come if it isn't already there) and a bit nervous for this next part of my adventure. I know that nervousness will pass as soon as I get in it, as it has been with each section of these travels. Nervous to arrive, nervous to figure out trains, nervous about arriving at at each new location - it's all part of the unknown and then you get in it and have a great time!

Leaving Cinque Terre on Saturday, I took the train to La Spezia where I changed trains to make a quick stop-over in Pisa on my way from Florence. Because of a regional train strike that was going to happen on Sunday, people were trying to get out and and I met a woman from Missouri who was trying to get to Florence as she was originally scheduled to get there on Sunday - no place to stay that night, so she couldn't stop in Pisa... I'm sure she figured something out!
Sitting next to me was an older, nice Italian gentleman who was eager to talk to me in English. He had been sailing all over the world, so we talked about where we had been

(well mostly where he had been!). As we passed some mountains on the left, I asked him about them as they seemed to be covered in snow. He informed me that those were the mountains where they mined for marble, and along the way you could see places with huge marble slabs. He told me that even now working in those mines was very dangerous and many people were killed, something I thought a lot about when I arrived in Florence, as I took in the incredible Duomo and all of it's intricate detail. I'm glad he told me about those mountains and the mining there. It gave me another element to think about when looking at all the historic buildings. (left - Florence's Duomo. The Baptistrz, Cathedral, bell tower, and Dome)

PISA

And so we made it to Pisa and I immediately connected

with a couple from Pennsylvania and two girls from Australia. All of us on the same mission to get a bus to the "Field of Miracles" to take our photo, walk around, and for me, stop and take it all in before rushing off to Florence! The leaning tower, which is actually the bell tower of the church, was shorter than I imagined but it sure was leaning! There's quite the history of trying to correct the lean, starting when it was first being build. You can read all about it here -
And so then I was off to Florence, where Miray, my couchsurfing host for the evening met me at the train station.

(which one do you think is straight!)

Meeting Miray

I met Miray, my couchsurfing host for the night, at the train station. And what a treat! She is

from Turkey but is steadying graphic design here at the Florence Institute of Design. And even though she had only been in Florence a month, she had many recommendations of places for me to go and walked around with me a little in the afternoon before I went off on my own, pointing out some of the buildings and explaining how they were medieval, showing me how you could tell by the architecture and how the older family members would live on the bottom floor,and then on up to the top where the youngest in the family lived. Something I never would have known if I hadn't had someone to show me! And her place! It is right along the Arno, originally an old palace that has been turned into lots of little apartments. Her's was at the top, very attic-like but comfy, and an awesome top of the roof view!

Climbing the Dome and Piazza Michelangelo
I then went off to do a bit of exploring, going right to the Duomo, rounding the corner and then stopping in my tracks as it opened up to me. The symbol of Florence, 600 years to complete in it's entirety, and even though I saw it again and again many time over the next couple of days, it continued amaze me and present new details I hadn't seen each time I saw it.

Detail, detail, detail

Because it was already later in the afternoon, there wasn't much of a line, so I got in to climb the almost 500 steps to the top! I'll have to say that I've done a lot of hikes, and this climb was not a cake walk! But the views from the top were so worth it. What a way to be introduced to this city. From the very top! And down below I could hear the sounds of vendors, an occasional siren, church bells - and open air.

By the time I descended, it was early evening, so I made my way across the river to Piazza Michelangelo, where I climbed the hill to watch the sun set over the city, taking time to breath and transition from being on the coast in Cinque Terre to being in the city of Florence, ready to see the sites and museums!

Sun setting over Florence

Evening with Miray and Claudia and Couchsurfing
Making my way back over the river I met Miray at this bar (I don't know what to call these

places! They aren't really like bars in our definition.) with her friend Claudia, who is from Switzerland and is studying interior design at the same school. We hung out, got to know each other and then made our way to the Florence Plus Hostel (woah, ritzy hostel!) to the top of roof for a couchsurfing gathering. A panoramic view of the city by night, hanging out and chatting with other couchsurfing members from Turkey, Spain, Japan, Italy!, Poland, and probably other places - all of them working or living in Florence for the time being. It was a real nice way to not be so much of a tourist in a town whose center is mainly made up of tourists! To feel like I was really a part of a group in a foreign place.
(picture on left - Miray, Me, Claudia)

DAY TWO - September 18

My own masterpiece?
I have no idea what setting I put on my camera,
but the result was pretty neat!

Museum day!! (sorry no pictures in the museums, but you can find all these things online) Today I had reservations for the two major museums - the Accademia (which houses maybe the most famous sculpture in the world - David by Michelangelo) and the Uffizi (considered one of the best art museums, housing paintings paintings such as The Birth of Venus by Boticelli)

Dante's house. The famous poet was Florentine,
so people here claim they speak the
best Italian!

I also managed to squeeze in seeing the Medici chapel, which is where many prominent members of Florence's most famous family are buried, plus some pretty amazing jewels etc... I keep thinking about a really excellent book I read for an Honors class at Western on the history of the printing press and bookmaking (an AWESOME class by the way). It was called "Out of the Flames." *MOM - this is the book I gave to you to read this summer and I know it is now lying around the house somewhere. Please keep it for me!* Anyway, it really went into the history of the Medici's and Florence's Renaissance and Savanorola's subsequent rise to power etc.... But now after seeing all the sites of Florence, I want to read more about the Medici's and the history of the Renaissance and how it all came to pass in Florence!

The Medici's church, San Lorenzo, the round dome area
is the Medici chapel where many of their treasures are housed
and is where many of the Medici's are buried.

But wow, the museums and artwork were just amazing. Of course, David was spectacular, and seeing The Birth of Venus and all the other paintings in the Uffizi were just beyond words. Just to think of all the masterpieces and time the painters and sculptors took with their art. It's unbelievable - and that some of these painting are over 800 years old and they have survived! But my surprise discovery was Lorenzo Bartolini's 'Faith in God' sculpture. Something about this sculpture was so beautiful and delicate, I can not explain it. The arts in school are so important! I want to go more into all of this, like seeing other sculptures of Michelangelo's where you could see his chisel marks, and getting close up to a painting and seeing the brush strokes - there is just so much, and words don't do it justice. You just have to go see for yourself!

I also want to thank my junior high and high school art teacher, Mrs. Ruth McDonald, for making us take those tests on the paintings in junior high that we all hated taking, but I was really able to appreciate everything I saw so much more because of those quizzes.

Lorenzo Ghiberti's famous bronze cast doors
on the Baptistry. 'The Gates of Paradise'
Actually this is a copy as the original is under restoration.

That evening it started to rain, so I made it back to the hostel, having an evening to myself in my single room and doing my laundry (I was so upset I waited to book until all the dorm rooms were taken up, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise to have that space for myself that night!) I feel fast asleep to the sound of rain and rolling thunder.

DAY THREE - September 19

Florida, Montana, and Illinois -
My buddies for the day!

.....Okay, let's talk about gelato for a second. I'll admit, I ate my share of gelato while in Florence. Afterall, it's supposed to be the best in the country! And there were two places that I went, that according to the books, and the guide I had this day, were the best in town: GROM and PERCHE NO. Both make it fresh, try to use organic and local ingrediants, and are AWESOME. Although I am going to have to say that I think I preferred Grom over Perche No, but I definitely am going to have a hard time eating regular ice cream the same way after those two places. (Well unless it is Mallard of course!)

So tour day!
I

n the morning I woke up unsure whether to take advantage of the free walking tour the hostel offered or just go out on my own. Oh by the way, Hostel Archi Rossi is great! Super cheap dinner (2 euro 50 for a big plate of spaghetti) and free, actually really good, breakfast!) So as I was pacing around in my quandary, there were two women sitting with their maps, obviously waiting for the tour. And so I just sat down. I guess I made my decision! And a good one it was! Our tour guide took us all over to all the churches and sites, explaining details and facts that I never would have known. Highly recommended to take a walking tour, especially if it is free!

Our tour guided pointed out that on the front of the Duomo cathedral
there are statues of all twelve disciples, which is abnormal because
usually depictions leave Judas out. Well, they needed things to be
symmetrical, so they put Judas in. Can you guess which one he is?

When it was over, the two women that I met initially and I decided to spend the rest of the day touring the town! "Florida" (I'm so bad with names) and "Illinois." All of us traveling on our own through Italy. We went to the church Santa Croce, where Galileo and Michaelangelo are buried. Amazing. We also got caught in a random HAIL STORM. Sunny one minute then hail the next.

The tomb of Michelangelo

Galileo's tomb

Then off to the Duomo (the word for church by the way) to see the inside cathedral, had a great sit-down lunch together (my first time in Italy!), walked the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge and along the water, and back to the hostel! We just had to stop sometimes, as I did all the time throughout my stay here in Florence, to take in all the detail, even of little random carving on the side of a building, something that must have taken so much time but probably barely gets looked at. There is just so much! It was then time for me to get ready to catch a train to Mariangela's, my couchsurfing host for the night. But what a great, unexpected day! Just another lesson that you never know who you will meet or what you will do, but just be open for everything and trust your intuition!