Today was our first day in Firenze (Florence)! We left Verona at about 8 this morning and the train ride took almost 2 hours. When we arrived in Florence we realized that we weren’t at the train station that we had planned to arrive at. We had thought that we were going to be coming into Firenze-Santa Maria Novella (SMN). Instead we arrived at Campo di Marte…after realizing that we were actually very close to our hostel from here, we just decided to walk instead of trying to find a bus. We looked at a map and then headed out. We decided that we had to go right our of the station to get to where we were going. It probably would have been faster to go left because we ended up having to walk the length of a very, very long wall sectioning off the railway. But after talking to some nice Italians (and suppressing the urge to speak French to them) we finally found a bridge and the right street. After walking the opposite direction then we had before, we walked down an equally long street. But after a good walk we finally found the hostel. We went inside and checked into our room. After getting over the disappointment of not having air-conditioning we headed up to our room. Our hostel apparently is an old convent. I'm sure that there is some ghost story associated with it (there always seems to be) but if there was we weren’t told about it. Because the elevator was so small we had to take turns going up it with all our luggage but we finally got to the top, found our room and plopped down on the beds. We opened up the windows to find a view of a surprisingly run down soccer field and rooftops. Our view of rooftops also included a view of the dome of the Duomo. After getting some internet usage in (since we hadn’t had it for a difficult 3 days) we made our way into town. We found the train and got on, hoping that we would stumble upon the right stop somewhere along the way.
We finally found the right stop then followed the hostels directions to the Duomo. But somewhere along the way we got lost (of course) and ended up wandering down side streets. This was actually a pleasant surprise because we were able to get a taste of the Florence that isn’t as touristy. After wandering for a bit it was lunchtime. We hunted down a restaurant that didn’t have a menu in English and that was full of people speaking Italian, not English. (This apparently is the sign of a good restaurant.) We sat down, ordered what we guessed was good and crossed our fingers that it was! When the food finally arrived we were very happy with our guesses! Lucy ended up with spaghetti with meat sauce and Whitney and I chose a 2 person plate that ended up being a pasta with a little bit of oil, tomatoes, and basil. For my first Italian pasta it was FANTASTIC! One thing we did realize though is that the bread they give you for dinner doesn’t have any salt in it, so it tastes extremely bland and kind of how you could imagine a sponge tasting…When we had had our fill of tasty pasta we began our trek in search of the Duomo yet again. And then, as we turned a corner to our surprise the Duomo was right in front of us! It is so beautiful! Its façade is covered in beautifully cut pink, green, and white marble. We ventured inside and found that the interior didn’t quite match the aw-inspiring outside. (But the painting covering the dome was quite beautiful even though it seemed to depict the damnation of mankind…) After we had seen enough of the interior and had had enough of poking fun at everyone who had been forced to wear blue robes because they didn’t have appropriate dress we headed out into the humid heat of Florence. We went and awed over the bell tower right next to the Duomo and the beautifully crafted bronze doors at the Baptistery in the piazza. Then we found our trusty map and located the Medici Chapels. The Medici family was very influential in preserving and funding the arts within Florence and Italy. The chapel and many of the beautiful (but also unfinished) statues were designed by Michelangelo. Here once again you can see the use of various marbles to create a very interesting dynamic in the décor. After cooling off in the Medici Chapel for a bit we got some gelato, and boy was it good! Supposedly Florence has the best gelato in Italy and now I’m a believer! After all our walking around that cold gelato hit the spot!
After eating our ice cream we decided to be adventurous and went to climb the 463 steps to the top of the Duomo’s dome. (About half way through the stairs we started to doubt our decision!) Finally the never-ending spiraling staircases ended…and vertical stairs took their place. One reason that the dome is so amazing is because of the architectural concept. This dome was created by Brunelleschi and is referred to as his “dome within a dome”. We actually took vertical stairs between his two domes. It was pretty cool.
When we finally made it to the top, we realized how completely worth it our hike had been! We had decided to climb the dome at around 6 pm because we figured that it would have cooled off a bit, but we didn’t think about the amazing sunset that we would be able to see! We could see Florence for as far as the eye could see. All the terra cotta rooftops that were already red tinted and the sunset only made it more beautiful!
No comments