Italia: Parte 4 - Florence

Later that day, we took a train to Florence. We checked into our hotel and began to explore the mostly pedestrian city (which was a nice change from bustling Rome). We saw the famous Duomo, the Palazzo Vecchio (where a certain scene from Hannibal was filmed), and crossed the Ponte Vecchio with all of its gold shops. We spent a great deal of time in the Piazza della Signoria, staring at an imitation of David and other famous statues and listening to incredible musicians play U2 and Simon & Garfunkel covers. The temperature was absolutely perfect and the sun went down slowly, illuminating the beautiful colors in the surrounding buildings. I sat in the Piazza, eating roughly my 100th gelato of the trip, breathing deeply, taking in the beautiful sights and sounds and decided…I could live here. Thusly, Florence became my favorite Italian city.

The next morning, we walked through the Florentine markets, where vendors tried their hardest to sell us every kind of leather good you can imagine. While walking through the market, I ran into a fellow Penguins fan and someone referred to my dad as “Tony Soprano.” HA! After lunch, we went to the Galleria della Accademia to see my beautiful boyfriend. We made our way through the small museum and suddenly, after turning a corner, we saw at the end of a long hallway filled with his Captives, Michelangelo’s David. I’m not exaggerating – he literally takes your breath away. You turn the corner and BOOM! He is there, in this naturally-lit room, with the sun shining on him. He’s elevated and perfectly sculpted. You can see the veins in his arms and oversized hands. I could not peel my eyes from him and although I wasn’t allowed to take pictures, I did…and got caught…and yelled at by who must have been Mussolini’s wife. It was SO worth it, though. David is the most amazing man-made thing I have ever seen.

After I recovered from David, we walked around and made our way to the Ponte Vecchio for the sunset. Once again, I was speechless. I could watch the sunset from this bridge everyday for the rest of my life and still not get enough of it. With every passing minute, the colors of the sky and river would change. Behind us, a guitar player was playing his acoustic rendition of “Con Te Partiro” and I was in heaven. No seriously. Take notes, future husband, and I am all yours. After the sunset, we had dinner in an open piazza with a number of musicians and a merry-go-round.

The next day, we waited two hours to get into the Uffizi Gallery, the only gallery that rivals the Louvre in Paris. We had lunch on the top floor before perusing the gallery which was filled with Renaissance works like Boticelli’s Birth of Venus and Spring. There was also an extensive Caravaggio exhibit, the 'bad boy' of the Renaissance. After the Uffizi, we went to Santa Croce Church which houses the tombs of Marconi, Galileo, Michelangelo, Dante, and Rossini. For our last dinner in Florence, we had amazing bistecca alla fiorentina (very raw steak)…and, of course, gelato.

The following day, we took a train to Pisa, only to learn that one day earlier, someone had jumped off the Leaning Tower and killed themselves. Yikes…We had lunch with a view of the Tower (pizza in Pisa) and then walked around Italy’s most famous building, the church, and the baptistery.

After our short Pisa adventure, we took a train back to Venice, where we spent our final night in Italy sitting on the Grand Canal and admiring the amazing view.

I think it goes without saying that my expectations of Italy were met…and surpassed. I cannot think of a more historically rich country in all of the world. I couldn’t help but imagine Casanova making his way down the Venetian canals, seducing women and writing about his escapades. I could practically see Julius Caesar being murdered on the street, gladiators battling each other and wild animals for entertainment, and Michelangelo lying for hours on scaffolding, painstakingly working on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The history is so embedded that it’s almost tangible. The artwork was beautiful, the architecture breathtaking, the food mouthwatering, and the people kind. I was certainly not ready to come home.

Hopefully this was just the first of many trips to Italy. It was very special to be able to spend so much quality time with my dad, the only man in the world who will always love me unconditionally. These are memories that I will cherish forever, no matter how many times I go back. Next time, I’ll try to make it to Milan and Naples.