Florence and Liguria was as close to perfect as it could get. On top of the beauty of the places themselves, the travelling was smooth sailing...everything we planned worked out, we saw what we wanted to see...no regrets.
Thursday, after dragging my overpacked bag a few blocks, I met Pilar at the school's international relations office to do the last of the official paperwork. Ironically for the first time since I've been in that office, things were quickly taken care of. No tears over never seeing the woman in charge again though.
From there, we caught a bus to Termini Station, but not without a little old lady criticizing my outfit first. In a strong Italian accent she quite efficiently humiliated me, pointing at my skirt, saying "No so short in city! No so shooorrt!"(It was not that short). Not knowing weather to apologize or what, we got off the bus, and yhen caught our train to Florence. This time, the train had little cabins you could sit it, so we got out or food and had our little picnic in the train while enjoying the amazing and very Tuscan view, complete with beautiful villas and thousands of Sunflowers. Like a dream...
A few hours later, we were there, and easily caught the right bus to Julie's house. Julie is my mom's friend's daughter, and last time I was in Italy (about 11 years ago) we also visited her in Florence where she was studying at the time. In fact, I hadn't seen her since...so it was a nice re-encounter. How quickly time passes...Now, after being in New York for a few years, she is designing shoes (I know) and beginning to develop her own company. Of course Pilar and I immediately wanted to exchange lives with her. Not bad. After she so kindly welcomed us into her very charming apartment, we were off again to see the city.
Not only is it charming, but Julie's apartment is also in a great location, with the Boboli Gardens as a backyard, and only a few blocks away from the Palazzo Pitti. Walking through the area, we got a feel for the small and colorful streets of Firenze, until reaching the Arno River and historic Ponte Vecchio, the oldest bridge in the city. After collapsing and being rebuilt numerous times, it became a goldsmith market in 1953 and has been filled with gold and jewelry shops ever since; shops with displays we both could only gawk at on our student-abroad allowance. I might just have to go back for a ring one day though. I also discovered that it is said that the concept and term "bankruptcy" originated here. When a merchant couldn't pay his debts, the table or "banco" on which he sold his things was broken, "rotto" by soldiers; now without a table, the merchant was not able to sell anything. Banco rotto; bankrupt. Cool huh?
It didn't seem like anything could be missing, but our stomachs soon began to disagree, so we met up with Julie (who rode in on her bike-Italian style) at a great little piazza frequented by locals, and chose a small osteria for our gratinated cheese gnocchi dinner. On that note: both Pilar and I had originally decided to get half portions of two different things so we could try a variety of foods, however when our first dish of gnocchi smothered in steaming melted cheese and truffle oil arrived...thank god we could cancel the other things. Not a normal half portion. So if you're ever in that position, you might want to clarify what the half portion looks like. Unless of course you're up for it. Which I would have been if it had been anything else but gnocchi-the bomb of all pastas...
After the delicious dinner and great conversation, we walked home, I was tempted by Julie's digital scale and weighed myself for the first time since I've been here (why I would decide to do so after the dinner I had just had is beyond me), and went to bed, maybe the slightest bit disturbed. Haha...Still, nothing would keep me awake after our long and busy day, so I could only think about a pretend future diet for about 3 minutes. Too bad.
Friday morning began bright and early with some necessary coffee (thanks again Julie!). We headed for the Uffizi Gallery, which holds the works of da Vinci, Giotto and some of Boticelli's greatest pieces (Birth of Venus and Primavera amongst others). We were hoping to reserve tickets for later since I read the line was never-ending, so we asked about it and they directed us towards a different ticket window. Since reserving turned out to be more expensive, and the line wasn't too bad, we started to go back...when I see Pilar near the regular ticket booth, behind only about 6 people waving me over. So we get our tickets in under 5 minutes and as we're going through security we realized that little did we know we had just cut a cue of a lottt more people that we couldn't see from inside. Oops. The whole thing was innocent, but I thought it was great that we totally cheated the famous Uffizi lines. As I said...everything about this trip worked out great for us.
After spending enough time in the museum, we went towards the San Lorenzo leather market Julie told us about, which ended up being crazy. Walls and booths covered in all things leather. Bags, Belts, Gloves, Wallets, Jackets, Accessories...everything, and in every color. And so much cheaper than in Rome. It was a little overwhelming because it just kept getting better. So hard choosing just one beautiful leather purse.
After lunch, we decided to escape the heat (which by the way was borderline stifling, no less than 31 degrees Celsius all day) and freshen up at Julie's. We were originally trying to get to a wine festival there was at Palazzo Pitti, but there was only a couple hours left of it while we were ready...Thereforeee we bought our own bottle and went to sit outside the palace instead. And that was it...completely surrendered to relaxation, wine on a warm summer night, walking around, pausing to listen to more guitar music-one guy even played the Godfather theme song-and some noteworthy gelato to finish it off. It was definitely one for the books, great night in Italy. <3
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All in all, I loved Florence all over again. I was telling Pilar that I feel like most of my memories of Italy seem to be images of Florence...it's almost seems like the essence of Italy in many ways; the postcard sights, the food, the shopping, the balmy Mediterranean nights. From a foreigner's perspective, it's also smaller, and much easier to conquer than Rome. After only two nights there I felt like I knew my way around some places...and like I could stay forever. It is in Tuscany after all-you can't really go wrong.
Saturday morning, I decided to get up extra early and take a last stroll along the main streets, casually ending up at the leather market again (not with any intention at all of getting something). But even more than the purse I bought, I loved being out at that time of day...A place like Florence is obviously always full of tourists, and as I was walking I just kind of watched the true city wake up. On the way out, there were only a few people -locals- on the streets; shop owners beginning to unlock their stores, setting things up, people going to work. And then on the way back, there were already some tour guides out with their little flag up and the herd of people behind them.
Distracted by the glassy reflection of the river from Ponte Vecchio, I almost forgot the time, so I hurried home to get Pili and our bags, we said goodbye to Julie, and made our way to the station and to Sestri Levante in Liguria...
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