Relaxing my way through Florence and Venice

For once I have no stories about the train ride. I made it from Rome to Florence and even to my hostel with no problems at all. My hostel was almost right on the beautiful river, which I spent a lot of time walking along. I went to the Ufizi Gallery first, which was a really nice art gallery because it seemed to understand the importance of quality over quantity. It didn’t take ages to wade through, but everything there was beautiful, including the Birth of Venus, and Primavera, as well as some Van Gogh, Picasso, all that good stuff. You may not be aware of this, but I am swiftly becoming an art elitist.

So next I wandered through the San Lorenzo market, which is this massive street market with stalls selling all sorts of leather goods and touristy things. I bought myself a nice new journal (I’m almost out of room in my first one). I meandered over (I say meandered because I took a...circuitous...route) to the Duomo next and had a good ogle. It is absolutely gorgeous! From the name, I kind of just expected a church with a dome...but it is actually magnificent, which was a nice surprise.

Day two: The highlight of today was the Church of Santa Croce, which is really gorgeous, and boasts quite a few celebrity graves. I saw Dante, Michelangelo, Galileo, and Machiavelli! Santa Croce also had some really pretty cloisters, which I had a nice walk through.  I also spent some time today in the Boboli gardens, which are absolutely beautiful, and very relaxing.

Day three: Laundry day! Seriously, when you live out of a backpack, if one thing starts to smell, everything starts to smell. It can be real trouble. After laundry I went to see Michelangelo’s David. He was pretty much all he is supposed to be. Gigantic and beautiful. I can’t imagine the talent for detail that Michelangelo needed to sculpt all of those muscles. Then, in keeping with the theme, I went to the Piazza Michelangelo (THE THEME IS MICHELANGELO), which has an absolutely wonderful view of the rest of Florence. I sat for a while just soaking it in. Sometimes I have to remind myself that my life is way beyond average. It is easy to just follow my plan and my map and forget that what I am doing is actually completely wonderful and I am one of the luckiest girls in the world.

View from the Piazza

Tonight I treated myself to a real dinner at a real restaurant next to the Duomo, which consisted of a GIANT bowl of the best tortellini I have ever had. I almost forgot that Gelato was not your average dinner fare, having subsisted on that for the last two nights.

Florence was very relaxing. Clearly I had no large adventures, because this is possibly the shortest post ever. However I also had no major mishaps, which was nice. Florence itself is beautiful, and much quieter than Rome, which I appreciated. I left Florence feeling refreshed and ready to explore Venice.

AHH VENICE. First of all, when you exit the train station in Venice, the first thing that confronts you is the Grand Canal, so that is a really exciting first impression. After I finally dropped off my stuff at the hostel (yes I got lost on the way to my hostel) I headed over to the old Jewish Ghetto. It is the oldest in all of Europe, but it was actually dissolved well before WWII, so it was not in use as THAT kind of Ghetto. I took a tour, which went through three synagogues, and I learned a lot about the history of Jews in Venice. Unfortunately, there are barely any Jews left in Venice today, but there used to be a very large, thriving population.

After getting lost some more, which I really didn’t mind because I was getting lost in Venice, I found my way to the Piazza San Marco, which was pretty, but it was too late to go into the Basilica, so I just had a look around. Then, to my extreme surprise and delight, I managed to find the Church of San Barnaba, the exterior of which was used as the exterior of the Venetian Library in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where “X marks the spot.”

The next day I woke up early and got a Vaporetto, a water bus, to Murano, where they make all the fabulous glass. Zooming through the water, I totally felt like Indiana Jones. I wanted to jump onto the boat next to us and demand to know where they where holding Sean Connery. Remembering at the last minute that I was not in fact Harrison Ford, I refrained. At Murano, I went a little souvenir crazy, but that is okay, because most of my family, including myself, benefit from this fit of madness. On the way back, with my wallet empty, lest just say I felt less than Jones-like. After taking shelter from a thunderstorm for a few hours, I went back out to San Marco and went into the Basilica, which was very pretty. Then I went to the Doge’s Palace, which, while expensive, was really interesting, because I learned a lot about Venetian government, and I also got to see the old prisons which was satisfyingly creepy. I never knew that Venice has such a successful history as a republic, before they became part of Italy! I really need to expand my historical studies.

That was it for Venice; I only spent about 1 ½ days there. It was the right amount of time though, because although yes Venice is very beautiful, there is not a lot to do besides walk around, and there are tens of thousands of other tourists doing the same thing. It was not as crowded as Rome, but the tourist-to-local ratio was higher, so I rarely felt like I was in Italy, and mostly felt like I was in some beautiful theme park where the main attractions were the buildings.