A Second Look at Firenze
Saturday was all about seeing as much as Florence as we could in one day. My sister Heather and I visited a number of the places I had been to with my class trip, but also got to do some things I hadn’t done before. One of my favorites was climbing the 463 stairs to the top of the dome of the cathedral! Not so much the climbing part, but the view from the top, is what was amazing! Also, we could see the art on the top of the dome from the circular balcony around it on our way up. It was interesting and different to be able to see ceiling art from that close in one of these big Italian churches. We could see so much more detail than we could looking at the dome from the ground level.
As we hiked up the long and winding staircases, there were windows along the way on the side of the cathedral of different shapes and sizes that provided awesome views of the city and great pictures (when we could get the lighting right and manage to snap a shot between the lines of people going up and down). And then, at the top of the dome, there was an amazing view of the city of Florence! We braved the cold and wind at the top for a few minutes to take in the view and get some pictures. Then we descended those 463 stairs back to ground level.
As if we hadn’t had enough climbing, my sister dragged me up a never-ending hill of inclines and stairs to the Piazzale Michelangelo for another great view of the city. We grabbed some snacks at a coffee bar and then sat on the steps of the piazza to take in the sunset over the city. On our way back to the city, we crossed the Ponte Vecchio, which is the bridge that was the only one spared in Florence during WWII because Hitler thought it was too beautiful to destroy. We watched the bridge change colors as we approached it, walking along the river. The Ponte Vecchio is lit with lights from the sides of the river that go through a changing sequence all throughout the evening—the purple and red were my favorite colors of it!
We also stopped in the Uffizi to check out some amazing paintings and sculptures by artists such as DaVinci (they had a special exhibition on his art and scientific work), Caravaggio, Tiziano, Michelangelo, and Raphael. Unfortunately we were a little pressed for time because of the early closing hour, but we could have wandered around that place for hours. The exhibition on DaVinci was especially amazing—with all sorts of information on screens and computers as well as replicas of his experiments and breakdowns of his artwork and processes. There was a lot of interesting and beautiful pieces of art; I even bought a couple of prints in the gift shop to take home with me!
After the art museum, we crossed back over the river to search for dinner. After getting a little lost down some side streets with no signs of life, we stumbled upon a trattoria tucked away in an alley. The prices and food looked good, so we took a seat. Turns out we picked a great place because by the time we left, there was a line out the door for tables at the restaurant. Not to mention the food, and especially desserts, were delicious!
With full stomachs, we strolled back to the river, one bridge over from the Ponte Vecchio. It was a bridge my dad and I had been on during my earlier trip to Florence in the semester. I remembered how you can climb over the sides of the bridge and sit out on one of the four triangular cement ledges that jut off the bridge. So my sister and I climbed onto one of these to sit and chat while watching the Ponte Vecchio change colors in the cold, dark night.
It was a beautiful night, and after we’d had enough of the cold, we decided to slowly wander back towards our hotel. Our walk back was slightly eventful as we made our way down the streets lit with Christmas lights. In the Piazza della Republica we caught a musical group performing and a spray paint street artist putting on shows for the crowd. We stopped for a little to watch both. Later we were chased down a street by a crazy homeless man with a broom, who almost knocked down another woman passing by on a bike. There were some colorful characters there in Florence. We made our way back to the hotel eventually and were glad to be in the warm indoors! After learning from a sign in the elevator that there was a national train strike scheduled for the next day, we went to bed wandering if this would indeed be our last night in Florence or if we wouldn’t make it to Venice as we had planned.
|
