Sorry for the delay in updating the blog. This edition covers the entire Florentine escapade, which includes Pisa. Am writing this on the last night we are spending here in Florence; we have stopped over here for 2 nights and will be leaving tomorrow for Milano (also known as Milan, for the Anglocised; Milano is its Italian name, not just the now defunct pizza restaurant). To start off, let’s start with a little History on this fair city of Firenze, or as much as I can remember and found out thus far.
(sorry another disclaimer is necessary here…this is another late entry…Florence was from the 17th to 18th)
Florence, the land of the fleur-de-lis on its coat of arms, is perhaps one of the most important cities, culturally, in Europe. It is the birthplace of much of Italy’s cultural heritage and the home of Michelangelo’s David and the Duomo. It is also where the Italian Renaissance blossomed from and of course Florence also boasted perhaps one of the greatest political entities in the Medici’s who had a strangle hold on both religion and politics from the 16th to 18th centuries. Almost no decent or even half-decent European historian can afford to overlook the importance of the Medici’s. For a greater understanding, go here and read up on Florence; it’s my favourite online resource for general knowledge and information you don’t need but can use, Wikipedia. Viva la Wikipedia! =) okay, enough plugging of a free online resource. Suivi.
Florence was a pleasant change from the hustle and bustle of Rome and a much nicer city to negotiate. For one, it’s smaller than Rome. Almost all the major landmarks are within 30 minutes walking distance from our hostel; in comparison, the Vatican took us an hour and a half of walking. The streets of Florence are also much cleaner, traffic lighter and most surprising, bereft of beggars. Until this evening, I had not seen a single homeless person living off the streets and the charity of others. I’m equal parts sad and repulsed to see people begging; allow me to explain, before you all go “tsk tsk tsk, such a void of the milk of human kindness, that boy”.
Many beggars that I have seen have been gypsies or Eastern European Diasporas, displaced from wherever they might have come from and are struggling to eke out an existence in a place where they have no skills essential to finding work, and probably illegal aliens as well. So many of them clutch young children or little babies, all wrapped up in layers of rags in an attempt to keep off the cold. It tugs at the heartstrings to see sights such as these; those of you who are mothers will probably empathise with the instinct to try all ways and means to protect your children and to give them a better life. And there are old men and women, abandoned by their families and all that they have are in the two plastic bags which they carry with them. As Asians, the idea of 不孝子 almost doesn’t exist in our dictionary. 饮水思源, filial piety ; such mantras form the foundation of our culture, though sad to say not everyone subscribes to it. Hopefully we still do, and that is enough, isn’t it. Thus with these extenuating factors, I only have sympathy for them who have no choice but to live off the streets. However there are those who irk me no end; healthy young men in the prime of their lives choosing the easy way out, going on the dole and begging on the streets. I mean, come on. You’re young and able bodied. Work you bum. Is there nothing that you can do to fend for yourself? All limbs functional, faculties of cognizance, speech and hopefully some intelligence intact, why can you not work? Should just kick them in the derrière and get them to clean the streets or something useful rather than literarily bumming around. In many ways, I am happy to see the Pakistani and African touts; at least they’re working and doing something decent for a living rather than begging or worse still, organised crime.
Okay back to the main storyline. Florence thus is a nice change from the dreariness of Roma. 4 days in Rome is more than enough; 3 would have been just nice, and frankly, we were getting just this little bit tired of Rome. Our hostel is along the Via Trebbio and its called Leonardo’s. Not a bad place, but the street that it’s on was like a Geylang back alley…haha…deserted and a little turn off the main road. It’s a cosy establishment, not that many rooms and we took the one with an attached bathroom. And the receptionist, lets call him Leonardo Jr, was quite entertaining. He’s from Croatia, a year older than me, and the hostel is owned by his Godfather. We ended up talking quite a bit to him over the past 2 days. He said he fought in Kosovo, which would have been about 7-8 years ago…can’t validate the authenticity of that, but its interesting. Oh and another interesting thing about this hostel; save for me and Leonardo Jr, the rest of the lodgers were female…mmm…such luck.
Our room...
This shop was along the same street as our hostel…notice it’s an anagram of someone’s name…hmm…wonder whose...
Florence is a shopper’s haven, not as massive and glitzy as orchard perhaps, but the shops and alleys are so attractive and friendly to the casual shopper. Can just enter in and spend so much time in them. Went into Sephora and we spent like 40 minutes inside looking at bath stuff and soaps and smelling everything. So nice. Felt like indulging and pampering myself, unfortunately the shoestring budget denies such extravagant spending…hai…looking at the Japanese people (and the place is infested with them) just go in and shop shop shop, depressing.
Several things that you must do in Florence: visit the Duomo and climb the dome, see David in the Galleria Dell’Academia, walk across the Ponte Vecchio, look at Botticelli’s masterpieces in the Uffizi, visit the Medici’s Palazzo Pitti, hop to the church of Santa Croce, and last but not least, go up to the top of Piazza Michelangelo. And as Pisa is nearby, take a day trip down to it, it’s just an hour’s train journey away, and the leaning tower is not one of the wonders of the world without good reason.
The Duomo is another legacy of Michelangelo; the ceiling is painted by him and it depicts heaven, hell and purgatory in gruesome detail. Don’t have really nice shots of it though, just maybe this is passable.
You can climb up to the dome of the cathedrale, costs 6euros though. But I think it is money well spent. It brings you up closer to the ceiling of the dome and if you climb higher, you’ll emerge into a blustery panorama of Florence. It was so windy up there, but the view was magnificent. There was the sun breaking through the clouds and for a moment, it seemed all surreal. The photo at the start of this entry is from the top of the Duuomo. The Duomo itself looks out of place in continental Europe. Honestly, it looked very much like it belonged in St Petersburg than Florence; its mosaics are decidedly Trotsky-ish, iconoclastic rather than traditionally Western Catholicism. Rastignac would be at home walking past this. Mmm…
Probably the most famous sculpture in the entire oeuvre of Michelangelo, David resides in the Galleria Dell’Academia. It’s not a very fancy place; I almost missed it due to its inconspicuousity. We got lucky, entry was free for the day. Woo hoo. However, pictures were not allowed in this gallery, thus I don’t have a picture of David to show. Oh wait.. =)
Not a really good shot, Kelly managed to take a quick shot of it…before getting scolded of course. Haha. I can wax lyrical about the artistry of Michelangelo’s creation, but will refrain from being too pompous and obscure here…just note the beauty and the realism of the musculature and the brilliant attention to all the minor details. The curve of the calf, the small muscle between the shoulder blades and the arm; its all comes together. It is a massive statue, standing over 5metres tall and weighing almost 6 tonnes. Oh and talking about attention to ‘minor’ details, the statue is also famous for its distinct lack of a fig leaf at a certain highly conspicuous department on the male anatomy. Mmm…it is rather well proportioned as well, almost what one might say, accurate...haha…since this blog is technically PG, I shall just leave it at that. =)
Ponte Vecchio is just a really old bridge and it’s thronged with gold shops. Don’t bother though. The gold is largely 18k, and we Chinese don’t buy anything less than 24k. And its expensive here as well. It gathers its fame from the beneficence of the Medici family, I think. There is a bust of one of them on the centre of the bridge. I could be wrong, but oh well. If any of you go there, do correct me yah.
I did not manage to go to the Uffizi as it was much too crowded. A pity though, would have loved to see the Botticelli’s in there.
Oh, there is a wonderful leather flea market at this place called San Lorenzo. Must go there! There are so many beautiful leather products; the smell and touch of leather is just so intoxicating. Was so tempted to just splurge on a leather jacket; would mean that I would have to starve for the next month though. Food vs Material wants. Food wins. Hai…But there are really many nice things to buy there and its not too expensive. For a really good leather jacket, you can get it for 150-250 euros, and the cutting/leather is really good. It costs slightly less than what you would pay for a branded one which would not have the same quality. If there is ever a motivation to go back to Florence, that would be it.
The Palazzo Pitti was the home of the Medici’s and subsequently the Lorraines who replaced them in the 19th century. To get a better idea of the reign of the Medici’s and what they were like, think of our own glorious LEEders. Sama-sama. Owned practically everything, called the shots for everything else and basically had their fingers in every pie. As the name “palazzo” suggests, it is almost like a palace; the compound is huge and it has its own Botanic gardens. All the ceilings are painted with stories from Greek or Christian mythologies and there is marble, gold, brass, bronze, silk, every luxury imaginable, all over the place. We managed only to a fraction of a wing of the mansion. And that took us over an hour. Such riches; it’s almost vulgar. There was some commemorative event so entry into the Palazzo Pitti was free…again!
The Leaning Tower of Pisa, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, assuming the list is still the same as I remember it to be. It really is quite a right pretty sight. And a fantastic place to try and take retarded photos of really stupid poses. Haha. Pretending to kick the tower, leaning on it, pushing it, etc. Tried to take a Deuce Bigalow shot but it didn’t work out quite as expected…pity. Can’t put up the picture here though for obvious reasons of decency. =)
You must climb the tower; though it is the most expensive of all the attractions so far. 15 euros buys you the opportunity to climb up 300 steps and you have a 30 minute time limit. The view from the top is worth it though, and you do get some much needed exercise. At the top of the tower, you can truly feel the severity of the incline; the whole world is tilted. If you have acrophobia or suffer from vertigo, this is not a wonder of the world for you. Go to the pyramids or something. For the rest of you, this is a place that you must visit and see the world through a different angle; not everything has to be straight and narrow, sometimes being just a little off-centre takes off the rigidity off existence.
Finally, the Piazza Michelangelo. If you’re as much a sucker as I am for panoramic views of cityscapes, you cannot miss this out. We wanted to catch the sunset there but by the time we reached it, dusk had settled and we had to content ourselves with the city of Florence stretched out below us all ablaze with the lights of humanity.
It was a beautiful sight and a wonderful way to round up this short trip to Florence. Was like a certain poem that eludes me now. To see the world in a grain of sand, and hold eternity in an hour; for that brief moment, looking at the world down below, one could almost have pretensions of immortality. The beauty of this ephemeral existence, nothing gold can stay. We can only make the best of what we have, nothing more, but nothing less either. From Florence, cheers.
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