Day Four (and part of Five): Fabulous Fantasy-Filled Florence!
June 26, 2008
So I sort of need to alter, or at least add a caveat to, my commitment to this blog. In the beginning, I promised to write every single night (or morning) before going to bed. And I’m still going to try and do this. However! If it’s my night to get totally and utterly smashed, the blogging is going to have to wait until I regain consciousness. You understand.
But now that that’s cleared up I’ll let you know what’s going on! As I type, Leslie and I are sitting in a 110 degree humid oven sauna from HELL!!! on a train on our way to Venice. And while we are sad to say “ciao” and “adios” to Florence and our new Spanish friends, our lives as traveling gypsies beckon us onward… but in the interim (the time of actual travel being the interim) I’ll let you know how yesterday went.
So yesterday was quite the day for us! We woke up at a reasonable hour, dressed, and went out to the cafeteria area of our hostel. To our amazement (see picture to the right) we discovered that we got a free breakfast – and a good one at that! In Rome we got a free “continental breakfast” but that amounted to stale bread and some cornflakes. In Florence, though, free breakfast included a buffet of different things (i.e. cake-ish breakfast bread [my favorite], penne pasta [Leslie’s favorite], oranges, pears, etc.) and (!) you got to pick a meal off this menu thing and they’d make it for you. Leslie got toast, eggs, sausage, and bacon and I got yummy muesli. After getting over our breakfast-shock, we headed for our first art stop of the day: The Accademia, home of the famous David (and, to be honest, pretty much nothing else).
Here’s a tip for future Florence travelers: reserve your tickets to the Accademia and Uffizi ahead of time. We did and, while it costs a few euro extra, it saves you a ton of time waiting in these super long lines. And, when it’s a zillion degrees out, that’s worth paying for!
So, yes, Michelangelo’s David. To be honest, I wasn’t that excited about seeing him. I’ve never really been into sculpture – it just doesn’t do it for me the way painting does. Paintings are bright, alive – they can be the colors and shapes of your most vivid dreams.Sculptures are single colored (like marble) and just… I don’t know… ugh. However, that all changed yesterday. When you enter the tiny museum you don’t know where this David guy is going to be (mainly this is because Italians just don’t believe in giving you a map or marking things…like super famous museums… but anyways…). So you sort of don’t get a chance to mentally prepare yourself for it. You just turn a corner and then at the very end you see him towering above everything. He’s huge!!! For some reason Leslie and I both imagined David to be (maybe) twice the size of a person but we were so so so wrong. David overwhelms you with its sheer masculinity – its power. I don’t even know what to type here. It’s incredible. Leslie and I circled around him so many times… and then we’d just sit and stare at him. The detail – the veins in his hand, the fact that the right muscles are flexing as he stands there with all his contrapposto sexy glory. And his gaze. His gaze is incredible. He just seems like a god. I found myself thinking that Michelangelo must have been a very confident and very egotistical man. You just couldn’t conceive of such a thing otherwise. I love to paint and draw but really only woman. I’ve just never found myself thinking of the male body as something aesthetic. But let me tell you, staring at David opened my eyes the just how perfect a male subject can be. You aren’t supposed to 
take pictures of him, but I had to sneak a few. For hours afterwards we were still talking about it. Incredible! Magnificent! The best thing art we saw all day.
After we could tear ourselves away from David, we had a few hours to kill before our reservation at the Uffizi was up. Leslie was craving minestrone soup (who craves minestrone soup?!) so we got an early lunch. I got some caprese (I love caprese – and the cheese over here is seriously delicious). I only mention lunch because we had such good conversation during it. I think seeing David must have got us thinking about guys because we ended up discussing them and all their glorious horror over lunch. I told Leslie some of the, let’s say, “learning experiences” I’ve had… and let me tell you, those stories are funny (note: not funny when they were actually being lived but pretty much hilarious afterwards). So that was fun!
Then we decided to just explore. We walked down and crossed the river and found ourselves on the cutest jewelry street ever. Each store was just filled with gobs and gobs of gold and jewels and everything. It was fun to look in the windows and see all of it. We then ventured down further and ran into a bunch of really cute shops and a zillion of these little Pinocchio marionettes. We didn’t really understand what the deal was with those so Leslie asked a shop owner and we found out that Pinocchio actually originates in Florence. How neat is that?!
After a bit we headed back to the Uffizi and got to see loads of awesome art and a bunch of the paintings I’ve studied. I had a good time telling Leslie the tidbits about them I remembered. The Botticelli “Birth of Venus” and Artemisia’s “Judith” (did you know Judith is a self-portrait?) are a few of my favorites… and they did not disappoint. Actually, as a side note, I heard that the Artemisia’s piece is the only piece in the entire museum that was done by a woman. I think that sucks. There are a lot of reasons why we don’t really have any women masterpieces but at least one comes from the fact that they weren’t allowed to view nude models, so they had a very difficult time studying art.
Oh, and in keeping with tradition, we sat down for a minute between rooms full of art and I fell asleep. Like mouth open head bent all weird fell asleep right there. We’re talking drool. Leslie started laughing at me (she isn’t very nice) 
After we’d viewed every piece in there, we decided to go back to the hostel where I could take a shower and we could take a mini-nap before going out for some more exploring and dinner. It’s SO hot and humid here in the day that it makes a lot more sense to sleep it away and hang out at night.
Nighttime in Florence is truly beautiful. Everything seems to mellow down - people are just out in the streets and musicians come out to perform. 
There was this one guy singing and playing guitar on that bridge we’d crossed earlier in the day and, I shit you not, Leslie’s eyes started filling up with tears. She’s such a softie for the vulnerable-male-singing thing. It was so sweet. Good thing, I hear, that Anthony is a good singer!! And, Leslie assures me, this guy didn’t have anything on Anthony.
After we’d had our fill of music, we ventured onwards. We decided to try to go further down the river and cross back over at the next bridge down– and then make our way back to the hostel from there. And that, in theory, sounds all well and good. But it has come to our attention time and time again that we seriously lack a sense of direction. Seriously. So there we were trying to find out way back and friggin who knows where the hell we were. We had no map and while I was convinced I knew where we were going that, perhaps unsurprisingly, turned out not to so much be the case. Watch the videos to find out what we came upon. It was pretty much hilarious (well, for me… Leslie didn’t seem to be laughing quite as much at that point).
Once we got back to the hostel (which ended up taking about two hours instead of, oh, thirty minutes) we were ready to buy a bottle of 5 euro wine, sit out on the patio area, drink, “flip” (“flip” = make videos), and blog. Some of those things worked out. Some… not so much.
Like I’ve elsewhere explained, I have pretty much no tolerance to alcohol. So after two glasses of wine I was sufficiently gone. Not smashed, but what I 
like to call “super-friendly buzzed”. So there we were trying to flip but the lighting wasn’t working (it was already dark out and there weren’t enough lights) so we had to go out to the street and sit under a lamp post to do it. Once we were finished with all that, we decided to get another bottle of wine. I, with my infinite wine knowledge, asked Leslie if I was supposed to take off that foil thing on the top of the cork before trying to stick the twisty thing in it. This guy that was standing there buying a beer of his own looked at me and laughed. And I, being super-friendly, decided to start talking with him. The three of us then went back to the patio area. Once there we saw that there weren’t any free tables. But super-friendly me saw that we could totally squeeze three chairs next to a group of guys that were hanging out. And so we did. I then proceeded to drink a lot more wine and become a lot more smashed.
The guys, it turns out, were all from Spain – up in the North very close to Portugal. This, I knew, meant they spoke Spanish! And I speak Spanish! And, when drunk, I really want to speak Spanish! So the lot of us all talked and talked – learning about each other and what life is like in these different places, etc. It was really awesome. We then all agreed that we needed more wine. However, it turned out we were being too 
loud, so the hostel people said (very nicely) that we had to go elsewhere. No problem, I thought! We’ll get the wine and head to the streets! Drinking publicly is legal in Italy and Leslie and I had yet to take advantage. So Spanish guys got the wine and we all headed for the door. At this point they were teaching me more Spanish (since I told them they could only talk to me in Spanish this became necessary).
I knew I was in trouble when I found out a few of them were in essence computer science/computer/techie geeks. Seriously… I have a radar. I asked them if they watched Battlestar Galactica and one of them actually does! But they all watch Stargate, House, and Family Guy. Oh I guess I should tell you a little bit about each of them:
Nacho: When Nacho told us his name he said, “It’s like a chip” … at which point Leslie said, “Oh! Chip” … at which point we called him “chip” for the rest of the evening (and this morning). Chip designs websites and does some graphic design stuff it sounds like. He’s super nice and fun.
Jacob: Is actual name sounds more like “Jacque-O-bow”. He’s totally adorable and super chatty. Jacob was doing a lot of translating for me. Every time they’d all talk to each other, he’d make sure and tell me what they were saying afterwards. I *think* Jacob is a student getting his graduate degree in some computer-y thing. *sigh*
Juan: Also known as “John” was the one who, when I first asked him what he does, said “Nothing”. He currently doesn’t work and he doesn’t go to school. He travels and has fun. Not a bad life! Juan is the one who watches BSG (BSG = Battlestar Galatica). He was probably the quietest of the bunch (which isn’t hard to do, considering how loud we were!!) He also took pictures of my shenanigans (pictures I don’t actually remember being taken… though I was shown them this morning). At one point last night when we went back to the hostel I looked up and saw them on my website!! I had no idea how they got there – but they told me I told them allllll about my website and this blog. I hope they read this. I love you guys!!!
David: Pronounced more like “Da-V-eeth”. And oohh, “Da-V-eeth”. *sigh* – my Spanish novio por una noche (boyfriend for a night) hehe. So cute and so so so nice and, I assure you, “gentleman-y”. We talked a lot and he would say things to me in Spanish over and over until I’d get it. I think David is a computer-y student, too (again, I knew I was in trouble!). Juan got a picture of us last night that’s so cute – he’s PROMISED to email it to me. In the meantime I attempted to take a photo of his photo. It didn’t turn out that well, but just in case he forgets!
So yes, my night with the most fantastic and cute group of Spanish guys ever. I’m totally in love. Oh and a real thanks to Leslie… Leslie was basically my mother last night. And at one point she told them so.
But overall Leslie and I agree that these were the best parts of our time with them
1. Apparently at one point I tried to explain to them that I was a geek – and that’s why I was soooo smashed on soooo little wine. They didn’t understand at first what “geek” meant, but once it got cleared up they all said “Oh!! We’re geeks, too!” Like I said, I was in love
2. Having the chance to brush up on our Spanish speaking skills… which we haven’t utilized since high school. As they assured us, we weren’t half bad!
So that’s it for this post. It’s a shame our traveling gypsy ways are such that I can’t be tied down to one beautiful Spanish guy, but tis’ the lifestyle we’ve chosen. David, I know you’ll move on. It’ll be rough, but you’ll make it. hehe
Adios! We love Florence!!!!
And for all the pictures from this day, click here
[*Note*: I’m trying to post this from Venice and the wireless is total crap. There are five videos for today but only 2 have uploaded. You can check out these for now and when I figure out what to do about this madness, I’ll add the others.]
Comments
5 Responses to “Day Four (and part of Five): Fabulous Fantasy-Filled Florence!”
Got something to say?
Heather - you should never, not ever, travel alone. You will end up dead.
Also, I’m glad to see you found some EuroGeek (EG) love.
Heather, I know the perfect Christmas gift for you…an old school compass or maybe one of those techy Garmin wrist things with GPS. Good Lord!
I am addicted to these blogs and love being able to see and hear about your fabulous trip. I must look a 100x a day looking for the next update.
XOXO
I agree. Getting drunk with groups of strange guys and walking around by yourselves late at night in unfamiliar surroundings is really unwise. Have fun, but be safe. Right now your behaviour is really giving me (more) grey hair!
Sorry I’ve been lagging on the posts, I’m trying to keep busy! I can’t believe how many places you guys have been, sounds like you’re having so much fun! Just please don’t go down dark allies at night near swimming pools so you don’t see swimmers wearing 6” clear high heels! Haha. Be careful!
Jacobo is a chemical engineer like me. Juan and Nacho are computer.
Good trip. Behave yourself well and do not drink. (!!!)
Ciao.