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Florence, Tuscany, Italy
More stream-of-consciousness
babbling:
The toilets over here really
work! None of those little sissy "3 lpf" water-saving toilets
for the Europeans. Oh no! They use lots of water, put it in
a tank about a mile above the bowl, and when you push the
flush button a roar of water takes everything away in a foamy
gush of power. Almost makes me scared to stand too close!…Did
I tell you I got a haircut in Bordeaux last Thursday? The
barber spoke little English and I much less French, but we
managed just fine and I like the short cut he provided. The
drape he threw over me had arm holes and I was confused about
why he kept waiting for me to do something - hold out my arms
- as I am sure he was even more confused about why this dumb
foreigner didn't even know how to get a haircut! I guess the
arm holes allow you to hold/read a newspaper or magazine while
in the chair but of course I didn't have much need for that,
since they were all in French…Florence is one big museum of
the most exquisite Renaissance art, as you know. Having spent
two weeks here in 1998 and seeing so much of the museums and
must-see sights at that time, this visit is much more relaxed
and more fun. No longer do we feel the self-imposed pressure
to see it all and run frantically from one sight to another.
Now the pace is slower and we spend more time just enjoying
the city scenes and the lovely buildings, that are themselves
tremendous works of art. Sitting outside in a sidewalk café
by a plaza and watching the world pass buy, as a coffee or
Chianti is sipped, it isn't a bad way to go…Great weather!
I cannot believe how warm it is for October! I carried a sweater
around yesterday, Saturday, but never put it on. Not too cold,
not too warm,, just perfect…Florence is also known for marvelous
leather goods and I bought a brown belt yesterday and Pam
bought some riding gloves, both items from one of the outdoor
vendors at the "Mercato Nuovo" just a couple of blocks from
the hotel. Did a little dickering with the young fellow who
ran the stall - who spoke excellent English - and got the
price down a little. Probably could have got it much lower
if I were better at this…One fun street scene that I don't
remember from three years ago is the presence of living statues.
There are so many statues here scattered all over, one barely
takes notice of another one you pass by, until it moves! We
saw three or four folks wearing ancient garb, perhaps holding
a chalice in a hand, maybe wearing a wreath on the head and
then sprayed from head to toe in silver, gold, or white "paint."
They would hold a motionless pose for a long time, then make
some graceful or comical move that was very startling. If
you liked it, you dropped a few lira in the bucket near their
feet…Speaking of lira, a dollar is worth about 2,000 lira.
You feel pretty rich here if you look at all the zeros on
the bills you are carrying. Let's see, I'll take the belt
for 35,000 lira (or about $17.50)…Pam is not sure my minimalist
approach to packing for the trip has prepared me well enough
for always looking sufficiently elegant in the evening, so
we shopped for another shirt for me and found one in a modern
department store. It is dark gray, long sleeve, button-down
collar. I like it and wore it Saturday night when we went
to Cibreo for dinner. Yep! Definitely felt more elegant…Perhaps
the highlight of Saturday was our walk to the top of the Duomo.
I'll quote some of Fodor's travel guide:
"The historical heart of
Florence is Piazza Duomo, the square surrounding the city's
majestic Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, more familiarly
known as the Duomo. Don't be surprised if you feel overpowered
on seeing the cathedral: it's the fourth largest in the
world. In 1296 Arnolfo di Cambio was commissioned to build
"the loftiest, most sumptuous edifice human invention could
devise" in the newest Romanesque style on the site of the
old church of Santa Reparata. The immense Duomo was not
completed until 1436, the year when it was consecrated.
The real glory of the Duomo is Filippo Brunelleschi's dome,
herald of the new Renaissance in architecture, which hovers
over the cathedral (and the entire city, when seen from
afar) with a dignity and grace that few domes, even to this
day, can match. It was the first of its kind in the world,
and for many people it is still the best. Brunelleschi's
dome was epoch-making as an engineering feat, as well. The
space to be enclosed by the dome was so large and so high
above the ground that traditional methods of dome construction
- wooden centering and scaffolding - were of no use whatever.
So Brunelleschi developed entirely new building methods,
which he implemented with equipment of his own devising
(including the modern crane). Beginning in 1420, he built
not one dome but two, one inside the other, and connected
them with common ribbing that stretched across the intervening
empty space, thereby considerably lessening the crushing
weight of the structure. He also employed a new method of
bricklaying, based on an ancient Roman herringbone pattern,
interlocking each new course of bricks with the course below
in a way that made the growing structure self-supporting.
The result was one of the great engineering breakthroughs
of all time. Most of Europe's great domes, including St.
Peter's in Rome, were built employing Brunelleschi's methods,
and today the Duomo has come to symbolize Florence in the
same way that the Eiffel Tower has come to symbolize Paris."
The climb to the top of the dome
is 463 steps as you wind your way up and up, sometimes on
fairly normal stairs, sometimes on tight circular stairs,
and sometimes on ramps and steps in the space between the
inner and outer domes. The effort is well-rewarded by the
views from the top! I took some pictures that will give you
a better feel for this vista point. Marvelous!…We also did
a leisurely walk over and back across the Ponte Vecchio, or
Old Bridge, that, surprisingly enough, houses shops on both
sides. Built in 1345, its shops housed first butchers, then
grocers, blacksmiths, and other merchants. But in 1593 the
Medici Grand Duke Ferdinando I, whose private corridor linking
the Medici palace (the Palazzo Pitti) with the Medici offices
(the Uiffizi) crossed the bridge atop the shops, decided that
all this plebeian commerce under his feet was unseemly. So
he threw out all the butchers and blacksmiths and installed
forty-one goldsmiths and eight jewelers. The bridge has been
devoted solely to these two trades ever since. And what beautiful
window shopping it provides!…It rained heavily Saturday night
and the sound of it hitting the tile roof woke us up briefly.
I guess that's one disadvantage of having a room on the top
floor. But the rain ended before sunup and it left us with
an even better day than yesterday with the skies washed all
clean and shimmery. Pam had planned out a lengthy walk with
her map of the area and before early afternoon all of the
streets and sidewalks were still wet. In fact, the gravel
paths in the Boboli Gardens had washed away in spots and we
got our shoes quite muddy from time to time…These gardens
are across the Arno river above the Pitti Palace and are very
extensive. Statuary everywhere and lots of lanes covered with
branches to explore. Almost a maze…Found a charming little
restaurant for lunch and sat at an outside table. Pasta, a
little red vino, an espresso for Pam - Aaaaahhhhh!…We love
just about everything about the food in Florence with one
BIG exception: They use no salt in their bread. Seems that
centuries ago those mean ol' Pisans, who were rivals and ran
the port at the end of the Arno several miles downstream,
had one of their fallings out with the Florentines and stopped
shipping salt upstream. "We'll show 'em!" said the Florentines.
"We won't use salt and we'll LIKE it that way!" Well, maybe
they really do, but it sure leaves this delicious-looking
bread very bland. In fact, at the fancy restaurant we went
to on Saturday night, the bread WAS salted! Amen! (Sorry,
heart.)…Ran into a little outdoor crafts/food fair during
our walk today before we had lunch. It was fun watching all
the locals and seeing what was for sale…The walk took us away
from the city center and into some of the neighborhoods. How
delightful! The ones on the south side of the Arno up on the
hills must definitely be the high rent district…The street
lamps are even artistic! We took a picture of each other posing
with these surprising lamps. The base is a tripod sculpture
made up of three knees from some undeterminable beastlike
creature…Scooters and pigeons everywhere! Those rats of the
air aren't particularly pleasant to be around all the time
- Was that a drop of rain I felt? Or something else? - but
the scooters kinda lend a charm to the city scene. Vespas,
Piaggios, Scarabeos, Peugeots, Honda - many, many makes are
represented, some tiny and some nearly like a motorcycle.
(And there are quite a bit of those big bikes around, too.)…I
wonder when the "Smart" car will be imported into the US?
We have seen a number of these cute little cars in all three
European cities we have spent time in. I keep looking for
a brand name but all I see is the word Smart, but there is
a label saying "Engineered by Mercedes Benz." They are diminutive
two-door, two-seaters, but look cute and a lot better than
those old three-wheeled monstrosities we've all seen. I cannot
tell if the engine is in the front or back. I took a picture
of one to show you…Do pets speak the same language as their
owners? A well-fed black and white feline strolled by when
we were having lunch and Pam, ernest cat lover that she is,
gave her always-appealing "Here Kitty, Kitty" trill that always
does the trick back home. Not here though. Wonder how it goes
it Italian?…So far tap water has been fine everywhere and
I will miss that as we travel to less sanitary places. Still,
all restaurants serve bottled water routinely - charging for
it, of course - and the waiter always determines if you want
it with or without gas, plain or aerated. We like the plain:
Aqua Minerale Naturale, as they say here…Ate Sunday's dinner
at the hotel restaurant, outside, on the square. Excellent!
Watching the passing scene, listening to the street musicians
- those pan flute things again - enjoying the comfort of a
canopy over the seating area when a passing shower hit, sipping
good Italian red wine,,,It's a tough job, but somebody has
to do it!
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