Florence

6/23/12

My stay in Cannes was brief. The place was boring and the French are rude. I will admit though, it is a billionaire's playground. Multimillion dollar yachts graced the bay with the occasional private jet passing by overhead. Monaco was more or less the same, except cooler cars driving by on the city streets.

6/24/12

An early start to my traveling today. Woke up at 6:40 and caught the train to La Spezia Centrale. The thing about riding on regional trains in Europe is that they take forever to get anywhere. From Genoa to Spezia it probably took about an hour and a half and stopped at 20 stations on the way.

As is tradition in Italy our train arrived late and ended up missing my connecting train to Pisa with a solid hour plus to kill, I headed into the station to get something to drink. Missing the train turned out to be not such a bad thing afterall. While waiting in line at the coffee shop I met two Canadian girls named Kailee and Brittany.

They were going to Florence as well. Instead of taking the painstakingly slow regional to Pisa I shelled out three euros and reserved a spot on the same train. Instead of riding the train for an hour 44 minutes, it's going to be a short 45 minute ride.

You only really need two hours max to visit the town of Pisa. That's enough time to arrive, snap some photos in front of the leaning tower, grab some gelato, and be on your jolly way. After doing that we were on our jolly way to Florence.

Gettin' my lean on

There is some big celebration of some sort happening in Florence today. I read about it in Shoestring and am lucky to be arriving in the city to experience it. I'm thinking that I will hang with these chicks from Ontario for the day. It's amazing the people you will meet traveling across this continent.

6/25/12

Last night Kailee, Brittany, and I met up to eat dinner. The receptionist in their hostel recommended Gusta Pizza. We met up at 6 and set off for the pizzeria. The place was south of the river so it was a good 20 minute walk, if you knew where you were going. Thirty minutes later and countless wrong turns, we arrived at our destination. Gusta pizza however does not open until 7. We were told this by an old man smoking a cigarette with some of the chefs. He seemed a tad drunk and offered us wine. We began to follow him until the chefs started laughing at us. I got smart and realized this man was nothing but an Italian bum. The worst part about it all was the chefs just stood there and laughed. The homeless bum could have led us into a good old bum booby trap for all we know.

Pissed at the Gusta Pizza pie throwers we didn't want to give them the satisfaction of some travelers getting duped. We decided to eat somewhere else instead. An outdoor Italian cafe served us just fine. I had lasagna which was okay, nothing special though. Afterwards we stopped by a supermarket and bought a couple bottles of wine for the fireworks show. Time to get a little saucy for some explosions.

We staked out a decent spot for the show. The fireworks would wrap up the Festa di San Giovanni, the celebration of Florence's patron stain, Saint John. Our location was directly across from Piazza Michelangelo , on of the highest points in the city and the site where the fireworks would be launched. As we sat in anticipation of the show, it seemed to me that none of us knew when it would start. The occasional roar of locals watching the Italy/UK soccer match would pierce the evening air as more and more people crowded along the banks of the river.

Brittany, me, and Kailee waiting for the fireworks

A German couple standing next to us offered to take our picture and we immediately struck up a conversation with them. They were vacationing from Hamburg for two weeks and were making their rounds about Tuscany. Like most conversations do, we eventually ran out of topics to discus and started asking each other about the weather. I tried to explain the type of weather back home in Austin when two ladies and their daughters piped into our conversation.

They had overheard me mention Austin, and as it turns out were from Westlake. One mother and daughter had lived down the street from me on Barton Point Drive. The other was Mrs. Dawkins and her daughter. I had played football with her son Stephen my senior year. Europe keeps getting smaller and smaller I kid you not. The girls and I chitchatted with them while we all waited for the fireworks. Mrs. Dawkins would relay the message to my parents that I was okay and would need money at some point. We all joked that the showed wouldn't begin until after the match but sure enough at 10:30 the booms and crackles of burning gunpowder were greeted by cheers from the onlookers.

The show lasted a solid hour. Every time we thought we had seen the finale an even more impressive array would trump the previous. Red, white, and green were the dominant colors of the show. However, blue and gold also had their fair presence too. I'm only assuming those are Florence's city colors or of the Medici.

Once the final finale had occurred we set off back home. A thundering group of spectators blew past us to crowd in front of cafe windows along the street. The soccer match had gone into penalty kicks.

Post firework show. Italians running to catch the shootout

6/26/12

To finish up the night before, Italy won and the town went wild.

Yesterday I woke up around 10 and set off to do some sightseeing. I do not understand why, but all or most museums are closed on Monday throughout Europe. Which basically ruled out me visiting the Uffizi and Michelangelo's David.

Instead I bought a pass for 15 euro which granted me access to the Battistero, Duomo, the Bell tower of the Duomo, and the Museo which houses most of the original sculptures of the Duomo. I did not however pay to see the Dome of the Duomo. Apparently that's the best part of it all, instead I looked at a print of the ceiling. It was pretty cool, but not worth the 8 euro and the queue.

Duomo

Duomo Bell Tower

Inside the Battistero

A top the Bell Tower

The stairs to the top of the bell tower were a bitch to climb. They were barely wider than my shoulders and things got a tad uncomfortable when someone else was going the opposite direction. Besides the claustrophobic climb, the view of the city from the top was amazing. Afterwards I roamed around the city in search of a gift for Katy.

I found a scarf for her at a stand. It is very beautiful and hope that she likes the color. I can never remember if she hates pink or purple, or maybe both. Later that night I was supposed to meet back up with Kailee and Brittany to try Gusta Pizza one more time. Around late afternoon I went back to the hostel to shower and chill out. At 6:30 I set back out to rendezvous with them once more.

Much to our dismay, the pizza place was closed! Go figure, it was a monday in Europe. Two aussie travelers from their hostel joined up with our group, Phil and Pat were their names. Also a young husband and wife named Dan and Leslie LaVelle came along too. They were from Nashville and were traveling around Europe for two months.

Saddened that Gusta was closed, we set off to find another place to grub. By this time we were starving and would settle for anything.

Circus pizza in the Piazza della Signoria was our final destination. The restaurant was housed in a building designed by Da Vinci or maybe it was Michelangelo. Regardless, the food was a tad pricier than I would have like to have paid.

The food was not 14 euro good and by the time everyone had finished the sun was getting low. Before I go any further, I wanted to mention that there was a protest happening not 20 feet from our table. In the midst of Italy's austerity measures they had shut down several schools in the area. The protesters consisted of children, parents, and teachers playing ring around the rosey. I supposed the cops thought things might get ugly because their presence was definitely visible as well. Although they were not wielding riot shields and batons, the image of a child taking a tear gas canister to the gut was playing out vividly in my mind. I chose not to share my sick inside joke with the rest of the group.

30 minutes eating and a painful sorting of the bill we were on our way. With a bottle of white in my hand, we sipped on wine in front of the Duomo and took in sounds and smells of Florence in the evening time. Two more Canadians and a North Carolinian joined our group.

My heroics came into play when two cockroaches climbed out of the sewer and started to crawl on Kailee's backpack. She leapt up screaming and I proceeded to kick them a good 20 feet from us. However, one came screaming back towards her with a vengeance. A quick stomp of my foot but a kabash on that silly business.

Sometime around midnight we made our way to a bar. The place was full of American students and proved to be a good, slightly overpriced establishment to drink in. I departed from the group around 2 and made the long walk back to my hostel. Tomorrow I would wake early and see the real David.

At 6:15 am I awoke to my alarm, turned it off, and went back to sleep. Sorry, but seeing a copy of the original will have to do. Next time I am in Florence it will be at the top of my list.

My train did not depart until 2:14 and check out was at 11. This gave me ample time to climb the Michelangelo and get in some last snapshots of the city. The climb to the top was steep, hot, sweaty, but worth it. All of Florence presented itself to me in a picturesque setting that screamed Tuscany. The descent from the top felt great. Others were struggling to climb the steps, but they would be rewarded soon enough.

With some time to kill, I paid to check my email and update my status on fb. Also, I checked my bank statements. I am burning through cash at a rate that is unsustainable for the remainder of my trip. I either need to do some serious spending cuts or ask my parents for more money.

I am on the train to Roma now. In 45 minutes I will be in the city. Another 2 day hit the ground running visit to see all that I can manage until off to Switzerland. Time to crush out some Feast for Crows.