Florence Photos


When I first saw the Duomo peeking through the gap in the buildings ahead of me, it looked like it was a CGI creation. I had the same feeling when I saw is subsequently as well. Something about the material chosen for its facade and the way it dwarfs the rest of the city makes it seem unreal. There were long lines to get into all the major attractions and the women who had waited in line behind me to visit the Duomo got turned away at the door because they were wearing tank tops and were told that they couldn't enter with base shoulders. I saw a girl inside who had a shawl over her shoulders along with a mile of uncovered cleavage. Apparently, that was acceptable but bare shoulders were not. Every few minutes an annoying guy came on over a loudspeaker and yelled "Silencio! Silence!" The main disruptor of the silence was loudspeaker guy himself.

I joined up with a group of four Brits and Canadians who knew each other and were traveling together. The best part was that the two Brits were currently in university studying ancient history. They explained the history and mythology behind the statues and artwork to the rest of us. I enjoyed the Ufizi much more than I would've otherwise because I was with them. As we walked down the hall containing busts of the Roman emperors, I got to hear a story about each of them. Greek statues that otherwise would have been somewhat boring came alive when I heard the mythological tales they represented.

All of us were surprised as the size of Michelangelo's David. How do you carve a statue of that size, a task that took three years, and not make a mistake and chip away too much stone? I'd hate to see how big an equally scaled statue of Goliath would be. Someone tried to explain to me why David's hands and feet are oversized, something about how it was designed to be placed atop a high pillar and the viewer looking up at the statue would see the size of the hands and feet differently. That makes no sense to me.

I also got to visit the Galileo museum and see a vast collection of historical scientific instruments. Many of the them I couldn't even figure out what they did, but they were all so intricate and precisely built. While Galileo didn't invent the telescope, he perfected the idea and the museum included many telescopes used by various historical scientists including two that Galileo had built and used himself. It gave me chills to see those telescopes and imagine Galileo peering through them.

One of the Brits challenged us with a pub game that I can best describe as a physical riddle. I finally figured out the answer on the last night, which is very fortunate because it would've haunted me for long time if I hadn't. The other Brit thrilled us with her harrowing tales of escaping killer bees and deadly spiders and snakes in Australia and southeast Asia. They were quite a crew.

The Florence train station was a madhouse. I waited in line for a few minutes before I found out that I was in the line for the fast trains rather than the regional trains. Why there are separate lines, I do not know. I befriended the guy in front of me who was also in the wrong line and we decided to work together. There were electronic self-service ticket machines, but the lines to those were moving slowly because people were having trouble operating the machines. We decided that he would get in the self-service line and I would get in the regional train line. If he got up to the front of his line before I did and figured out how to use the machine, he would motion me over. Otherwise, he would join me in my line. His line was all the way on the other side of a large room and I couldn't see him because two guys who must've both been 6'6" were standing between us having an animated conversation complete with Italian hand gestures. Finally, he appeared and beckoned me over. But, by the time I got there, the machine had hung. It eventually restarted itself, but then kept giving an error message. Luckily, I had befriended the couple behind me in line I had been waiting in and they let me have my spot back. I got my ticket and got on the train and then got fined five Euros (normally 14 Euros) because I had forgotten to validate the ticket.