What a wild transition from the quaint towns of Cinque Terre. Florence is very different, and even after the first full day is very hard to wrap your mind around. Similar to Paris the scale is very low, the Duomo towers over the city. The history is very rich here and obvious through out the city.
On the first full day we set out early to bike out of the city towards the chianti valley. I might have bit off more than I could chew with that one. For awhile there in thought they might have to just leave me behind on the side of the road in the chianti valley. That wouldn’t have been so terrible. It was mostly an uphill battle for the first half, so the ride back was much easier. The views straight off a postcard, it’s seriously unbelievable to think that people actually live there.
The next day we visited the Duomo and climbed the 400 steps to the top of the cupola. Similar to the Eiffel Tower you really begin to understand the dramatic scale difference off those landmarks. Unfortunately it was a little rainy that day so getting around was a little difficult, but we eventually found the line to wait for tickets to get into the Academia— of Sciences. I was a little torn if I had wanted to wait in line for a few hours, since we only had one evening of free time. But I’m so glad that we did. Since I have studied David in classes before I think I was a little spoiled with my exposure to him, seeing all the pictures and studying all the facts. It’s hard to appreciate the overwhelming power of something until you see it in person, it’s just something a photograph could never capture. Your also not allowed to take pictures in the Acadamia, but that didn’t really stop me. I was also really interested in Michelangelo’s works that were unfinished. It’s beautiful to see them in progress, or finished as he considered them.
That evening we cooked a large dinner in our apartments, we had so much food. It was really nice to stay in and hang out together. My very limited cooking skills left me with making a fruit salad. I also ventured over to the leather market, it was a interesting experience, much like everything else in Europe!
