Florence Post

Friday, November 28th

Woke up to snow! Everyone had told us that we wouldn't see snow in downtown Grenoble, but when I threw my shutters open circa 8 am, I was hit in the face with a mini blizzard. We probably had about an inch and a half on the ground and Sam and I were uber excited until we remembered that we were leaving for the weekend.

We hopped on our train around 9h30. It took an hour to get to Chambery, where we waited 20 minutes before getting on our train to Milan. We had been sitting next to these mad annoying Italian people for about half an hour when an announcement was made: due to "material problems", we were stopping at this platform in the middle of nowhere and waiting for another train. It wasn't that bad though, it wasn't too cold, there were pretty mountains and we only had to wait about 15 minutes. And when we got on the new train, we were no longer sitting next to the obnoxious Italian people. So it was probably all for the best.

A little while later they stopped the train again at this little depot (where it was snowing like crazy!) and we were concerned, but it turned out they were just checking passports.

We got to Milan 55 minutes late and raced to the board to find our train to Firenze. There wasn't one. "Oh no, we've msised our train!" was immediately what I thought, but we still raced around, hoping for the best. Five people told us five different things and none of them actually seemed to know what they were doing. Finally we found a customer service booth and showed them our ticket. We were supposed to board the train for Napoli, which we should have gotten from the little "N" on our ticket. Luckily said train to Napoli was 20 minutes behind schedule and so we were able to make it.

When we finally got to Florence (around 20h30), it was raining. We decided to take a cab to the hostel instead of walking or searching for a bus route. Clare asked the driver to reccommend a place for dinner and he pointed out "the Yellow", whih was only a five minute walk from our hostel.

The hostel was really nice and we seemed to be the only people there. Our room was big with an old fashioned bed (and another single bed crammed in the corner) and a big armoire.

We were pretty hungry and it was already 9, so we dumped our stuff on the beds and headed out to "The Yellow". We were seated at one end of a big table, and shortly after, a group of three guys (we guess they were aged 27-35) were seated at the other end . Immediately, one of the guys (who kind of looked like my 8th grade math teacher) asked us where we were from and starting chatting. By the end of dessert, all three of them had moved to our end of the table and were talking with us.

Note: Everything people say about Italian men being very forward/kinda sketchy/touchy-feely is absolutely true.

There guys didn't seem too skethcy and we made it pretty clear that we were not going to go out dancing and drinking with them afterwards, so it was just nice to have a conversation. The guy who attached himself to my side (his name was Simone) taught me some Italian vocab and I even got him to go over some grammar! Very exciting. When we were leaving, he gave me his e-mail address and then said, very dramatically, "write me!" as I walked away. Definitely one of the funniest moments of my life.

But! I forgot to talk about the food! We were all really excited to get pasta our first night in Italy. I ordered gnocchi (pronounced [gnyuki], according to our Italian friends), Sam ordered spaghetti and Clare got ravioli with a butter sauce. It was all delicious, but the gnocchi was by far my favorite.

I suppose I should also mention the dessert. I didn't get any since I was absolutely stuffed, but I did try a bie of Clare's tiramisu and Sam's "bongos" and both were absolutely fantastic.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel where we collapsed.

Saturday, November 29th

We woke up around 7h, took showers and were out on the streets around 8h15. We bought some excellent croisants (Sam's was filled with nutella, mine with cream and Clare's with rasperry jam) and then we walked towards the Ufizi, but got distracted by the Piazza de la Signoria. It was incredible. Absolutely magnificent. We walked around there for half an hour before heading to the Ufizzi museum. Everyone had told us to get there really early because as soon as the doors open, there's a huge line and you have to wait for hours, but there was absolutely no one there. We walked right in.

The museum was incredibly impressive. You could spend weeks in there and still not see everything. We got to see some Boticelli (like The Birth of Venus) and some Da Vinci and one Michelangelo. My favorite was a painting by Boticelli, The Calumny of Apelles.

But my favorite part of the musem was a room called "Niobe". It was this grand hall with really high ceilings. In the hall there were around a dozen marble statues of people and these huge paintings. They told the story of Niobe, a woman who boasted that she had more children than the goddess Leto. This of course infuriated the gods, who subsequently killed all of her children. There was a sculpture for each one of the children and a sculpture of Niobe, attempting to protect her youngest daughter. It was very impressive. Pictures were forbidden, but I found one on Google.
After the Uffizi, we walked to the Duomo, which was absolutely gorgeous in the daylight. We then decided to climb the 463 steps up to the top. About 5 minutes into the climb I decided I hated it (the stairs were narrow and twisting and it felt like they went on forever) and was about to have a panic attack when heureusement we found ourselves on a landing with a few museum pieces. The rest of the climb was the same-- just when you felt like you couldn't go on, a big window would appear or you'd find a landing.

And then just like that we were inside the dome. It was incredible. The painting was so intricate and complicated, we wanted to stay there for hours, but unfortunately there were people pushing past us in the narrow corridor so we had to continue. Up, up and up we went, inside the rounded ceiling of the dome. It was kind of sketch climbing up with tons of people coming down the same narrow stairwell, but the view from the top was well worth the terror. It was absolutely incredible. And when we got to the top, it was noon, and so church bells started ringing out all across the city. C'etait merveilleux. Here, I took a video. Very exciting. Actually, I took two videos. One has my fun and yet incredibly awkward narration. The other is just a rather shaky panorama.



We stayed at the top for about 15 minutes or so and then we headed back down. We were then able to see the opposite side of the (inside of) the dome and we also were able to stand off to the side for a good extra 15 minutes so we could stare some more. It really was amazing.

After walking all the way back down, we walked around to what we then realized was the front of the cathedral. We were not prepared for the facade at all. It was absolutely gorgeous.

Just opposite the facade was St. John's baptistry (where Dante was baptized) which had these gorgeous golden doors that we looked at for a few minutes before realizing that we were starving. So we went and found a pizza place that was delicious. I discovered that salami picante is basically the equivalent of pepperoni.

After lunch we got some gelato and then ambled along towards the Accademia di Belle Arti, where Michelangelo's David is. I was a little leery of the 10€, because seriously? One statue? 10€? I mean, there was other artwork, but no one was really there for that.

So we walk in and Sam looks at the map of the museum. "Okay, so if we walk through this room and then go down this hall, the David is all the way at the end here, so do you guys want to head that way?" Clare and I are all for this and so we go through to the next room, see some half-finished sculptures and then Sam says, "Oh wow."

"What?" Clare asks, as she and I both turn to see what Sam is looking at. And right there, at the end of this very very short hallway that looks much longer on paper, is this gargantuan, wonderful sculpture. We spent half an hour gazing at the David, and then 20 minutes wandering through the rest of the museum, which really just could not compare. I can't describe how amazing it was. Even writing about it now, I've got the chills. And I'm not really a huge art person. Also, sorry for the lack of pictures, but you know, they're kind of forbidden. Sam managed to sneak one, I'll see if I can steal it.

After leaving the Accademia, we made our way to Santa Croce, which I was souped for because, you know, I would be In Santa Croce with No Baedecker. The basilica was pretty impressive in and of itself, and the tombs of Michelangelo, Dante and Galileo were really interesting.

By the time we left Santa Croce, it was dark, but we wanted to walk to the Ponte Vecchio. So we walked along the Arno until we got to this famous covered bridge. It was magical. The bridge was lined with tres expensive jewelry shops and decorated with Christmas lights, so it was like the entire thing was sparkling. We walked up one side of the bridge, window shopping, and then back down the other. It was really fun.

After this we were exhausted, as we'd been on our feet since approximately 8h00, so we headed back to the hostel, where we relaxed for a good 45 minutes before heading out to dinner. We found a place by Santa Croce (only a 3 minute walk from our hostel) and ordered more pasta and some Chianti. It was delicious. I had tortellinis with meat sauce and then for dessert this delicious cheesecake.

We then headed back to the hostel and went to bed.

Sunday, November 30th

Woke up early again (7h20) and headed out to the Medici palace. We had the choice of visiting either the gardens or the mansion, but because the mansion also contained a modern art museum, we opted for the gardens. Which was definitely an awesome choice.

Of course, as soon as we entered the garden, it started to rain. But it wasn't too bad, Sam and Clare had an umbrella and I was quite content in my hood. Maybe it was because of the rain, or maybe it was because of the early hour, but we had the entire garden to ourselves. It was incredible. There were fountains and hidden sculptures and secret paths and stairs and benches and it was just unbelievable. And there was no one else there! We wandered around for an hour and a half and got completely soaked, but it was so worth it. It was probably the best part of the trip.

After leaving the gardens, we walked into a little bit of a museum inside the mansion. We weren't sure if we were allowed in, but no one stopped us, so whatever. We saw some of Galileo's instruments and a bunch of maps and things. It was pretty neat.

After squelching through the little museum, we walked back out onto the streets, only to find that the Florentine Marathon had begun. We were basically trapped on the wrong side of the street, but it was cool cause we got to watch the marathon for about 15 minutes, until we saw a gap in the runners and then bolted across the street.

We walked to the market, did some Christmas shopping and then headed to catch our train.

We got back to Grenoble vers 22h30. And that's about it!

I have tons more photos. They can be found here and here.