Florence- Day 3: Shopping, Church, and Art Museums

"All Art Has Been Contemporary"

Sign outside Uffizi

On our second day full day in Florence Stacy was feeling a little worse for the wear, so the Wolf Pack was down to two for the market that morning. Stacy also spent most the day with her roommate because they wanted to catch up considering they have not seen each other since summer.

On the way to San Lorenzo market that morning I once again stopped for some pastries to fuel my shopping. And I did a lot of shopping. I got a leather journal for myself, as well as a myriad of things for other people back in the US. I almost splurged to the extreme and got myself a leather jacket but I could not justify it. Had I had an enabler there who knows how many leather jackets I would be arriving home with.

Church of Santa Croce- final resting place of Michelangelo and Galileo

After spending too much time and money in the market Brittany and I headed over to Church of Santa Croce. It was five euro to go and Brittany wasn’t feeling it so I flew solo. The church itself was nice and had many tombs and people buried there, including Michelangelo and Galileo. I enjoyed seeing these as well as the people buried within the floor of the church (I don’t know what the proper term for those are). These were extremely old, dating back to the fifteenth century. Can’t find stuff that old in the US which is one of the reasons I love Europe. After walking through the church I walked in the courtyard which was so beautiful too, just what you would expect. I just loved it!

Galileo

Michelangelo's Tomb

The three women represent (from left) painting, sculpture and architecture with his bust on the top.

Various other people buried in the floor

As I mentioned before, I had a reservation at the Uffizi Art Museum at 1 o’clock so I had to get there. I have been thoroughly spoiled with art museums, considering the last one that I went to was the Louvre and I grew up going to the Art Institute of Chicago. The Uffizi was good and I enjoyed it, but after a while to the untrained eye (my eye) all Renaissance paintings with Biblical subjects start to look the same. I did see Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus and Primavera, which were nice, although I think that you can get the idea just buy seeing the prints of Birth of Venus that everyone has seen everywhere since birth. I glad a spent part of my time in Florence at the Uffizi though.

I got out of the museum and got myself some lunch which consisted of a kebab and a diet coke. I met up with Brittany on the shore of the Arno River in a little piece of sand. We stayed there a couple of minutes and then took a walk back into the centre of town. Britt got a panini and then we walked to the Galleria dell Accademia, where I had another reservation to see Michelangelo’s David. In the US you make reservations for dinner, in Italy you make reservations for art museums.

I was very on the fence about going to see David; there were two replicas in Florence that I could go to without paying and so far works like The Mona Lisa, Venus di Milo, and The Birth of Venus did not live up to the hype. I called my father and he said that he had gone to see David while in Florence decades ago and encouraged me to go. He also talked about the four unfinished Michelangelo’s that are there that he remembered and had stuck with him.

Turns out it was absolutely amazing! The replicas and pictures don’t exude anything like the original. First of all, it was very tall (24 feet), as you can see in the illegal photo I took of it (I’m such a rebel when it comes to art museums). Also, there are skylights above David which shed natural light on him and make him glow. And if those weren’t amazing enough, he is just so beautiful. Not only do you have the perfectly sculpted body, but his facial expression is so emotional. Unlike the triumphant expression that you usually see with David after he kills Goliath, this David is more pensive. After days of trying to put into words what I think the face shows I have decided to interpret it as this: David has just killed Goliath, but he is almost remorseful, contemplating if it is ever right to kill another person and debating if what he did was right.

David himself

"I saw the angel in the marble and I carved until I set him free."

-Michelangelo

In the museum there were also four unfinished statues by Michelangelo, called the Four Prisoners, and an unfinished Pieta, meant to be Mary cradling a dying Jesus. The first unfinished Prisoner I saw was my favourite; it honestly looked like someone was trying to escape from the block of marble. It’s also interesting to see how a block of marble is transformed to a masterpiece like David.

Photo Source: Life 2.0, life2point0.com

Florence- Day 2

Shopping and eating- La Dolce Vida

On our first full day in Florence we got up and walked to the market, stopping for pastries on the way. As you can see, the day was off to a good start.

Apparently San Lorenzo Market in Florence is the biggest outdoor market in Europe; I would believe it. They sold everything there, from scarves to ties, meat to leather. The only problem with the market was its seductive nature. You could go in swearing that you won’t buy anything and come out with three new scarves and eight rings. I probably spent more than I should, but since I haggled for most things I like to think it was like getting them on sale.

The market was also a great place to pick up guys if very forward foreign men are your type. We got a lot of compliments, including “good price for blue eyes.” We even got called The Spice Girls once.

After we had our fun in the market we got lunch at a small restaurant where we could eat out side; its our usual. After having more bruschetta and a sandwich we headed over to the Boboli Gardens to witness the views of Florence. Unfortunately, before we could fully take in the gardens it started raining so we sought shelter with a group of seven year old Italian students. We did pay to get in the gardens and when the rain seemed to be lightening up we set out again to explore them. We climbed a hill and the views were so amazing. Frau Curry, Brittany, and I even took some self-timer shots with Florence in the background.

After having our fill of Boboli Gardens we headed back into the heart of the city. I had read about the Uffizi, an art museum in Florence and one of the best in the world, and wanted to see if I could get in. Turns out that the line to get in was over an hour long, so instead I opted to just get a reservation for one o’clock the next day.

It was still kinda rainy so we tried to find a nice rainy day activity, which turned out to be more eating. There was a nice chocolate shop in the Piazza della Signoria which was also mentioned in 1000 Places to See Before You Die, Caffe Rivoire, so we thought that we would splurge and give it a shot. They are famous for their hot chocolate so Stacy and I ordered to of those and enjoyed while taking in the views of Piazza della Signoria.

That's Amore

After enjoying our chocolate it was off to the Ciao Hostel to freshen up for dinner. The plan was to get dinner and then head up to the Piazzale Michelangiolo for sunset but we ended up having a very long dinner and missed the sunset. Dinner was great and we just took our time eating our pizza, drinking our wine, and chatting away. We even tried lemoncello after dinner, which I still maintains tasted like Crystal Light and rubbing alcohol. I do not understand why it is so popular.

We couldn’t let the girl talk stop just because we were done with dinner and had been sitting at that table for a couple solid hours, so we headed up to the Piazzale Michelangiolo to catch the night views of the city. Once we got up there Stacy bought another bottle of wine from a little stand (only in Europe) although at that point I was wined-out. The Piazzale is at the top of a large hill overlooking the city and there is also a bronze replica of Michelangelo’s David up there.

We had planned on going to a club called Bebops that night because it was Beatles Night but it was getting late and we were tired. Nevertheless, we decided to stop by and check it out for a couple of minutes. We got in there and went to the bathroom, on the way running into none other than Stacy’s roommate from U of I that is studying in Versailles. What a crazy coincidence! We talked with her and her friends for a while but Britt and I were wiped out so we headed back to the hostel. Stacy said that she would spend the night at her friends’ hostel because she could not get in to our without a key and she wanted to stay longer.

Cut to 3 am when there is a knock on the door. After being sufficiently freaked-out but a knock at the door in the middle of the night, I mustered enough courage to answer the door. Turns out with was Stacy and one of the guys that we were talking to that night. Stacy did not say anything to me just went right to her bed, while the guy looks at me and said “Hear you have an extra bed.” Confused as I was, I cleared off the bed and he collapsed there. And then I was left wondering what was going on.

Turns out Stacy was just going to sleep at her friend Maria’s hostel but one of Maria’s friends volunteered to walk her home. Since we had an extra bed in our hostel room Stacy offered him it so that he wouldn’t have to go out of his way. And that was another hostel adventure from my European life.

Vienna- Day 3

Just another day in Vienna.

March 13^th was our last day in Vienna so we made the most of it. Brittany and I woke up early to see Alyssa before she had to head off to class all day on a Saturday, which was a bummer. After she was gone we packed for what seemed like the thousandth time and I researched how to get to our hostel in Budapest. We then went over to Diana’s room to drop our luggage off there before taking on Vienna.

Unfortunately Stacy had a new illness, this time the stomach flu, so she couldn’t spend the day with us. The five of us (Brittany, Laura, Stevie, Diana, and I) then headed over to meet Jen and her family friend Cynthia, who was going to show us around for the day. Cynthia showed us her apartment, which was a super cute studio apartment, and then we headed over to the Saturday market.

Our first stop in the market was a small restaurant for breakfast which had phenomenal fresh orange juice. Unfortunately every restaurant in Vienna has to either declare itself smoking or non-smoking and to get the most business most restaurants say they are smoking and this restaurant was no different.

After a nice breakfast we hit the market itself and it was my favorite activity in Austria. I loved looking at all the varieties of vegetables, breads, and olives they had and even got myself some garlic stuffed green olives for a snack (I'm sure my breath was fresh as a daisy). The various stands would also give you samples which was fun. I decided to get some dried fruit and the vendor said that I could make my own mix. I got so excited that I was in Vienna picking out a variety of dried fruit that I started giggling and jumping up and down in five year-old fashion and the vendor started laughing in joy too.

After the food section there was a flea market section that we browsed. I engaged in haggling again and got a ten euro scarf for five. They also had jewelry and antiques which were fun to look through. One has to be careful in the market because there are pickpockets. I am a fan of the ever stylish Swiss Army pouch that can be worn under clothes, although I usually just wear it like a messenger bag.

After our time at the market was finished we had to go back and get our luggage. I suggested that Diana come to Budapest with us and she did! We got our bags, met up with Stacy, and headed over to the bus station. For some reason I was very worried about getting to Budapest. Maybe it was the fatigue or the foreignness of Hungary but I thought we were going to miss our bus or not be able to find the hostel or the hostel would be gross, but in the end everything turned out. More on that in the next post.