Florence Street Scenes

To distill the city of Florence and attempt to describe it is a challenge. It is touristy while also being home to many generations of native Florentines. It is modern yet steeped in historic art and architecture. It is massive in terms of its contents, but small enough to be navigable by foot. I walked the streets of the city daily for 5 months while studying the art, architecture and language with my classmates. My mom and I walked the streets for many hours each day during our visit. All of this time spent absorbing the city and I still want more! Florence is brimming! Here is just a small snippet of the sights the city has to offer:

The Arno River

Florentine Lily (fleur de lis) is a symbol of the city.

Door knocker

Sculpture near the new market square - the "new" in the name meaning the 11th century

So much of the greenery and open space in Florence exists in private courtyards behind buildings.  Peeking through gates was one of my favorite things to do this time. One night we even got to be guests for dinner on a private patio in one of those courtyards, but that story is for later this week.

The narrow streets mean narrow sidewalks and roads that are shared by cars, buses, scooters, bicyclists and sometimes pedestrians. You have to be on your toes to avoid getting in the way!

Artisan goods is something Florence is known for.  There were many shops offering leather goods.  The selection was a bit overwhelming, so I didn't do much shopping.  My mom did find a great pair of boots and was even smart enough to talk them down to a "good price" they could both agree on.

3 wheeled pickup truck

Even the plain buildings are beautiful!

In my last post, I mentioned the cold I had when I was flying.  It shifted to my ears in flight and stubbornly stayed there, leaving me feeling like I was underwater. Despite really, really not liking to take medicine, I decided to go to the pharmacy. Thanks to a very helpful blog post, I could easily ask for the equivalent of Claritin D by showing a picture of the medicine I wanted.  Fortified with drugs, we headed out to see the big name sites in Florence.

Ponte Vecchio

 The Ponte Vecchio was the only bridge in Florence that survived the bombings during World War II.  Jewelry shops line the bridge making it unique, beautiful and an epicenter of tourists.

I saw this new tradition throughout Italy where lovers secure a lock with their initials on it to a bridge. The tradition includes throwing the key into the river to bond you and your lover together permanently. As you can imagine, the city is not fond of this tradition.  I wonder if couples are spontaneously breaking up all over the world as the city workers take the bolt cutters to these locks.

Moving along...

A peak into a sculpture studio

Baptistry under construction with a helpful picture affixed to scaffolding

The Duomo in Florence is so massive and ornate that it hardly seems believable.  As you walk through the city, you can frequently catch bits of it in the background.  It doesn't look real in the pictures and it doesn't look real in person, either!

The Piazza della Signoria is packed full of significant buildings and remarkable sculptures. The Palazzo Vecchio is now used as city hall.

Beside the palazzo, there is a loggia that houses some gory sculptures!

A Medici Lion

Coming off from the piazza is the Uffizi Gallery Museum building.

The city is just as gorgeous after dark.

This guy (Dante!) was at the end of the street we stayed on, so we knew if we found him, we were just a few blocks from our home away from home.

Stay tuned for a few special subsets of street scenes over the next few days.

The Journey to Italy

Before you enjoy the beauty of a faraway country, you must endure lengthy air travel.  Why not start it off with an airport chair massage?
 

Chicago's O'Hare airport has a magical tunnel that connects 2 of its terminals. The tunnel is full of ever changing lights set to a soundscape of ambient music.  Since we had an almost 5 hour layover, we had plenty of time to enjoy it. We also had time to enjoy a sandwich from Xoco's airport restaurant.  Both experiences were nice surprises to kickoff our adventures.
 

We were not quite as chipper after a nearly sleepless night in the middle of the middle of the plane on our transatlantic flight. I started out with a cold, which didn't do me any favors on the long, cramped flight.  It definitely made me wish that everyone got to fly in suites.

The Zurich airport had lots of free, artsy looking magazines but I wasn't looking to add any weight to my bag so early in the trip.

The last leg of the trip from Zurich to Florence was on a smaller plane and I was the lucky recipient of a window seat.  As we came in low over Tuscany, the fields of grapes and olives came into view as did the terra cotta roofs.

And, after nearly 24 hours of travel, we arrived!

Well, we arrived at the airport and then transferred to a bus and then rolled our luggage across town to the apartment we had rented.  And then, we carried it up multiple flights of stairs.  Then, then we arrived!

Ciao, Firenze!

Confessions

My mom peeking out of our apartment window in Florence.

I have 2 confessions for you:

Confession 1: I went to Italy for 2 weeks and I just got back last night! I didn't tell you I was leaving so I hope you will forgive me. The trip was planned a long time in advance but the time immediately leading up to the trip flew by and I had to keep my eye on the prize (a finished task list before departure).

Confession 2: I went to Italy and I didn't set foot in a single church and only visited 2 small museums. I studied abroad in Italy during my undergrad and spent countless hours/days/weeks/months studying the art and architecture of Italy. I enjoyed my semester abroad but this time I wanted to focus on other experiences so I skipped the churches and museums. My traveling partner (my mom!) and I had the same interests so we were a well matched traveling duo. I look forward to sharing more about our trip soon.

Competing Interests

As the sun sets on summer, I am thinking about how full of a season it was. I was unexpectedly really busy at work, which meant extra hours and less time and energy for gardening, cooking, preserving and, well, everything! I still fit in a lot of fulfilling seasonal activities but it just seems like summer always has so much more to offer than can fit into the days.

It was probably a good thing that I wasn't hyper-focused on my garden this year because I had a lot of competition in that arena. Squirrels, birds, rabbits and chickens all feasted in the garden on a regular basis.  I fault some weak areas in our garden fence, the lack of dogs guarding the yard and the cleverness of chickens who figured out how to eat through the chicken wire and stand atop the garden fence to get at the plants. 

This combination of critters going after our garden resulted in hop rhizomes uprooted before they even had a chance to grow, hardy greens and brussels sprouts eaten down to the ribs, pole beans plants chomped off at the base, just-about-ripe tomatoes with bites taken out of them, every single apple stolen from the trees before they grew to full size and many more casualties.

 Really, it is ok, though.  I probably wouldn't have had time to process everything, so I guess I had some to spare. I did get some preserving done, we had a lot of fresh vegetables on hand for cooking and Paul did get 1 hop plant to grow.  So, it was worth the effort, just not as big of a return on investment than in past years.

We put "fence repair" on our fall to-do list so hopefully next year I will have at least eliminated the rabbit issue.  And, the dogs?  There is much talk about a puppy around here so that might be addressed by next summer, too.  Not sure what we'll do about those clever chickens, though.

Speaking of chickens, still no eggs but I feel like it will happen soon.  Fanny has become quite intrigued by them and they feed her curiosity by lingering near the door. They have become more bold around us, frequently coming up to the back door, lurking there just in case we might appear with a treat for them. In fact, I feel a bit like I am being stalked whenever I am out in the yard.  I guess they have made the connection about who provides their food!