Firenza

This morning I got up, and Shandra had made me some french toast which she left out on the table for me with a nice little note telling me when she'd be back from taking the kids to school, and that I should help myself to anything. I had that french toast and some cereal, and was just cleaning up my dishes when she came home. I told her I thought I'd go into town today and explore a bit, and she told me about a tourist information stand just down the road where I could get a map and figure out what to see. She said I was free to come and go as I pleased, but if I was interested I was welcome back tonight for a home cooked meal. I thanked her, and said I'd like that very much, and then headed out to the where she said the information stand was. I got myself a map, and asked where The David statue was being held. That's the thing I wanted most to see in Florence, so I tried to see that first. The lady behind the desk said the original was in the Galleria dell'Accademia, so I found that on the map, and tried to get off the bus as close to there as possible. Amazingly, with nothing more than a guess, I got off the bus just right around the corner from it.

The line into the building was wrapped all the way around the side, and back. I figured I got this far, I might as well spend an hour or two in line. After all, if this was what took up the majority of my day it wouldn't be such a loss. I have a couple days here, and The David is the main site I wanted to see. 45 minutes later I was towards the front of the line. All throughout the line vendors were like vultures feeding on tourists waiting in the lines. The tourists were trapped, forced to look at the merchandise the vendors had to offer, and they were bored standing in line. All prime opportunity for cheap crap to be sold for far more than it's worth. A large group of Spanish High School students were in line right in front of me, and they lapped up everything the vendors told them, and gazed in awe as they, all at once, handed forth their money forsaking reason and overlooking quality for the excitement of something new. It was like a feeding frenzy on this fresh meat. Vendors came from all over, it seemed, to dump their merchandise on these unsuspecting Spanish tourists. Suddenly, one vendor whistled, and signaled with his hands to the others. In about 2 seconds full booths of stuff where packed up tightly and vendors scattered in all directions. The vendors had become too careless, and let the police onto their trail. They tried to flee, but the police had cleverly boxed them in from both sides. Desperate attempts to ditch their once "priceless" items began to occur, and some tried to blend in to the crowd, pretending to have been in line. Others hopped fences, and those that were caught were forced into a circle in the center of the street. The police gathered the abandoned items, knowing exactly where to look to find the vendors hiding in the crowds, and merchandise stashed under dumpsters and behind corners. I suppose it's all the usual places by now. They interviewed the perpetrators one at a time in the huddle, writing down what they said, and then they had them empty their pockets. The police divided all the money amongst themselves, confiscated the merchandise, beat the vendors around a bit, and then let them go. It was quite the show while waiting in line for the museum. At some point after, I finally made it inside. I walked around and looked at various paintings and sculptures by Italian artists, but of course the focal point of the museum was Michaelangelo's David sitting valiantly in the center. I was immediately surprised at the size of the sculpture. I thought David was a life sized sculpture like most of the others I'd seen, but in actuality it stands like almost 2 stories tall. It's massive! The museum really in forces it's strict "no picture" policy, but I promised to send Katherine a picture of it as soon as I got there. I pulled out my cellphone, pretending to be text messaging someone, when actually I was getting the camera function ready, and turning off the flash. Quickly I held the phone up and snapped a picture, and sent it without even really checking to see if I'd even gotten any of it in frame. Fortunately, I got a pretty decent picture of it, and Katherine felt very special to be the recipient of a very illegal picture of The David.

I walked around the statue, and gazed at it for a while. As I was admiring the artistry and detail of the veins in his hand, I actually came across a flaw in Michaelangelo's design. This feels weird to think about, but Michaelangelo's David is depicted uncircumcised. The real David would at this time most certainly have been circumcised, as it was a religious custom of the Hebrews to circumcise every male at birth. I was interested that Michaelangelo forgot that, and kinda proud of myself for picking that up. The model Michaelangelo must have found to pose for this sculpture was obviously not jewish.

I walked around and wandered also into the wing called the Museum of Musical Artifacts, featuring the private collection of historical musical instruments of Ferdinando Medici. In it it had musical instruments from all eras which had been played by famous concert musicians at different points in history. It was fascinating to see the progression of instruments as time went on, as well as some of the instruments which first played some of the most famous classical pieces.

When I had explored all there was to see, I went out into the street and bought a gelato. Italian gelato is really so much better than our American ice cream. I get gelato a whole lot over here just because I've started becoming addicted. It's just the perfect side dish to watching some beautiful, historical piece of art. I walked down with my gelato and saw the giant Florence Duomo, and made my way further down to the Piazza della Signora and the Palazzo Vecchio which is another famous art museum where some more of the most famous sculptures and works of art are held. I walked all through that, and even took some more secret pictures which were not supposed to be taken, however here they really didn't seem to mind much as long as you didn't have your flash on. I walked around the Piazza, and made my way to the famous bridge (Ponte Vecchio) that you see in every photo of Florence, and I walked across it. Then looping around I walked back over via the bridge next to it Ponte Santa Trinita.

On that bridge there was the ledge, and then the pillars holding it up jutted out a ways like a triangle, and was flat on top to the point where you could stand. So in some places to could jump off the side of the bridge and land a little ways down on a portion of the pillar. It wasn't something you were supposed to do, but I looked over, and saw a couple eating lunch on one of the pillars with their legs dangling fearlessly over the edge. I thought to myself, there's no way I would do something like that, but then I had to kick myself for saying that because now I knew I was afraid to do it, and on this trip I have to do what I'm afraid to do. So gathering up my courage, I leaped over the edge and landed onto the pillar below. I carefully walked my way over to the edge and looked over. It was a really long way down. Probably at least 100 feet. Fighting off being utterly terrified, I sat down, and swung my feet over the edge. I tried not to look as if I were trying to commit suicide, because I'm sure some people on the bridge were concerned, and some people on the neighboring bridge were taking pictures. I sat there for a minute or two just looking over the edge, and I got some pictures of the couple across from me doing the same. All of sudden I hear, "Don't jump!" I turn around and see an Italian man standing with a woman. "Don't jump!" He said, "Life is so beautiful!" He had a bit of playfulness in his eyes, so I knew he didn't actually think I was trying to kill myself, but I figured after a while someone might, so I got up and walked back toward the bridge. I told the man I had no intention of jumping, and I shook his hand. "That's good" he told me, "Because life really is so beautiful." He walked away, and I climbed back up onto the bridge, and waved goodbye to the couple on the other pillar. I crossed the bridge and continued into a church, and thanked God for the life he's given me.

I walked around the city some more passing by the Basilica di Santa Maria Novella, and Basilica di San Lorenzo. I circled back around to the main Duomo, and climbed the almost 500 steps to the top of the dome. That was quite a journey. The staircase seemed to go on forever. Every time you thought the end was near, another staircase began. Once at the top though, you could see the whole city. It was beautiful, made even more so by the accomplishment of climbing 500 stairs.

At the end of the day, I caught the number 7 bus back to Fiesole and Shandra and Sean had dinner waiting for me. Shandra made me some delicious Italian Pasta, and Sean served me some great Italian wine. Sean is an expert wine critic, so he knows what's good. It was all wonderful.
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