*Oops, these got out of order...chronologically this post should have come before the last one...oh, well. Hope you enjoy it now!)
Monday morning. Way too early. I was up and out of the Borgo. I had important people to meet. So Ic aught an early bus to Arezzo and then an early train to Florence. Arriving in Florence around 9:45am. Those important people, however, didn’t arrive on the train I expected them on…hmmm. Check my cell. Missed call. Mom and Wes had missed the train from Rome to Florence. They were sitting on a bus in early morning Rome traffic, moving about 30 yards every few minutes. So I had a few hours to kill in Florence by myself. It is amazing how much easier a city is the second time you visit. (In case you don’t remember my first trip to Florence was short and not that great). But this time I had enough of the layout of the city to wander around and not feel completely lost and helpless. I saw the Duomo (Man that thing is big!); I saw the fake David and the sculpture garden outside the Uffizi…. I saw whatever river/canal it is that runs through Florence. And here was the highlight of my morning. Several OLD men, in VERY small swimsuits hanging out by the river. I didn’t actually see any of them swimming (and the water looked, perhaps, toxic if one were to actually enter it). But these old guys were hanging out and looking good. I tried to get some photos and in one of the shots of the river you can see one of ‘em over in the corner in a blue suit.
(Oh yeah, new photos are uploaded to www.kelseylumpkin.shutterfly.com).
Back to the train station. Several hours after their scheduled arrival Mom and Wes arrive in Florence healthy, happy, with all of their stuff and excited to see me. It was really nice to be with them for a couple of days…just very relaxing, comfortable and known. The “known” has been in scarce supply for me this past month, which really is good for me, but it was still very nice to have them around. After dropping their stuff off and settling into the hotel we shuttled into Florence again. First stop: The Duomo. The line to go into the main part of the church was really long and SSK had told me that it really wasn’t that impressive from the inside anyway…so we decided to walk around the outside and look. About halfway around their was another door into the church that said it was only to go in and look at the dome/cupola, AND there was almost no line. Since the dome is the really cool part of this church anyway we decided to go into this section. (History Tidbit: The dome of the Florence duomo is such a big deal because Burnaleschi (the architect)figured out a new engineering system that allowed him to make a way bigger dome than had ever been made before. Even today people aren’t sure exactly how he did it given the technology and information he had available to him a the time…. and let me tell you, this is one honkin’ dome.) When we are almost to the front of the line I see a small sign that says (in several languages), “There are 463 steps. There is no lift.” I figure you can look at the dome from the floor and maybe climb partway up to see things closer. WRONG. You must go up. There is no looking at the dome from the floor. You go up the first few hundred steps and get to the base of the frescos in the dome…it is amazing to see this so close up…and looking down into the church it is amazing how high up you really are. Suddenly I look up and see that there is another walking ring several yards above the one we are currently on…and there are people on it! We’re still going up. We go up. And up. And up some more. Finally we get to a set of stairs that is so steep it is basically a ladder and at the top, suddenly, we are outside. On the top of the friggin-cupola of the mother-loving Duomo…in Florence…Italy…yow-za! I can’t even begin to describe the overwhelming awesome-ness (awesome in the old sense of the word, something that fills you with awe.) On the way down from the top is when we walked the second ring closer to the frescos…it was even cooler knowing where you were in respect to the outside…wow wow wow. And then began the decent. A lot of stairs down. A lot of small, spiral stairs down. My legs didn’t stop shaking for several hours after the climb/ descent. But it was completely and totally worth it. We were disappointed that no one was selling “I climbed the Cupola” shirts at the bottom…there’s a business idea for someone. After that we wandered around a bit, found a place to have dinner and then headed back to the hotel, exhausted. Our second day in Florence was equally exciting. We had reservations to go into the Academia (which is the museum that houses Michelangelo’s David) at 1:30. Wes had been told that we were to go to the museum earlier and pick up our tickets, then come back at 1:30 and walk on in. We showed up and found a very Italian system at work. That is…lots of people standing around, no one really sure what’s going on and everyone trying to sneak their way in. The line for people without reservations must have been several hours long. (After this experience I’ve decided that I will not go to any place like this without a reservation. It is not worth the time of waiting in line.) About 45 minutes of shoving and Americans getting all bent out of shape later we realize how the system works. Every 15 minutes (or so) they call out the next reservation time…. anyone with that time pushes their way to the front and gets in. Tour groups get in whenever they show up. And the poor suckers in the non-reservation line get allowed in 15-20 people at a time…maybe every half hour or so. So, we really don’t need to be there until 1:30…we’ve got an hour to kill. I had read about a palace-turned-museum that was supposed to have one of the most enchanting rooms in all of Florence. So, we decided to check it out while we waited. The name of the palace (I think) is Palazzo Medici Ridicci (or something like that). Most of it was cool, interesting pieces and neat architecture. And then we found the chapel. On the top floor of one of the sections of the palace the most beautiful little space. About 6 people could fit inside and every wall is covered with these fantasy paintings of princes and princesses, hunting scenes, angels signing…really amazingly beautiful. Whew! Then it was back to the Academia, where we showed up just as the last of the 1:30 time slot was shoving their way in and we slipped inside. Through the metal detectors (really? Metal detectors?) And into the big hall and…. David. Mom cried. (For those of you who know her, this doesn’t mean much…but it is a really amazing piece of work) We must have spent almost an hour looking at David. One of the cool things about Renaissance art is that the figures start to get much more realistic than inprevious works. This is because they began doing cadaver dissections to see how the human body was put together. This allowed them to replicate more authentically. David’s SCM’s, gastrocs and lats are all very convincing. I was also really impressed by some of the unfinished sculptures they had in the hall leading up to David…it is amazing to see how a big hunk of marble gets worked into such a perfect figure. Other things in the Academia were only so-so (although Wes really liked the exhibit on old instruments). We were getting on museum-overload…. or a phrase I heard and liked better…we had an art-hangover. So we wandered the streets some more. Found the covered bridge that houses only jewelers and goldsmiths…that was some fun window-shopping! Grabbed some bread, cheese and wine and headed back to the hotel. (After some gelato, of course). Wow. That’s probably a long enough post for now. I’ll write again soon and tell you all about traveling up to the Borgo with Mom and Wes, our day trip to Assisi etc. I miss you all and hope you are doing well! (Send me e-mails with updates about what is going on in your life and/ or the world in general. I don’ t get very reliable news up here. Someone told me the Golden Gate Bride had fallen down. Oops. I may not be able to respond to each e-mail, slow Internet, but I really appreciate them.)
The best email address is lumpkin_k@yahoo.com.
Love and blessings, KNL
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