The Tale of Florence and the Machine Dinner

I took the train from Chiusi in the countryside to Florence. Such a strange place, because I always thought Florence was a big city, but in reality it is tiny. The old city can be walked from one end to the other in an hour or so. All the streets are tiny, and until you hit a piazza or a large intersection, you have this strange claustrophobic sensation, because one tiny crowded street just runs into another. It's dangerous to walk on the road, so you are just stuck walking at a snails pace behind the crowds, and there are crowds-a-plenty in Florence. I thought that between Xmas and New Years it may be a little quieter, and perhaps it is, however there are loads of people about. Some asking me for directions! The people are a much friendlier here though, and so I am having some more interesting conversations.

It is always less motivating to find a nice restaurant when you are travelling by yourself, and the first night in Florence I found a nice solution. There is a small shop near my hotel that dispenses full Italian meals. You just put in 4 euros, select your pasta/pizza and then in 60 seconds it spits out a ready hot meal. Mmmm... I had ravioli al ragu. It was rather salty and not evenly hot, but it was satisfying. Later I suffered some indigestion, but I guess that is the price that we have to pay for progress. Suffice to say that my Italian friends were absolutely devastated that I had done this. Some refused to listen at all. Hehe...

The next day I met up with T___, J___ and T___ , and we went to visit some of the important sites. First stop was the Galleria dell'Accademia where Michelangelo's statue of David is. Is amazing because the statue is much larger than I realised. It stands over 30 feet tall. Not only that, but every feature is perfectly balanced and in proportion. The symmetry is amazing. There were also lots of portraits, so many of the Madonna and child. You would have thought that they would have got sick of painting that after a while. There is a whole wall just of Madonna and childs. I didn't see any of Madonna and Lourdes though (I would have filled out one of the suggestion forms, but didn't know how to write it in Italian).


After that we walked around the city, saw lots of churches and cathedrals, which are all amazing, large and ancient. We strolled over the Ponte Vecchio (an old bridge over the river filled with jewellery shops). And ended the day by visiting an amazing palatial garden, which stretches for ages through different types and styles of garden.

Am loving Italy. LOVING IT!

Baaaa