Life and Times in London: Eurotrip stop 4: Florence

April 5, 2011

We took a train from Rome to Florence in the morning, sans workers strike delays, and checked into our hostel called Plus Florence.

The hostel looked like a hotel, since it had multiple floors and even had a pool. We went up to our room, where we met one of our roomates - an Australian guy named Andrew. He had been traveling around for about three months by that point, and was really living spontaneously - in fact, he was so spontaneous that he not yet planned where he was going next. We walked around Florence, which is a small, walkable, and quaint city, wandering down narrow pedestrian streets with small shops. Gelato displays occurred every fifth shop and taunted me as I had made a pact with myself to not eat gelato more than two times a day (though I shamefully admit a three-time exception was made one day).

We passed the Duomo, which was in the piazza at the very center of the city.

Further along our stroll we came to Piazza della Signoria, where we saw a replica of the statue of David in front of the Palazzo Vecchio - and therefore determined that this was sufficient and there was no need to pay to see the real David.

We continued walking until we reached the Arno river, which flows through the city.

Ponte Vecchio

We walked along the river towards Ponte Vecchio, taking lots of pictures of the scenic river on the way. I was delighted to see several people in crew boats rowing along the river. I was a little jealous of these people who got to row on a such a gorgeous river in perfect weather (I may suggest that Skidmore Crew modify the location of the spring break training trip next year to Florence instead of Tennessee...). After our stroll around the small city, we returned to our hostel. We met another roommate named Mark, who coincidentally was also from Australia. He was traveling around Europe for "only" a month. Apparently it's common for Australians to travel around Europe for extended periods of time, due to their home's inconvenient, out-of-the-way location on the earth. Our new Australian friends decided to join us for dinner. We walked around in search of a restaurant until we came upon a wine bar. Basically, the idea behind this is that you buy a drink and you can eat as much food as you want from the buffet - and that sounded like a pretty good deal to us. The buffet had olives, cheeses, bread, deli meats, pizza, bruschetta, and salads. I bought a pina colada (my favorite beverage, with or without rum) and helped myself to multiple servings of cheese and olives. We all went back to the hostel’s “disco bar”, but the combination of a pool table, laser lights, loud dance music, and a Wii in a rather desolate room (three drunk people dancing, or swaying, in the center being the only exception) created an awkward atmosphere. Instead, we sat on the terrace outside where it seemed everyone else staying at the hostel had migrated after quickly assessing the disco bar, and chatted for a while before going to bed.

April 6, 2011

The next morning we ate breakfast at the buffet within the hostel. It had an espresso machine so naturally I treated myself to several cappuccinos. We didn’t really have much of an agenda that day, so we went to the Uffizi with our new pal Mark. There was an enormous line, and it didn't help our sanity to be the last people in line for the entire first hour. We had hardly moved in this hour, so we broke up into groups and switched turns waiting in line. In the first break, Ali and I walked around the outdoor market area, and in our second break, we went inside Santa Croce church.

When we entered the church, I was immediately approached by a worker, who handed me a paper hospital gown to put over myself because my knees were visible (God forbid). Anyways, I wore my paper gown with pride and looked really fashionable, and I'm sure the people who were staring at me inside would agree.

Some notable things we saw inside included the tombs of Michaelangelo, Galileo, and Dante.

Galileo's tomb.

Michelangelo's tomb.

Dante's tomb.

There was also a leather factory in the back of the church. The hallway smelled very strongly of leather.

When we returned from this excursion, it was finally time to enter the Uffizi (just 3 hours worth of line later). We saw a lot of paintings, and a Jesus-theme was pretty prominent in the artworks. One of the famous works inside was Botticelli's The Birth of Venus. By the time we were done looking around, the day was pretty much spent. We all went out for dinner afterwards, and I got pesto pasta (I unfortunately did not photograph this one). We walked over to Michelangelo hill to watch the sunset, since it has an amazing view overlooking Florence.

The long walk up the hill.

I took an absurd number of pictures at every stage of the sunset - the view was just so beautiful.

Meanwhile, people were playing music at the bottom of the steps we were sitting on.

They had a dog with them that we attempted to befriend, but this success was only briefly achieved after Eric laboriously lured it over with a piece of bread he took from some stranger's sandwich.

April 7, 2011

I woke up the morning of April 7th to a beautiful 77 °F day, eager to go on a bike tour that we booked in Tuscany (it was called Tuscany bike tours - I'd definitely recommend checking it out if you're ever in the area). I had been looking forward to it for a while. Ali and I found the meeting place for the tour after a while of walking and eventually sprinting down the streets to make it on time. We met the 10 or so other people in the tour, who all came from various states in the US. We also met our guides, two cool and sociable guys who apparently started the business themselves. We were driven from the meeting place in Florence to the countryside, which was about an hour drive. The van drove up windy roads bisecting olive tree groves, green hills, and paved farmland - the views from this car ride alone were invaluable. We finally reached the point where we would start our bike ride, at Castle di Poppiano. One of the guides gave us a tour of the castle, which dated back to the 1100s and since then has been under the same family name. The castle adopted a slightly different purpose over the years, as it is now used to store and manufacture wine and olive oil.

One of our two tour guides (the guy scratching his head).

Humungous barrels of wine.

An olive processor.

The courtyard of the castle

Once we got to the top of the castle, I snapped some more shots of the surrounding land and groves, spotting a small village in the distance.

The best part of the castle tour was the end when we got to sample the wine and olive oil. The olive oil was in its purest form, meaning that the olives were only pressed once, so it was more green and a little more "spicy" than olive oil I've tasted in the past.

We got on our bikes and started riding, stopping a few times to take pictures.

Halfway through, we stopped at a restaurant where we got an amazing three course meal starting with salad, and followed by a plate of pasta with broccoli and sausage, a mousse cake desert, and an americano. We also drank some wine of course.

We hopped back on our bikes, which I somehow managed to do despite being in a food coma, and continued riding.

The guides forewarned us of the massive hill that was approaching, advising that we carefully assess our bike riding abilities and make a wise decision whether or not to skip the hill and be driven up instead. I glanced at what looked like a pretty manageable hill from a distance and decided to give it a go (I consider myself a proficient bike rider after years of being forced to accompany my dad, who has somewhat of an obsession with the sport, on 20-40 mile rides). I started riding and realized that the slope was much steeper once I was actually on it and that trees had obstructed a view of the full length of the road. Panting within minutes, I slowly paddled up the hill, awaiting the time that I would reach the top that I thought was in view. I finally reached a flat area and dwelled on my accomplishment until I rode around the corner and noticed another steep and enormous slope, followed by yet another slope. Winding roads can be brutally deceiving. I didn't want to give up halfway through so I pushed myself to keep going. By that point, only three other people were subjecting themselves to this torture. We were all supporting each other through variations of "you can do it" in between gasps for air and more panting. When we finally reached the top, I was rewarded with symptoms of asthma and a sensation in my legs that I imagined was very similar to being immersed in fire. We sat at a cafe at the top of the hill for a little while and got on our bikes again to return to the castle. Despite the temporary discomfort I experienced, it was an all around awesome day - the food was good, the weather was perfect, and the views along the ride were absolutely idyllic.

April 8, 2011

That morning, we returned to our routine of getting a custard-filled croissant for breakfast (these were everywhere).