Mik’s Mindstorms

Upon entering the train, a weird oily smell came floating towards us…I wondered what might be the cause, but it was a smell that went through everything. Weird enough, the train was not warm at all, although the day started already very hot and temperatures were well over 30 degrees Celcius. Soon enough we found out, because in Italy there must be a weird relationship between temperature and train speed; the hotter it is, the faster you go and with wide-open windows therefore the train cools down. However, at the next train station we found out where the weird smell was coming from: the breaks. Luckily, they did not break (pun not intented) down entirely and one and a half hours later we arrived safely in beautiful Firenze.

Next job: trying to find our hotel, which turned out to be quite an endeavour. We did not find a map, and the maps we had did not show the streetname we were looking for, Via dei Medici. We asked a person working for tourist information, but the answer we got was not clearly understandable, so next we found us some British tourists with a huge map but clearly no idea about how to use it (never heard of a register ). Luckily, Rob was quick enough to find the street, and surprise surprise it was only 50m from the Firenze Duomo…in the middle of Firenze. After that, we found the hotel quite fast and were told to certainly go and check the roof terrace, because it had such a beautiful view. And indeed it had, we immediately knew we would spend a lot of time there. Here’s a picture for you all to see the beautiful panorama we had when enjoying our Italian beer, baguettes and Salami (lunch).

And this was just the start, we saw so many beautiful things in Firenze it’s hard to describe them all…If I, à la Rob Gordon from High Fidelity, had to make an all-time city top five, Firenze would definitely rank one! All the city centre is built in Renaissance style with beautiful buildings, cosy alleyways and lots and lots of churches with a lot art and graves of grave monuments of a lot of world-famous people, think Dante Alligieri, Michelangelo and Galileo Galilei. Also the city is an illustration of the wealth and power of the Medici, the family that ruled Firenze for quite some time. Most notably this can be seen on the Piazza dei Signoria (hope I spelled it correctly), with its major town hall and a open-air museum with lots of statues made by the old masters, and of course the palace of the Medici with its beautiful gardens. It took us nearly half a day to walk through those beautiful gardens. Also an impressive building you cannot miss, is the Duomo, not only is it huge, on the outside it’s also one of the beautiful churches I’ve ever seen, entirely covered with marble. Also it’s incredible high, around FOUR HUNDRED stairs high, which we, being tourists and stuff, of course decided to climb…as if we did not walk enough yet…but…I must say, even with my vertigo, the view from the top of the duomo was most amazing.

Another beautiful thing you definitely should see when visiting Florence is the Ponte di Vecchio, a bridge covered with little shops selling the most expensive jewelry (hmm, at second sight maybe I should say, ladies definitely worth visiting, guys do not go near it in female company…you’ll be a poor bastard afterwards). Well, I should also say, the bridge gives you a beautiful view of the river Arno, which, during our visit, was covered in a golden October sun, a most beautiful sight. One we enjoyed one day by sitting next to the river, in the grass, enjoying the sun and our Calzone, most incredibly bought from an Indian running a Italian food shop…Next picture gives you an impression of what I’m talking about.

We had so much fun in Firenze, amongst others by making fun of fellow Dutchmen and teasing a bunch of fairly young Scandinavian beauties that our time in Firenze passed very quickly…the day we needed to take the train to Rome, and so the next part of our journey, came closer and closer. To end our visit in style, we decided to go and visit an Opera, La Bohème by Puccini, the famous composer who happened to be born in that little town Lucca described earlier. The opera was held in Saint Marks English Church (yes, they appear to have English Churches in Italy too, do not ask me why :S), a small but cosy church and of course something had to go wrong again. A week before the Opera, we already had reserved tickets, which was indeed a very wise thing to do, because the opera was sold out we found out on the night of the event itself. To reserve tickets we had to pay 9€, but when we arrived at the church, our name was not on the list…so much for reservation…luckily we had prove that we already paid and quickly some additional chairs for us were arranged…on the front row, which turned out to be most splendid. Oh how beautiful that opera was, carried out by a talented cast which, had I wanted, I could have touched, so close to me they were. Especially, the lead tenor and soprano deserve a special mention here because of their beautiful voices and impressive style of acting. It was my second opera, but the first one that left me (even us I can say) completely baffled, but entirely enthousiastic, afterwards. Know that feeling, when seeing a good movie, that it keeps running through your head all evening and even the morning after? Well, that good it was! Thus, certainly something you should consider when visiting Florence or Italy in general.

So almost time to bring you to Rome…but not just yet. The before last day we spend in Firenze, we visited Siena. Which is a lovely town which is know for its yearly horse races, which we, of course missed. Because the day did not start that well with me breaking a bottle of beer, in the supermarket, and cutting my finger in it…we decided not to rush and adding an almost two hour train ride to that…our time in Siena was unfortunately limited. The nice thing about Siena is that it is built against a hillside and therefore the town consists of several levels connected with little alleyways. In centre there’s the square you see above, which also functions as a horse track during the races. Even more impressive though is the cathedral, which I already visited before. At that time the beautiful reliefs in the floor of the church were unfortunately covered, but you see it’s always worth visiting a place the second time, because now I could admire these reliefs. Also this cathedral is entirely covered in marble and build on top of even older churches, which you still can see if you go into the basement of the church and if you descent the staircase next to the church there’s another entrance to another church…puzzling ey? Unfortunately this was already most of what we saw of Siena, and hey, we even managed not to get ripped off buying a cappuccino on the way back to the station. Quite an accomplishment…anyway see you next time for the final part of the journey