Smells Like Florentine Spirit*

Florence is the Yin to Rome's Yang. It's Italy's San Luis Obispo where Rome is its Los Angeles. It's civil and clean and upscale. It's small and homey and easy to navigate. We spent four relaxing nights in an adorable B&B on the first floor (Americans call it the 2^nd floor) of an old stone building by the river. We did not wake up to cars honking and people yelling. We instead awoke to the smell of cappuccino and the murmur of our fellow guests having their breakfast down the hall.

We walked around the town each day and it was pleasant and comfortable. The weather was beautiful most of the time and the city is extremely inviting. The city itself has less than half a million people which tones down the pace of life already, as compared to the metropolises we've already encountered (Rome, Naples). I'm not sure exactly why Florence is so much more calm and clean than cities in the south, but it seems to be just the way it is. Our friend from the language class described the different regions of Italy as all being extremely different; it's quite a phenomenon.

Before we go any further, may I direct you to my Florence Photo Album to go along with this entry.

The main site in Florence is the Duomo (Dome) of the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, a huge cathedral with a gigantic brick (yes, brick!) dome completed in 1436 and engineered by Brunelleschi which was the largest of its kind at the time, and still the largest masonry dome in the world. Huge engineering feat and all that. And it's still standing there, the tallest structure in the city, its enormous unreinforced brick dome held together by ancient timber tension rings. Yep, the thrust (pardon the engineer speak – thrust just means outward force) of the dome is taken out by concentric wood beams tied sloppily together with iron fittings. I have no idea how that's possible, but apparently they were a lot more efficient at engineering back in the day**.

We trudged up the mildly terrifying 483 steps to the top of the Duomo and had a grand old time elbowing other tourists (I aim for the German ones) for some spectacular views of the city below. Fun! And, our hotel was so close to town (about 15 minute walk down the scenic riverside) that we were able to head to the room for a mid-day rest whenever we wanted. Quite a change from our endurance-challenge in Rome.

We spent the rest of our time wandering around the streets (safe, clean, pretty), looking in shop fronts (expensive), eating (pizza, gelato, no change here), and seeing the few sights. There actually are quite a few things to see in the city, but they're not exactly Rome caliber. Aside from the Duomo, we walked across the famous old bridge, Ponte Vecchio, lined in jewelry shops; we strolled the piazza adjacent the Uffizi Gallery and photographed the replica David statue standing in the original's spot; we hiked up the hill to the southeast of the city to view the city from above at Piazzale Michelangelo (the Wiki entry has a rad panoramic - my pic below is just ok).


We even paid outrageous admission to see the real statue of David in the Archeological Museum in the north of the town. It really is an incredible statue; we were adequately impressed. Other than that, we really didn't do a whole lot and that was fine for us. Our trip is winding down and so are we. It's time to be done with these shenanigans. But not before just a few more stops...Cinque Terre on the northwest coast, Venice in the northeast, Munich one last time, and then a brief stop in New York City before we are reacquainted again with the smiling faces of our California (and Oregon, for Kane) friends and family.

*It's a play on words of the Nirvana song Smells Like Teen Spirit. It was hard to come up with a pun for the title since "Florence" and "Florentine" don't rhyme with much anything. Other candidates were: A Florence by Any Other Name, and Eggs Florentine. If you can think of a good one, I'd be curious to see; please leave a comment.

**Now we would use steel for such things; it is far better in tension than wood, as you might imagine. And it degrades far less easily.