I woke up this morning with dots all over me. We'd slept with the windows open because there wasn't any AC (even though it was a 3 star hotel), and in doing so we'd let in a horde of mosquitoes. My face looked like it had broken out in zits, when in actuality it was (just like in MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING) tons of mosquito bites. The mosquitoes loved me and I was the one who was the farthest away from the window. After getting dressed and eating breakfast we asked the man at the desk many questions such as: can we reserve this bus tour? can we get tickets here? how do we get down there? do you think we've got enough time to get to the meeting place? can we go ahead and get reservations for this? He was able to answer all of our questions, provide us with directions, provide us with tickets, and provide us with transportation-the hotel had their own "tram". We went out to the front to wait for this "tram". Just before it came another group of women came out. These women were from California, and we'd lent them our adapter the previous night so that they could charge their cameras (I didn't mention this). I'd decided after we gave the older woman our adapter that I liked her. Even though I didn't talk much when the van (not a tram) took us to the central station. I was too busy watching the things along the road (later would turn out to be a very good thing).
Once we reached the station we all unfolded out of the van and went our separate ways, then Ahmee, Poppy, and I went on a mad search for the tour bus. We had plenty of time to look, but after we followed the hotel man's directions we found figured out that the van had dropped us off in a different spot than what the man anticipated. This is normally only a small bump, but when we got to where all of the other tour buses were we still didn't see the big yellow bus and we started getting worried because the tour was due to start in less than 10 minutes (this didn't stop me from getting a present from one of the venders). We finally located the bus-as it passed us in the road we all took off following it (not running, we refuse to run). We had plenty of time-enough so that we could grab a bottle of water and use the restroom.
I don't know if I've mentioned this yet or not, but the public toilets in Italy are terrible. Often there is one bathroom for both sexes and in that one bathroom there is something that looks like a toilet-without the seat attached at all. It's quite obvious which sex is favored here. Forcing the ladies to squat, like we're out in the woods, is pretty low in my opinion. Luckily not all bathrooms are like this. Some public restrooms have lids that are spring loaded-once you sit up it bounces right up. I would not want to wear a dress out, I might get it caught on the toilet-or worse, it might touch some of the nasties that never get flushed. The toilet in the restaurant we stopped in was not bad, and so that restaurant automatically earned a few brownie points.
The tour we took was like the one we took in the last part of the Dublin double-decker tour: it was a recording. This recording was not that bad though. As we drove around Florence I got information on various sections and I was given the names of some of the important landmarks (most notable was the Duomo-has a huge dome). Basically I got a great overview of the city and I also got to see some truly beautiful sights (several views of the city from surrounding hillsides).
After the tour we made our way over to the Duomo to grab a bite to eat and then check this famous cathedral out. We made the mistake of sitting down in the restaurant. In Italy if you want your food fast go through the self-help line, do not sit down because then it means you plan on spending time there.
We ate and then headed over to the Duomo, one of the prettiest cathedrals I've seen so far. The outside had stones that were different colors there were: pink stones, green stones, white stones, and.... probably another color can't remember at the moment. This cathedral had a plaza out to the front of it and in this plaza there stood another important building: the baptismal building. This was building that was in the shape of an octagon, symbolizing the 8th day, or eternity. On this building we got to see the famous "gates of heaven" Michelangelo's words of the gates that face the east (or the churches entrance). Another important building that was near the church was the bell tower, which many people say is the most beautiful bell tower in the world.
After looking at the outside of the Duomo we were delighted to find that we could just pass right on in without paying a thing. We got to see the floors, which looked like quilt patterns; the huge, lofty ceilings; the clock that runs counter clockwise (kinda like my internal calendar); the stained glass windows; and the dome (the history of which is fascinating). The dome looked quite different compared to the rest of the church. The rest of the church wasn't all lace and frill, it was very sleek (but beautiful all the same). The ceiling of this dome had been painted and it looked quite off from the rest of the building. Towards the entrance of the Duomo I kept hearing a choir singing far off in the background, I never did find this choir.
We went and checked out the baptismal building after the Duomo. Inside it was completely covered in mosaics depicting the "history of the world"- events in the bible in chronological order. The small chapel (that was facing the wrong way-these are supposed to always run from west to east - this one had it's alter facing the wrong way) that was on the western wall had Jesus with both of his hands out. His right hand was raising people to heaven and his left (which was twisted to look kinda awkward) was condemning sinners to hell. Lovely mosaics of heaven and hell in this octagonal room (btw, the devil looks like the blue mask man off of Avatar).
We also visited two other churches. The San Lorenzo , and the Medici Family "chapel". There's not much for me to say about the first church other than the fact that the front part of it was completely taken off and it has never been redone even though many suggestions and drawing have been made for a new front to the church (one suggestion even by Michelangelo). The alter in this cathedral was what I liked most. It had many different colors of marble and had depictions of bible scenes on it (quite colorful and quite amazing to see these pictures of stone). 
Later in the Medici Family "chapel" I got to see similar workings with marble. The floors were similar to those of the Duomo, the walls were all shiny marble, actually it seemed that everything was done with many different kinds of marble. I would say that with all the marble a person got the feeling they were in a fancy lobby, but that wouldn't be true, the essence of the church (or sacred ground-it was originally intended as a burial place for the Medici family-one of the richest families in the world-Catherine Medici got married to the king of France to create an alliance and to provide them with money she was 12) was definitely prominent in that building (which was just behind the alter of the San Lorenzo). 
After looking around those two churches we headed back through the streets of Florence (through the street market-really awesome) to the place where the "tram" would pick us up. We road back to the hotel with our newly found Californian acquaintances, chatting about our day and about the crazy experiences in Amsterdam (they'd surprised the locals by having two accidents in the same day-that never happens in Amsterdam). We then parted ways with them and went to grab a bite to eat in the restaurant (after emailing and doing homework and blogging of course). We discovered that the restaurant was filled up (except for our table in the corner) with a tour group from Asia (not sure where exactly). The waiter, despite obvious orders to reserve that table for someone else, sat us down in our old table. When the odd looking waiter came by to take our order I could tell he wasn't happy with our sitting there, his lip twitched as he took our order. Luckily he wasn't too upset because he asked again if I wanted wine. This time he gave me what Ahmee and Poppy consider a full glass and he poured wine into their glasses almost up to the brim. I didn't swig this glass down at all. I sipped at it the whole way through the meal as we talked about what we'd seen that day, how I was becoming a connoisseur of drinks (wine, beer, coke-coke in the glass is ten times better than in the can, the can is too carbonated and makes me burp).After dinner we went up to the room where I emailed Momma and Iain and then went to bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment