1800 22nd June
(I apologise for lack of pictures, I appear to be having electronic issues connecting my phone to anything)
Ok so I wanted to have a better machine to take a picture of
in Florence but what can I say, the renaissance left lots of nice building
which fitted cash machines perfectly. I’m writing this post (at least the start
of it anyway) from what I think is a public library in the middle of Florence.
I’ll presume you knew as much as me on Florence before I set
off for here so here is a quick rundown of what I learnt on the train. Florence
was the birth place of the Renaissance. It penned the term dark ages and holds
claim to being the starting point of the united Italian language as we know it.
Rather impressive.
Having 2 days without any arrivals or any departures I
decided I should take myself off somewhere and try out this couch surfing
thing. With numerous people telling me how pretty Florence (or Firenze as the Italians’
call it, maybe I should use that name?) was so without any more research done I
was on a train bound for ‘Firenze S.Maria Novella’ (that’s the name of the train
station, sounds much better than Manchester Victoria don’t you think?). I had
contacted a few people to stay on their sofas and my first response was from a Romanian
girl, called Luisa, who was studying in Firenze, and so my accommodation was
arranged. I was also contacted by Enrico, who offered to show me around the
city. If this is how couch surfing normally works I think I like it!
Unfortunately due to my lack of adequate preparation the
train I wanted to catch was fully booked, I knew I should have prebooked, so I
had to wait over an hour for the next one. I won’t pretend I wasn’t
disappointed. Mainly because this meant that my meeting with Enrico at 1330
would now be pushed back to 1445. And as he was only free until 1530. I
wouldn’t have much time to benefit from his ‘insider knowledge.’
Enrico was very pleasant, and he helped me find a map of the
city so that I could see the sites. We had a quick chat over coffee where we
swapped basic stories like you do. He was fairly new to couch surfing too so I
felt a little more at ease. He told me he is studying classical music at
university in Florence and is hoping to use the Erasmus scheme to spend a year
in Germany. It was a little strange to be having a coffee with a complete
stranger in a new city but it did feel strangely comfortable, so far I think I
like this couch surfing thing.
We had a little walk in the direction of his home and we
said our goodbyes, just on the Piazza square with the church and little
building and bell tower. I got some pictures with my old phone because for the
times being I am camera less, not a good thing to be when you want to take
pictures let me tell you. However now my phone is holiding my pictures hostage and wont send them to my laptop, very strange! All hopes I had of climbing the bell tower went out
of the window when I saw the height of it, 400 and odd steps would remain
unclimbed, by me at least.
As I had done only the briefest of research sessions on the
train to Firenze I was a little surprised when I realised that Michael Angelo’s
David was here. I know it may sound very uncultured but I had totally forgotten.
I say forgot because I think I knew about it from a previous visit to Pisa.
Anyway back to today, I walked from the church thing and managed to find the
Gallery which displayed ‘David.’ As much as I wanted to go in, word had clearly
spread as the queue was huge and the temperature was far too hot for me to be queuing
up to enter, even if it is a national hobby. I decided I would try again in the
morning.
Speaking of queuing, I have seen a lot of ques today. Ques
to enter the bell tower, ques to get into the church, ques to go up into the
dome. I think that when people say the British like to queue, I think that I
have found a perfect amusement park for all those queue lovers. Sure you can
prebook most of these attractions, but why miss out on the chance to stand in
line for 30minutes in the sweltering heat; I know I won’t be prebooking ;-)
Anyhow wander over, I turned back and decided to find and cross the
bridge I had read about on the internet before I arrived. It’s called Ponte Vecchio and
is the only bridge to have survive the bombings of the second world war, to cut a long story short
it was saved because of its historical importance but some other stuff got
bombed instead, I can’t say it’s fair but I hope it was worth saving. I say
hope because I’m not there yet; I found myself a little library in the centre
of Firenze. In my library I’ve got the chance to sit down in the shade, in air
conditioned heaven without having to pay a fortune for a drink!
Ok so I’ve walked along the river and seen the famous
bridge. I’m not an expert on bridges but it looks like a decent one. Think
could do with tarting up a bit though. Compared to the others which were rebuilt
it looks a little in need of renovation. Time to ring up my host and see what to do now
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