Viva Italia part I: Florence!

This past weekend, I decided to cash in some of my vacation time and head south for a few days to escape the rain. Although I definitely didn't manage to hide from the rainy weather, I did have a wonderful time exploring Italy. I spent a day and a half in Florence & then headed to the coast to play by the sea. Here's the scoop on my adventures in Florence:

Although I was a little disappointed at the hordes of umbrella-wielding tourists who seem to be the city's main residents, the city was really beautiful, with a lot of amazing scuptures found in open-air museums around the city.











Travelling during tourist low season definitely has its advantages. Although it wasn't quite ideal gelato weather, we also didn't have to fight for a place to stay in the city. We lucked out and ended up getting a huge hostel room right in the middle of the city all to ourselves - ahh, the luxury.

I was really excited to visit the Uffizi, the most well-known museum in Florence. Why was I so excited? Well, for starters, it houses, among many other renaissance works of art, classics by Michaelangelo, Leondardo da Vinci and Raphael. That's right, 3 out of the 4 ninja turtles - how much better can it get?

Unfourtunately, the aforementioned hoardes of tourists had staked out the museum before we got there, and we were informed that we'd have to come back at 8:00am the next day if we wanted even a shot at getting in. Ugh. My claustrophobia and extreme aversion to getting up before 7:00am got the better of me and we decided to skip the Uffizi this trip. Maybe I'll make it next time.

Here's the view from Ponte Vecchio, a famous bridge over the Arno river. I'm not really sure why it's so well known (I guess I should have read my guidebook better!) but what I do know is that there's enough jewellery for sale along the 50 foot stretch of bridge to make even the most ambitious Medici family member proud.

Okay, educational update: My good friend google tells me that the Vecchio bridge is famous precisely because of the jewellery shops established there by the Medicis during the 17th and 18h centuries. Its other claim to fame is its mere existence - it was the only bridge not bombed by the Nazis during World War II. (Don't you just feel smarter now?)

Speaking of the Medici family, we also had a chance to visit their old estate in the middle of Florence, at the Palazzo Pitti.


We spent a good few hours walking around the Boboli and Bambini gardens and didn't even come close to seeing the whole property.

I don't know about you, but this is exactly how I picture Macchiavelli.











Another fun Florence fact: it's where the author of Pinocchio, Carlo Lorenzini, lived.






After a day and a half in Florence, we'd had enough of dodging the pointy end of other people's umbrellas while sidestepping street vendors and vespas. We got back on the train and headed for Cinque Terre, an area along the northern coast of Italy with 5 fishing villages and an amazing national park. Let me just say now that Cinque Terre is my new official happy place. Pictures to come!