Firenze: The Lesser Tuscan City

Whelp, it's that time again. Update time! Woo! I know you're all dancing around your rooms in fits of joy and ecstasy, but calm'er down or you'll break something. I also know you all wait on tender-hooks for tales of my fascinating escapades. This story is... interesting... that's for sure.

So. Saturday we decided to go to Florence (Firenze, great rival of Siena! Home of Dante! And other exciting things). Which meant getting up early again. But more importantly, I did not sleep well Friday night - I had this ridiculously vivid dream in which I missed the bus, left my ticket, forgot my bag. Blaaah. It was so realistic, I even went, in the dream, "Damn, I wish this was just a dream!" Which started me off on a weird foot.

Once we got to Florence, we couldn't find the damn hostel. It was not labeled at all well, and Florence is weird - there are a billion numbers on the buildings, and in different colours, and people told us it was on the other side of the street, and just OH MAH GAWD. I might have gotten a little hypoglycemic searching for it - apologies guys! But for €12 a night it was nice - the foyer smelled like toilet, but the room was clean.

Next was the Uffizi, which, if you don't know, is a major gallery in Italy - it houses Botticelli's Birth of Venus and Primavera, as well as Artemisia Gentileschi's Judith Beheading Holofernes, and an Annunciation by my pal, Simone Martini! (I'll just say a little bit about each of these things, for those of you who are interested - if you're not [coughadlaicough] you can skip ahead to the next paragraph). Botticelli makes everyone so so lovely. His women are just yum, and there's this extraordinarily easy grace to their faces. Artemisia (if you don't know) was raped as a girl, but went on to become one of the first women admitted into this super special guild for painters, and was actually very talented. But, as Kate complains, her rape is super fixated on - instead of just going, "Man what a good artist!" people are always looking for her rape in her paintings. Which, to be honest, isn't hard to do in Judith - the lady is very straight-faced, no nonsense, sleeves rolled up, as blood spatters in a very violent way from his neck. But her rape aside, it is an extraordinarily impressive painting. Simone Martini's Annunciation is lovely because he puts so much detail into everything, like the fabric of the clothes, the feathers on the angel's wings, and the little patterns that are scratched into all the gold with a needle-fine point. Lovely lovely lovely. Plus, in this Annunciation, Mary looks appropriately weirded out - "I'm going to have what without having what!?" So that was really awesome. Plus, I am completely awed by the ability to paint like that - what. How. You put paint on this canvas and somehow you make the skin all rosy and have shape and shit. Literally makes no sense.

So anyway, that was cool. We also went to see the David, which was even MORE cool. The real statue is way more impressive than the plaster cast that stands outside in the Palazzo Vecchio. It's magnetic. It's in the Accademia gallery which was built specifically for it, and has a bunch of other things (sculptures and paintings) that no one really cares about because they are overshadowed by the David. Who is beautiful. Michelangelo managed to make it look like the marble is just David's skin, and there are muscles and sinews and bones and veins under that skin. And I stare at him expecting him to twitch or scratch his leg or shift his weight and he doesn't, but I can't stop waiting because I know he's going to do it. I thought, "psht, how different from all the other sculptures can he be?" but he is so different. Other sculptures are just in the shape of people, their shells, but David is wholly human all the way through. But enough about my new boyfriend.

We had a fantastic dinner (spaghetti alla carbonara - so good, I was pretty sure I would explode I ate so much), and then went in search of somewhere to have a nightcap. And I was all on board - at first. But after wandering the city in the cold for an hour, my enthusiasm was waning, because I was tired. And a little homesick. Which requires some clarifying - I'm so tired of freaking Intensive Italian. I've had a really weird schedule for the last 3 weeks, and I prefer the regularity of a schedule. And I think that's been a major factor in my mood being much less excited than it should be this last week. And I miss my super support system - everyone back home seems to be really busy, so I haven't heard anything from anyone really, which is hard for me. So I got separated from everyone else on the Ponte Vecchio, the old bridge in Florence, because I needed a minute (or 45) to regroup with a phone call from the States that saved me (you know who you are - I can't thank you enough). At which point, I rallied for a bit, but my exhaustion was just so intense, I returned to the hostel and went to sleep while everyone else went in search of a super adventure - which they found. It involved drunken French dudes, a lost purse, and a Black Velvet (Guinness and champagne, I'm told).

But not enough hours of sleep later, we were waking up, checking out, and moving on. And it was cold and dreary, and I was still exhausted and had a headache. So that was fun - not. Although we did go to Dante's house - who, as you all know, I have a love-hate relationship with - which was pretty awesome for me, having read his stuff. And Florence just puts quotes from The Divine Comedy on little plaques on the walls of buildings all over the city. But we decided to return to Siena for some tea at our favourite restaurant, which is where I am writing from. Siena, as per usual, is lovely. It feels so good to be back here. Florence was okay, but Siena is cleaner, friendlier, and just all around better.

Anyway, the long and the short is that this has been a rough week, and probably will be a rough next week - but then maybe not, maybe all I need is a decent night's sleep. I love and miss you all - more than you can possibly know. I hope you're well, and I hope you're missing me too. Keep me in your thoughts.

<3