It was just Greg and I on this one, on our last-ever adventure in Europe. We flew into Milan, and proceeded to fumble around with the Italian railway system for a good two hours - way to go, Italy, thanks for being expensive - before catching a delightfully comfortable train to Florence.
Florence the city was a lot quieter and more relaxed than I'd expected. Granted, we only spent two days there and four hours of that was consumed by the enormous Uffizi gallery - which was really beautiful, by and by, and totally worth the mind-numbing two hour wait in line during which we got to watch two French teenagers attempt to eat each other's faces. But yeah, Florence was stone streets and simple buildings, and oh yes, the Duomo, an enormously puzzling structure that dazzled with color amongst the grey-and-white buildings that surrounded it. Seriously, that thing is BRIGHT - blues and oranges and glimmering marble facade, and of course the towering famous dome of orange. The Arno river weaves its way through Florence, almost lazily listing underneath a line of bridges, deep green water with birds chilling out on the surface.
One thing I observed about Italy - or Florence and Rome, at the very least -is that The Sights are sort of just plopped down in the middle of everything. Everywhere else we've been, important monuments have been sort of set away from the important stuff, surrounded by a park or a fence or something, but no, not here. You could just be walking down the street, and BAM, THERE'S THE COLISSEUM. It's a really unexpected sort of thing, and took us off guard a few times, especially in Rome.
I mean Florence was pretty cool, of course, but it was very slow, quietly paced, and entirely unlike Rome, where waves of people simply crashed on us in some places. It was sort of rainy the first few days we were there, but the very last day it was sunny and bright, puffy white clouds and sheer blue sky, and my GOD, did we walk everywhere.
Roman streets were short and tight and windy. Our first stop was to marvel at, yes, the Colisseum, in all its ancient and overwhelming glory - tall, imposing and stony-white, crumbling and decrepit. Imagine what it would've looked like now if it hadn't been used as a stone quarry by everyone who needed building materials until they realized, "oh, hey, this thing is pretty cool looking, we should probably keep it around."
From there, we hit the Trevi Fountain, where I think I may have seen Lizzie McGuire - but she's so busy these days, who knows? It, like the rest of Rome, was inundated with people, but we managed to look past the wishing tourists and sightseers and inspect the fountain for what it really is - a quite stunning bit of architecture, finely sculpted white marble and a sheet of water like glass pouring over everything. (Yes, I made a wish. Can't tell.)
The next day we sort of stumbled upon the Pantheon - an odd thing to see, really: a super classical looking building, absolutely Roman, all pillars and heavy stone, and that one circle of light that lit up the whole place... all adorned with statues of Christ and Mary and other Christian icons. It was a strange juxtaposition, felt forced and wrong - but the building was still insane to see.
And then - Vatican time. St. Peter's Basilica, the Vatican museum, and the Sistine Chapel. Now this, my friends, was something probably not adequately describable without you being able to see it. St. Peter's was huge, overwhelmingly ornate and gold and full of light and sound. The Vatican museum was equally loud, more modern, and a veritable labrynth of white hallways and paintings, until - the Sistine Chapel, and this is where I lose my words, because that thing is so famous and so huge and so indescribably indescribable. I hate to fall back on this, but you just Need To See This, because the paintings are so detailed and bright and there's blue everywhere and it is something of a visual overload, and you feel like you could spend hours there.
We walked away dazed and confused, ate doner and gelato, and retired to a comforting hostel with music and beer and balloons and the color yellow.
Was Italy what I expected? Nah. Was it wonderful? Of course.
And that, my friends, was that.
Blog's not over yet, though, so stay tuned. :)!
