siena high

Yesterday was several small museums. First the Bargello, with lots of sculpture by Donatello, Michelangelo, and more. It used to be the city prison, but in the Renaissance it was converted to a museum, to house the ridiculous amount of art they were creating. It was definitely a fancy prison, if in fact the building looked similar then. I went with Vicki and company to Yet Another Tiny Trattoria for a big salad, then we went back to the Duomo museum, which contains most of the art from the Duomo itself. We aren't touring the Duomo because all the significant art from it was moved into the museum. It's a particularly well-done place, actually, it was newly remodeled last year and is one of the few modern-looking museums we've seen. It includes Donatello's Magdalena, which is the first piece that Vicki has broken down in front of and had to stop her lecture.



One of the ladies on the tour, an avid photographer, discovered that her camera and all its photos had gone missing. She has not really recovered. I know for a fact I would feel similar, and have been extra careful since. It's a very frightening prospect.

What remained of the morning's group proceeded to the church of Santa Croce, which had most of the famous italians buried there, including Michelangel, Galileo, Machiavelli, and, curiously, Marconi. It's a very lovely gothic cathedral, but the best part was the Pazzi chapel right next door. The Pazzi were Yet Another Rich Banking Family in Florence, and they had their own personal chapel for things like baptisms, weddings, etc. It was plopped right next to Santa Croce, but artistically it couldn't be further away. While Santa Croce is a huge gothic basilica designed to make you feel small in the wide universe, the renaissance way, due to the study of Roman work, led to a space designed for "the mode and measure of man." You feel at home in the small space, and then you open your mouth.



It was designed as a "perfect building," based on mathematical shapes and proportions. All of it took into account the acoustics of the space, which are just flawless. We all sang "Amazing Grace," then anyone could stand in the center and try it out. Sections from "Ave Maria," pop songs, anything that came to mind, although given the 3-4 second reverb, only sacred music really sounded any good. I did "O Come O Come Emmanuel," which was really fun to drag out the notes on.


We ate well that night. Two courses, all around.

I don't know that it was the best idea, but today I went to Siena to see its hills, lovely views and steep streets. It was an 8:15 curtain call, so we hiked to the bus station to hurry up and wait for our 9:10 rapido bus. The SITA buses are the intra-city buses in Tuscany, and they're really nice. Mercedes coaches whisk you from city to city for the unfortunate price of 6.50 euros each way.



Siena has some nice museums, and a huge gothic basilica. This is one of the few basilicas in the region that runs north-south, as what is now the main nave was intended to be the transept, and the nave was supposed to be even bigger. Unfortunately, they completed one large endpiece and some supporting columns, then the plague hit in 1340. So they stuck with what they had, but we did get to climb the unfinished endpiece for an incredible view of the city.


This is as far as they got.


But scope out the view from the top!

We then went down to the campo where they run the Palio horse races every year. They run two, one in July and the other in August, between 10 of the 17 city wards. Three laps of the half-circular campo are raced, and only the horse must cross the finish line. The loser is the competitor who comes in second. Those are the only rules. You can imagine what this leads to. Standing in the space and imagining what it must look like is quite vivid, as it is a small piazza as piazzi go.



We ate in a little rosticceria that had an etruscan cave in the back, it was delicious and filling and I was absolutely starving. Nick and I ran down the now-wet, steep streets to catch the 14:10 SITA back to Florence, which we made easily. It's a small town.



Did some shopping, and got really frustrated that there's so little open in the evenings and weekends here. "Retail hours" are pretty much business hours in Florence. Our only free day is on a Sunday, which is when all the big flea markets are closed, so it'll be pretty quiet tomorrow. I wouldn't mind, but I still need a bunch of stuff, and a bunch of it is best bought here. Que sera, sera. I got a killer tie with St. Mark's lion on it, though.

Dinner at the Grotta di Leo again, which is still good. I'm going to be insufferable when I get home. Though I am craving thai food.

Even though I couldn't find a good tripod, tonight was more long-exposure madness.



I read somewhere that if you spend a day in Florence, you'll hate it, but after a week, you'll love it and want to return. I can see it growing on me in its absence more than anything. It is not a city that gives up its treasures easily. They are distant, down narrow streets and whispering among the buzz of the mopeds and ambulanzia. A Californian who moved here some years ago described the city's "complete and total resistance to change," which is truly the city's brillance and weakness. There still aren't buildings any higher than the Duomo, and they all have that red tile roof, but they let cars drive all around the priceless marble Duomo facade, and hide the David in a little alley next to vendors hawking fake Chanel.



I'm looking forward to a day off, as I'll need it before Rome. We'll be running like dogs to see all there is there.

Florentine freedom

For our free day in Florence, we did a whole lot of nothing. Slept till nearly 11:00, went to the rosticceria for breakfast at noon.


A lovely 10 euro worth of breakfast. That's the first banana I've had in 2 weeks, and it was amazing.

Came back, hit the pool, sat out and read. Played with our inflatable fish-whale hybrid that another tour member bought us. It's got a blowhole and a vertical tail. Go figure.

Our lovely pool.

Concluded that we've been paying too much for wine, so we bought our own. A chianti and a tuscan red found their way into our hands, then I hit the streets to finish buying some gifts, mostly for myself. Goat kid leather and cashmere driving gloves? Sure!

Shopping is hard, so we went back to the pool to enjoy our cheap chianti. A glass of the house red ordered from the pool bartender is 5 euro, so we felt like we were beating the odds.



Feeling very hungry and slightly inebriated, dinner was deemed necessary. Two courses and 20 euro later, I enjoyed real italian pesto linguine and pollo limone. Very smooth, a good end to our stay. We went upstairs to the rooftop terrace of our hotel for the first time, and became annoyed that we had not discovered it much earlier.



I must pack, as we have a 10am call tomorrow for our 11:30 train. It's a short ride to Rome, which will be very busy indeed. 5 days hardly sounds like it will be enough. We have had a very full stay here in Firenze, and it is time to bid farewell. It is a city full of surprises, with much to see and experience. Like the quiet red wines in every restaurant, it is very different at the end of the meal. I met a guy in Ballard that lived here for a time, and I've had to think about what that might be like, as he was a web guy too. As the least crazy city on our trip, it does present itself as a place that you could actually make a life in. She is not beautiful when you meet her, and some mornings you don't want to see her face. But she has great stories, though, and every meal is a song. Arrivederci, Firenze! We have loved fully and eaten well.



P.S. I'm all caught up on journal entries, so if you feel like reading this story from the beginning, start at this entry. Note that some of the ordering is weird due to time zone changes. Even livejournal, it seems, gets jet lag.