The first thing I noticed about Florence is the colors. It’s one of the major factors that differentiates it from other cities in Italy which I’m inspired to apply onto my wardrobe.
Palazzo Vecchio, the town hall of Florence where you will find rooms filled with art from top to bottom. No matter how hard you try, you cannot escape!
Michaelangelo’s Genius of Victory. Funny, I am truly able to enjoy these artworks now that I’m comfortably sitting in my apartment flipping through photos of them. I was always too tired by the time we got to each location that I wasn’t able to fully enjoy them at the time. Photography is a wonderful thing!
What the boobs..?! Seems that our imagination knows no end. People would come up with anything that amuses others. First it was the mermaid, the unicorn, then came a blossoming winged man with no arms but boobs.
Italian street artists. Whether through music or other form of art, they made my trip much more memorable.
What every meal consisted of while in Italy (note, I said “every meal”, that’s about 20 slices of pizza!). So delicious with just a right amount of sauce and mozzarella on a crispy thin crust; however, I’ve gladly put myself on a pizza-free-diet since leaving Italy and I don’t miss them yet.
Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (English: Basilica of Saint Mary of the Flower) which took over 100 years to build. I know, aside from the obvious artistic talent, how much patience and determination do you need to build something so grand?
The bell tower at the Basilica. I have a story to tell you, so after seeing a crowd coming out of this tower, we were encouraged to go up to get a view of the beautiful city of Florence. We bought tickets for about 10 euro each (I think) and headed for the stairs not thinking much. Little did we know, after climbing up for about five minutes, my legs started shaking and the worse part is that we were still far from reaching the top. When I thought we were there, my lovely hubby reminded me that we were only on the first floor. So the climbing continued… for another 10 minutes or so. As you can imagine, by the time we reached the top, I could barely breathe. I’m telling you, I must have grown another thigh after this trip. Thanks to my fear of heights and lungs that were busy gasping for air, it was the perfect occasion to deal with an unwelcome guest named nausea despite how beautiful (in fact, I can’t remember seeing anything so breathtakingly beautiful in a while) the view was. Oh, how many times I asked myself, “What have I done to myself?” and “Are you serious that I paid for this?” hahaha. Well, all in all, I’m very glad that we went up. We ended up spending a good 30-40 minutes on the top just enjoying the view that’s still very much alive in my mind. It was not just a good view of the city but a cultural experience. I felt the energy, love for art, and life of the people of Florence there.
Too bad we had to skip Uffizi… We will be back! Ciao, Firenze! Off to Roma now. :)
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