FIRENZE

Florence rocked my world over and over. My world actually had a little trouble keeping up. I stayed at the greatest “campsite” of all time, located in the hills of the Oltrarno area of town, across the Arno River from the city center. I use the term campsite loosely due to the fact that the “tents” were more like well appointed canvas cabins (complete with wood floors and bunk beds with real mattresses), the toilette and shower facilities were recently renovated and spotless, and there was a magnificent outdoor terrace bar/café with the most phenomenal panoramic view of the entire city. Every day as the cathedral bells throughout the city announced 6pm, I would scurry up the hill (it was quite the climb) to get a front row table on the patio, in the sun, with the drop dead gorgeous view and enjoy a 2 Euro pint of Italian beer rendered excellently affordable by the 6-7pm happy hour. It was basically luxury camping with cheap alcohol.

I think I saw more art and architecture in Florence than I did in any other city I’ve visited thus far. I’ll spare you the laundry list of sights and just sum up my top five faves:
1. David at the Accademia- Just stunning. So what if his junk is small in comparison to the rest of his body, its still practically the size of your head so I wasn’t complaining.

2. The Bargello Gallery- There was a beautiful sculpture exhibition of Bernini’s work and the museum itself is in a beautiful old fortress. Lots of great Michelangelo and Donatello sculptural work there too!

3. The Basilica of San Lorenzo- Gorgeous painted interior dome, intricate sculptural work by Donatello, ceilings dripping with gold, and a lovely interior cloister that smelled of fresh orange blossoms.

4.The Duomo- One of the most beautiful cathedrals in the world. Greeted me every morning while I had my coffee on the terrace of the campsite café and gave me a reason to leave my tent and go to the bathroom in the middle of the night (the nighttime view of the illuminated dome from my campsite was both ominous and enchanting). After days of ogling the façade and its bell tower (Giotto’s Campanile) from the ground, I climbed to the top of the dome and the views of the city were completely ridiculous.

5. The Arno River- The bridges are just lovely and it gently emerges from the hills and flows along side the city like the chorus of a favorite song. It extends as far as the eye can see, soothing and beautiful and has a great breeze so you can stand on the middle of a bridge, look out, and have one of those Kate Winslet Titanic moments.

I took a fun overnight train getting there and back which was very sardine-can-esque. You have 6 people stacked on top of each other who speak up to 4 different languages (yet oddly enough all snore in English). Its very much like you’d imagine one of those natural disaster slumber parties in a highschool gymnasium. You don’t really want to see each other drooling while asleep or let on that you use the restroom 6 times a night, but you have no choice so it suddenly becomes ok.

I didn’t really have that quintessential amazing meal in Florence like the ones I have had in France, but the Gelato was always super delicious (and all over my face) and I did find a great locals-only lunch place where one could enjoy an impeccable glass of Chianti and a Parma ham and Pecorino cheese sandwich on a salty, crunchy ciabatta roll, while standing at the counter listening to the Italian equivalent of local, mid-day water-cooler gossip.

Italians came across as extremely friendly, gracious, and accommodating, and Florence definitely goes down in the books as one of my favorite European cities!