Not All Who Wander Are Lost

Florence is charming. Florence is delightful. Florence is lovable. The streets are narrow, the city is speckled with cute piazzas, and the food is good. (Yes I do more than eat. Don’t question me.) The streets are often paved with stones, not asphalt, and there are pretty things everywhere.

A lot of our time in Florence was spent simply wandering, so don’t worry—you’re avoiding one of those multi-page entries I usually write. We wandered into shops, into restaurants, down streets, up alleyways. We, in fact, wandered ourselves all the way to Pisa one day, and saw the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It’s quite a lovely tower in its own right, but the “not-quite-vertical” aspect of its current state makes it all the more appealing. I can just imagine the day someone first noticed it was leaning:

“Um, honey, does it look to you like that tower is, well, leaning?”
“I think you’ve had too much wine, Luigi. Go to bed.”

Pisa itself is an attractive little town, but I’m going to stop harping on about how cute Italy is.

In Florence itself we had fun seeing the Chapel of the Medicis (talk about an influential family!) that has truly remarkable marble-work. Many coats of arms are inlaid on the walls, minute little pieces of stone joined up so that the whole thing is smooth. I wanted to take a picture, but it wasn’t allowed and there was a guard sitting near me. It would have been difficult to be discreet.

We also visited Michelangelo’s David. I hadn’t realised how huge the statue is! In my head it was about life size, probably a bit smaller. No way. If David was that big, I would have liked to see the giant! The statue is exquisitely detailed, as you would expect from Michelangelo. You can see the veins in David’s arms and hands, and the dimples around his knees. Even the toenails were perfect. (You notice these things when they are on your eye-level.)

I also really enjoyed seeing the Pont de Vecchio, and wandering (see, told you we did that a lot) across it. We bought some gelato in a shop near the bridge, and thoroughly enjoyed the indulgence. I live a hard life, don’t I?
Now, before I get away from Italy completely (my next post will be from the South of France), I want to point out one more discovery: Limoncello. How come I’ve never tried this before? It’s like lemonade with spirit!