Miss Florence, the Pleasure is All Mine

Florence stole my delight. This is no small feet especially considering ,as a rule, I do not dole out such praise without unique prompting. Yet, prompt this city did and more. My weekend centered around our two day trip through its busy streets, though not so bustling as Rome, and exploring its many Renaissance sites. A fairly large group, around 20, made the surprising long five our train ride from Viterbo. We left early Saturday morning so we could get there with enough daylight to explore that day. The hostel we stayed in astounded me. It was as large as any hotel boasting no less than five floors of large, albeit dorm stile rooms, that were well cleaned and neatly decorated. The basement had its own restaurant/ bar that doubled as a dance club at night. A full indoor pool and sauna just sent the place over the edge! Outside the hostel walls were the handsome streets of Florence herself. In my opinion she offers her visitors such a diverse experience like no other city can. It’s a large metropolitan area, wonderfully preserved historical museum, and quant Tuscan hill town all wrapped into one. Everywhere I looked I found myself floored by numerous massive 14th century cathedrals, but simultaneously charmed by the simple town home style buildings stacked up and down narrow cobble stoned streets. Add the fact that the city rests in a valley surrounded by solemn rolling hills of villas and vineyards; is it really any wonder I fell under Florence’s spell, hopelessly enchanted. Ill post a few pictures of the views from the tops of these hills and then I hope you will catch a glimpse of what this city does to naive tourists. Il Duomo is one of the largest cathedrals in the world. Its namesake is derived from its enormous dome which, from a distance utterly dominates the city skyline. Of course the statue of David by Michael Angelo resides in one of the dozens of historic museums. I did not pay to go in and see it this time, but I can surely see myself doing so in the future as I will definitely make it a point to find my way back to this city. Now, I don’t want to unfairly paint this as heaven on earth because without doubt Florence has her flaws. Loud tourists swarmed the streets like witless ants upon a dirt mound and one certainly pays for the experience as those swarms of tourists allow for unreasonable price hikes. Yet, to steal a line from the brilliant Oscar Wilde (I have been reading quite a bit of is stuff lately), “If a woman can not make her mistakes charming, she is only a female.” And if a city cannot make its flaws attractive then it is but a destination. Bravo miss Florence, you stole my delight and you did so with mysterious imperfection. What other city makes me smile on its deficiencies as silly charming quarks? Remarkable. Well done Miss Florence, well done.