Florence

Where to even begin...ten days in Italy, countless gelatos later, nearly an entire bank account's worth of traveling, bus, foot, train, plane and I have finally returned to Aix. A girl from my program and I just spent the past week and a half traveling through Italy for our spring vacation, stopping in Florence, Pisa, and Rome. I am unable to find the words or the time to describe everything I've experienced, and so this feeble sketch will have to suffice.

Florence is one of the more beautiful places I have ever been. The light there has a most particular cast, giving everything it grazes a warm tint of gold. As the sun sets over the Arno River each night, the city's multiple bridges are silhouetted against the fading spectrum. It's remarkable. And it makes all the more sense to think that this was once the center of Western art.

But this appreciation of art has not disappeared with time, as the city is still home to a multitude of statues, fountains, palaces, museums, and cathedrals. I was able to see, most notably, Michaelangelo's David and Botticelli's The Birth of Venus and La Primavera. I always find these moments somewhat surreal (like seeing the pyramids and King Tut's treasure in Egypt) to see with my own eyes what has previously been confined to glossy textbook pages. We wandered through countless galleries of early Christian art as well--something for which I have developed a strange fondness. I only wish I was better adept at interpreting all the religious symbols utilized in the paintings.

Perhaps one of the best recognized symbols of Florence is its large domed cathedral known as the Duomo, dominating the rest of the clay-tiled horizon. The church itself is magnificently done--intricate frescos, carved doors, layered stone--but my favorite part was its nearby tower. It is well worth the six euros and four hundred something steps it takes to reach the top. Indeed, the view is breathtaking from such a height.

But in spite of all that we experienced there, I have to say that my favorite place were the Boboli gardens at the Pitti Palace. The morning's rain had turned into fog by the time we arrived, and the myriad of gravel walkways were edged by this fine mist. Branch-lined archways, moss-covered statues, fountains, endlessly-splitting paths--all possessed the slight sense of neglect that makes a garden mysterious and compelling. I could have spent hours there, lost in the immensity of dozen different gardens.


Sunset over the river


A piazza and carousel by night


A view of the city from the Boboli gardens


A floating citrus orchard in the Boboli gardens