Exciting Times a Firenze!

The following weeks in Florence provided me with some of the fun and excitement I'd been looking to find around town all semester. It started to sink in for me just how little time I had left and I made it a point to get out and do interesting things around this beautiful city.

One of my favorite things to do was hike to Piazzale Michelangelo, and on one occasion I visited the church above it, San Miniato al Monte, and took in the breathtaking view of my little city below.

One week the Mostra Internazionale dell'Artigianato (which will from now on be referred to as the Craft Fair) came to the Fortezza di Basso in Florence. I didn't expect this to be quite as fun and exciting as it turned out to be for me. It reminded me of craft shows back home and there were soooo many neat little things that I really didn't need but really wanted to buy. Also, I guess the 'theme' this year had something to do with balloon art, because we wandered into a building full of nothing but huge balloon sculptures of everything from the Mona Lisa to Ratatouille.

Balloon Mask

Balloon Remy the Rat!

In later days, I made it my goal to climb all those things in Florence I set out to do in the first place. I decided if I could climb 1000 steps to the top of the isle of Capri, 400 something steps in the Campanile or the Duomo were definitely not a challenge. Still, I worked my way up, starting with Giotto's Belltower, or the Campanile. I knew this would be a good trek because I'd get a nice view of Florence as well as a closer look at Brunelleschi's incredible dome next door. Favorite moment: sneezing in the stairwell and hearing 'bless you' from a multitude of tourists in at least 3 different languages. I used to get frustrated with all the tourists blocking my route to class, but on this occasion I found it really remarkable that so many completely different people were all in this tiny little stairwell sharing this experience with me.

Campanile

Looking through a grate in the floor

Hello, Duomo.

Piazza della Repubblica from the sky

Next on my to-do list was to climb the Duomo. I'd heard plenty of scary things about this climb, that the line to get in is really long, that it's really cramped, that it's poorly lit, that some of the steps are difficult to climb, that sometimes the people in front of you are really sweaty and you're pretty much stuck behind them until you get to the top. It really wasn't bad, and surprisingly when I went there was no one in line ahead of me, so it was a pretty quick 20 minute climb in between the layers of the cupola before finally popping out at the top. I had fun looking out over the city and trying to locate things from above like my apartment, my classes, my favorite sandwich stand, that place where I sprained my ankle, etc. It was also fun to listen to the tourists at the top state very matter-of-factly (and very incorrectly) what all of the major buildings they could see were.

View of the huge mural from one of the inside terraces

Leetle stairways

Over the edge

Piazza della Repubblica from inside the dome

I wished I'd made these climbs much much sooner in my stay (though the weather for the most part of the semester really was not conducive to climbing big marble structures) because I'd do them over and over again if I had had time. Those last couple of weeks in Florence, while maybe a little bittersweet, were some of my favorite because they really encouraged me to dive into everything the city had to offer that I hadn't gotten into yet. I'm glad I had those opportunities, because those are the little things I'll love and remember the most about Florence.

Next up: Last minute trip to Cinque Terre!