After our trip to Cinque Terre, we returned to Florence since it was the nearest place, with plans to head to Rome for the final stretch of the trip.
The first time in Florence was more of a kind of walkabout, starry-eyed exploration kinda thing. This time, since we had a few extra days to prepare after our last second disaster change of plans, we had booked a couple of things of interest and came in with more intent.
We didn't get to see Michelangelo's David. I'm totally fine with this. The fact is I've seen stuff like that and Mona Lisa online so many times it's practically embedded into my brain. I'm pretty sure, like all previous examples in my mind (including the Colosseum in Rome), once you see something so well documented in your head you just find it really hard to be impressed, often forcing yourself to believe it's a lot cooler than it really feels.
My alternative to this plan was something a little less overwhelmingly popular, but no less stunning:
Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens.
In short, if you don't manage to go to the Vatican down in Rome, this is the perfect alternative. The garden is considered the greatest in all of Europe and the palace is absolutely flooded with incredible art from ancient times, as well as some permanent exhibitions of fashion through the ages and some contemporary local art.
You get to roam around and see all the different rooms, learn through paintings, and best of all, keep cool with relatively decent air conditioned rooms. This was really important, because we had just spent an hour or so in the gardens.
I wanted to spend significantly longer there but even I must admit it was getting unbearably hot and it was all somehow uphill no matter which direction you went. To be honest I was slightly disappointed in the Gardens mostly because we picked the wrong season for it, so we cut it short and headed to the palace. Here's some pics from both:
I want to put special emphasis on the detail in these works of art. Thankfully I had my super zoom phone camera. Take a look at this!
Sunset
We went to a famous hill to see the sunset over Florence. Imagine that skyline! Well, no need to imagine, It's right here:
Man, I couldn't look away from the smooth, orange river...
This was super chock-full of people but we managed to get a space and enjoy the show. There were some really cool vibes here with some guitarists performing Metallica on acoustic to an audience on steps and such.
To get here back to town was a 15 minute bus ride which cost me... 8p (10 cents)!
The Accident
We were walking around the market (kind of like London's Borough Market) when suddenly we heard the loudest, heavy-duty SLAM, followed by the most blood-curdling scream I had heard in at least a couple of days. something happened and it sounded painful.
We didn't see this, as there was already a huge crowd gathering moments after it happened, but we were metres away and I did see a pool of blood.
It didn't take long to figure out what happened. How it happened though, remains a mystery to me.
It seems Italy may not be very conscious about health and safety. All around Florence there are these giant, cast iron trash cans. I'm not kidding. Painted black, and as heavy as a cast iron skillet if the skillet was half the size of an adult man.
It appears one of these - which due to the sun baking down was about as hot as a cast iron skillet straight from the stovetop, too - somehow fell onto the leg/legs of a woman. In my head, I can't imagine those not being amputated after that, but maybe she was lucky.
Confused, I went to the nearest heavy duty trash can to attempt to push it over and it was extremely heavy, and more importantly, scalding hot. I couldn't touch it for more than a moment. Perhaps the 'accident' was malicious?
The next day when we were walking through the area again, we saw the alleged criminal trash can.
More Architecture
Weirdly, the first time we were here we never even came across the famous Duomo atop the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. This time we caught it and holy cripes this building is a stunner!
Notice how the repairs on the left are 'hidden' under a disguised sheet mimicking the actual facade!
We never got to go in again partly due to tickets being unavailable at short notice, but also partly because I read the outside was far more impressive than the inside, and the inside requires some several thousands of steps to get up to the rooftop which just didn't seem worthwhile in this Italian summer weather.
But for real, the exterior was unbeatable!
Off to Rome
We were only here overnight so that's pretty much all we had time for, unless you include all the food touring not shown!
Florence is quite small, in all the good ways, and I was just getting used to it. Going to Rome was almost a culture shock in terms of size and population density. It took a few hours to adjust!
How I wish that I can visit this place too
You can - in time! It took me 37 years...
nice shots 😍 makes me want to come here ☺️
Do it! (In shoulder seasons... not summer time like I did heh)
Yikes, that accident sounded painful, but I just can't work out how it can fall onto someone bang in the middle of a busy tourist area when it's so heavy.
That sunset image, it's gorgeous, especially with the river running thru the centre
Yeah I couldn't find any news about it, I guess I'd need to find local Italian news or something. I suspect foul play more each passing day...
Honestly the sunset was just a relief for me that it was disappearing for a few hours heh. Hotter than places much farther south somehow!
I enjoy comparing Italian and Chinese civilizations from an East Asian perspective.
I think Italy is a stone building of marble and brick, while China is a wooden and brick building.
What do you think?😄
Well... it definitely depends where you live. Different climates across China will call for totally different infrastructure.
Civilisations though, I certainly see some similarities between the two!
East Asians today enjoy comparing ancient Roman and ancient Chinese civilizations. I think Rome was a maritime civilization in the Mediterranean, and China was a continental civilization!
I... wouldn't compare ancient rome personally... modern Italy with a few of the cultural customs and family emphasis.
Rome was centralised while china was decentralised, the 'throne' was inherited in China while in rome it was fought, totally different legal systems... but the worst thing for me is just how much of Chinese history no longer exists, compared to Roman documentation/evidence. Thanks to er... you know who
It is well known that Mao Zedong destroyed all of China's historical relics and sites!
By the way, I believe that Christianity became the religion of Europe during the ancient Roman era, which gave birth to the current Western civilization.
Ancient China created the religions, philosophies, and ideas that form the foundation of the current East Asian civilization.
So, I compare the history of ancient Rome and China!
Congratulations, your post has been added to WorldMapPin! 🎉
Did you know you have your own profile map?
And every post has their own map too!
Want to have your post on the map too?
Your posts make us feel like we are there and the photos are very good.
What camera are you using?
Thanks! Just a plain old Samsung Galaxy =D I think it's more the beauty of the location that's brought out in any photo :)
Hiya, @ybanezkim26 here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Honorable Mentions in Travel Digest #2298.
Your post has been manually curated by the @worldmappin team. If you like what we're doing, please drop by to check out all the rest of today's great posts and consider supporting other authors like yourself and us so we can keep the project going!
Become part of our travel community:
Congratulations @mobbs! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain And have been rewarded with New badge(s)
Your next target is to reach 52000 upvotes.
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPCongratulations @mobbs! Your post has been a top performer on the Hive blockchain and you have been rewarded with this rare badge
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOP👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Florence and Rome are beautiful. I lived in Rome for 6 months … up on the Janiculum overlooking St Peters.
that sounds dreamy wow. I prefer florence for living, though if I could somehow find work there. Rome is a bit too chaotic
I think I would choose Siena, or someplace in Tuscany to live.
Hopefully one day I can visit this place
Set it as a long term target and make small moves towards it! It'll happen
The paintings in museum are so dope. I'd wish I had a occasion to visit this museum. The sunset is breathtaking.
The incident is surely specially staged. I don't believe that someone could "accidentally" push this, with falling conclusion.
We were super tired and hot before going, and we almost just decided to stay in the hotel and skip it - who cares about the vatican anyway??
Well, glad we pushed ourselves because those paintings... I've seen nothing of that scale in my life. It's a 100% must-go for anybody in Rome!
Well, 'staged' implies acting haha, but I do think perhaps it was some kind of attack. Then again, you'd be surprised how stupid some accidents can be in this world X(
I was in Rome, but sadly we didn't visit the museum, we didn't even know about it's existence. We were busy exploring coliseum. But the paintings are really worth it
You know, when i say staged, i mean like someone did it on purpose. Just like you said an attack, but yeah maybe it was an accident, who knows