Florence

My last three days in Florence were pretty good. Day 3 in Florence saw my going to Pisa and Lucca. So, there's this tower in Pisa and it, like, leans and stuff. Seriously, that's about what I can say about Pisa. There's also a pretty cathedral that looks pretty much like every other cathedral I've been in. There was a really interesting graveyard that has soil from Jerusalem. And there were hordes of people, all taking photographs pretending to push the tower back up. Everywhere I looked, people taking the same picture.

So I took a picture of the people taking pictures. Metaphotography!

Let's see, Lucca was good. It's a medieval walled city, so I took a wall walk as well as had a glass of wine, and saw their cathedral too. Guess what? It looked like all of the other cathedrals I've seen. But in all seriousness, Lucca was a very pretty little town.

Florence Day 4 was busy - I started with a walk through Boboli Gardens in Palazzo Pitti. They are huge. Enormous. I got so lost, and never did find half of what I was looking for. I went nice and early, so there weren't many people there which was nice. The coffeehaus in the park was not open, and that was not nice. I also went to the Academia and saw David in all of his marble glory. I know this is going to sound bad, but I still like all of the Bernini sculptures from the Galleria Borghese better. I know Michaelangelo is a genius, blah blah blah, and his scultpures are beautiful, but they don't make me want to go back and look at them over and over like the Bernini sculptures did. Aside from David, there is a bunch of the typical medeival church art that I hate ... and that's about it. The Academia was a huge waste of money for me. They also had a nice little exhibition on muscial instruments, but I'd seen a lot of the same sort of stuff at the Museum of Musical Instruments in Brussels ... and all done better. So yeah, very dissapointing. My last stop that day was to climb the 427 steps to the top of Brunelleschi's dome. Having read the book, I did really enjoy that - and not just for the spectacular view. The stairs you walk up are the original stairs that the masons used while building the dome. Also, some of the plaster is worn away so it's possible to see some of the building techniques King discusses in his book. All around, way cool. And I went nice and late in the day to both avoid lines/crowds and to get the best light. And if I ever finish editing my photos, you might get to see them.

My last day in Florence started at the Bargello museum, which was nicer than the Academia. Not nearly so crowded and had a very diverse and interesting collection. More statues by Michaelangelo which also failed to really blow me away, as well as a huge collection of small carved irony miniatures by various artists which were really cool. After that, I had lunch and then did a wine tour.

Now, I hate tours. HATE them. I have taken so many bad tours in my life - somewhere I have an account of the winner of my worst tour ever, which was my tour around the Greek islands where E was stolen by some Greek dancers and whirled around on top of their heads. Second runner up was the interminable Swamp Tour in New Orleans, and third runner up was the voodoo tour of St. Louis Cemetary No. 1 also in New Orleans wherein the tour guide told us we would die if we left the group. Now that I think about it, Cari was with me for all of those. So maybe she's particularly bad luck.

Regardless, this tour wasn't BAD, it just wasn't GOOD. It was huge, for one - at least 50 people on it. I had to sit up front in the bus with the tour guide because the only seat left was on the second level of the bus and the lurching around made me nauseous. We only got to taste three wines and none of them were very good, and there was a pointless stop for 30 minutes iin this little village where we all sort of milled around. Then the tour guide expounded on her anti-immigration, anti-Euro political views over the microphone on the bus for the entire hour back. So that was also a waste of money. Then I saw a small performance of La Traviata at one of the many churches, and that was quite nice. I had a perfect seat for it, and the two male singers were amazing, especially the one playing Alfredo's father. The woman playing Violetta was a little sharp in the first act in places, but picked it up in the second act. I nice end to the trip.

Today was my first day in Venice, and it's fabulous. My favorite city in Italy, but I'll discuss that after I get some sleep.