Florence is pretty sweet, I must say. Much better than Rome on any scale for sure. Florence just feels like it has a lot more character and more to offer as a whole city and not just for the historic monuments that you need to see. When I think of Rome now, I think of a quote from Picasso that we saw in Barcelona: " If you already know exactly what you are going to do, what's the point in doing it?". Granted, I don't feel quite that strongly against Rome, but I do feel like you go to Rome knowing what you want to do and see, and so that's what we did. Rome felt a bit rigid, where as Florence feels open to exploration. The city evens seems to welcomes you to wander up and down the river, through the streets or on a grassy piazza. Not having set plans here is a valid agenda, in fact I think our traveling style is better suited to that kind of city anyways.
That is not to say that Florence is lacking when it comes to history though! We toured the Santa Maria del Fiore and the famous duomo yesterday and it's probably my second favorite church that we've been to so far. The inside isnt glamorous or overdone, it's just meant to be a place to be faithful. On their pamphlet, it said " the Duomo is the house of God and of his people. But the duomo, above all, like every other church, is above all 'the house of prayer for all nations'. So it is your house, even if you are not Florentine, even if you are not a believer. Welcome!" I thought that was a perfect way to say what church really could be, not what organized religion sometimes feels like. We climbed all the way to the top of the dome (463 steps, mind you) and it was amazing. The claustrophobia I felt while going up and Katlin's dislike of heights? Not so amazing. The climb begins in a regular sized stone stair case, continues up a one person wide spiral stir case, climbs the curve of the interior dome and finally you ascend to the viewing area after going straight up 10 steps. But we made it and it was completely worth it.
Yesterday we decided to go on a free walking tour that was quite good and took you around to all the less well known but actually more interesting places around the city. Then we fell victim to the shopping that is here and bought jewelry (necklaces for both of us) and other neat Florentine goods at the leather market. Then we had dinner with Ben, one of our roommates from the hostel in Barcelona. How cool is that? He is studying here and so we said we would try to meet up again and we actually did! Today we explored museums and more of the city with 3 people that we met at the hostel here and tomorrow were taking a bike tour of the Chianti wine country with them. I honestly can't believe this is real life sometimes, it just sounds so incredible. I go back and forth between having a hard time believing that we are actually abroad and thinking that being where we are and doing what we are doing is no big deal. Like yesterday when we were planning to meet Ben, he suggested that we find each other at the steps in front of the Duomo. I said yes, because that made a lot of sense directional wise, but later at dinner, it hit me. We just used an incredible dome as a casual meeting point. Oh you know, just reconvening at the largest dome ever built without scaffolding. Just the most prominent building on the Florence skyline. A place of incredible religious significance. No biggie. And then, as if that wasn't enough, from there we climbed a hill to see that very city skyline at sunset and had an authentic Italian dinner all with a new friend that we would probably never met otherwise. No big deal, right? Totally a big deal! Crazy! It does feel natural though, like this is right where we are meant to be right now. It's positively wonderful to feel this way and I can't believe that we are only halfway through our trip.
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