Arrivederci Roma and hello Florence

Spiced ale on the left, Saison on the right.

We wrapped up our week in Rome with a last wander around the city, seeing a few of the sights that had passed us by. The highlights were a shop specialising in smoked fish and smoked fish sandwiches, and beer bar. The fish shop was just delicious to look at, smell and eat. It had at least 7 types of fish available - salmon done a few ways, halibut, and other stuff. It just looked so fresh and colourful, and our sandwiches were great. Then the beer bar - my previous comment about Italian brewing being in its infancy was just plain wrong. The beer we had (a Saison and a spiced ale) was excellent, about as good as it gets. They had about 10 Italian beers on tap and a bottled selection that was as exciting as I've seen. So big thumbs up for Italian beer.

 

We loved Rome - it's big, it has loads and loads to see, the sense of history is incredible and what with the Pope business going on it felt very much the centre of things.

 

Then it was off to Florence. We decided to stay in a hostel rather than a hotel to see if we could save some money, and it's been fine but not actually any cheaper once you factor in breakfast for two, not having a fridge to store food in and it being difficult to wash clothes. So I think it's a case of good try, not happening again. Nice to meet people though and have new people to talk to from other countries.

 

Florence was the home of Michelangelo before he went to Rome and of the rich dudes during the renaissance. So they have some pretty good stuff. Like this guy...

Yup, it's the real thing.

It's simply perfection. You run out of words to describe the art you see, and obviously some is better than others. But David is as good as it gets. Perfection. There's a quote from Vasari, who wrote about renaissance art at the time, that says once you have seen Michelangelo's David there is no point seeing any other sculpture. And he's right, it all looked a bit average after that.

Shutters on the Ponte Vecchio

 

So cheesy, and so rich and soupy

For me Florence is a bit like some (seriously) major highlights in a few museums, but it lacks atmosphere. After the constant visual treats of Rome and the vibrancy of Naples it's a bit sterile if you ask me. But there is one thing it has that Naples and Rome didn't have - the Osteria Spirita Santos, our new favourite restaurant. It was our best meal in the last month of travelling. I had gnocchi and a beef stew, Jo had vegetable soup and a traditional rabbit dish and they were all gorgeous. Add some bread and a glass of wine and we had a super long lunch. God it was good.

 

Along other cool things we have seen here are these crazy guys:

Dr Seuss does Italian art

We think they're carved out of ivory. The detail and the fineness of the carving is superb, and they look cool as. Pretty easy to break too... no ball games please.

Florence, beautiful.

Tomorrow it's off to Venice which we are so looking forward to. Then things get a little hazier, the plan is still evolving, but it's looking like Slovenia next anyway. Ciao for now!

 

It is very sore feet time now, each day we return to our beds at about half 6 after a very long day walking. There seems to be a lot of stairs everywhere. I don't know how people managed to cover vast distances in the old days, possibly in wooden shoes as well. All that lifting and climbing and horse carts it would have been crazy. It is interesting that Paul preferred Rome to Florence. I didn't for me Rome was big and quite austere whereas Florence and Naples more heart and soul. I have possibly enjoyed Florence more, possibly that is because I had studied many of the works at art school and it was so fantastic to see the works up close.

Rome: at least 50 churches, St. Peter's, Sistine chapel, the Forum,The colosseum, Spanish steps, the tomb of the lost soldier....

Florence: The Duomo, the Uffitzi, Bargello, the Synagogue, the pont de Vecchio, Petti palace, only about 5 churches here as most of them are very dark and not as interesting as the ones in Rome, Giotto's bell tower, the Duomo museum... where we both came to an abrupt halt and almost at the same time said. "I have had enough" We had hit the wall. It was pretty funny because we just had to sit down and wait until we had enough energy to walk out ... Finally all the art and looking and knowledge had beaten us down - for a bit.

One of the best things we saw today was the Gallilao exhibition which has some really interesting things in it. We'll put pictures on tomorrow once they're all loaded. Bring on Venice!