Florence

Florence is a beautiful city. It seems all of its buildings have terra cotta roofs. I decided to stay at a hostel near the train station. Good choice. They have washing machines, free breakfast and free dinner and plenty of free internet. The only problem was that I felt relatively old compared to most of the twenty- somethings that wanted to drink wine and party all night.

In the morning I headed out to Piazza Duomo where Santa Maria del Fiore is. In this square there are what I can only classify as beggars with a gimmick. Instead of the tired: “Oh, I’m so poor and I have a baby to feed,” they dress up in white with their faces painted white, holding a bouquet of fake roses and come up to you and make kissy faces and duck noises and then shake their basket at you. At least it was amusing and I was amused enough to give one of them a Euro and take a picture.

At this point, I was already getting tired of museums and cathedrals. I went to the top of the tower at Piazza Duomo and got a bird’s-eye view of the city and took some great pictures.

After that I headed over towards the Arno River. I spied some girl laying out by the river and decided to make my way down there. I relaxed for a few minutes until I noticed an old guy stripping down to his baggy grey underwear...God, at least I HOPE it was grey. Yikes! And he kept asking me what time it was. Where could a 70 something year-old guy POSSIBLY have to go in the middle of the afternoon?

I kept walking and headed up the steep hill on the south end of town up to Piazzale Michelangelo. It was worth the hike to the magnificent view of the city from the top. I laughed at the woman who was posing by the statue of David, trying to make it look like she was fondling his package, and wished I had someone to take a picture like that for me. Oh well.I decided it was now time to head over to the Ponte Vecchio. Now, I’m not into shopping and jewelry, but wow, a shopper’s paradise. I HAD to buy something. I settled on a simple pair of white-gold hoops with little hearts on them (85 Euros), and a small necklace with my name made out of wire. As a matter of fact, I liked the name made out of wire so much, I went back and had a second one made. The guy wouldn’t take my money for the second necklace (5 Euros) but of course there was a catch. He wanted to meet me for a drink. I told him he could meet me over at Piazza Santa Croce because I wanted to see the parade of the Rificolona.

The Rificolona is a festival celebrated by Florentines every year (even though most people seemed to be unaware of it). It is the parade of the paper lanterns and is celebrated by adults and children alike. The parade begins at Piazza Santa Croce and everyone follows a procession of musicians to Piazza Santissima Annunziata. I decided to have a glass of wine while waiting for the festivities to begin. I met these two American guys that live in Mexico now and they were telling me how beautiful Siena is. I decided to put that on my itinerary. Needless to say, I blew off the jewelry maker.

I then headed over to Piazza Santissima Annunziata where the real party was. They had a children’s choir, there was a marching band, other musical entertainment and the Cardinal also addressed the crowd. Many of the Florentines believe that this festival was held in celebration of the triumph of Florence over Siena on August 2nd, 1555, with lanterns tied to the ends of the soldiers’ pikes. But a more popular belief surrounds this celebration with a huge autumn fair held in the Piazza Santissima Annunziata on September 7th, the day before the nativity of the Virgin or the eve of the Feast of the Madonna. Dressed in what the farm people thought was suitable for the city, they brought their wares and produce as part of the festivities to be sold in an open market. To get a vantage position to sell their goods, the farmers and their families started their journey to the city before dawn. As they had to cross a great distance in the wee hours of the morning, they made lanterns with canvas or paper to light their way. The children are taught to make their own lanterns with colored tissue paper. They would shoot at the lanterns with blowguns so that the candle inside would be knocked down and the paper lantern would be set ablaze.

Finally, I was getting very tired and wanted to head back to my hotel - if I could find it. I wandered streets. Pretty soon I had the attention of another Italian guy. This one was older. He was trying so hard to chat me up, but I wasn’t in the mood and my stomach was killing me and I had to pee. Finally, I practically ran away and found an Irish Pub where I could relieve myself. Ahhhhh...finally found my little hostel and drifted off into a peaceful sleep.