What about June 21?
Jun. 24th, 2007 06:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xiphiasI've been several days behind in blogging, which I am sorry for. Not just because you don't get to read what I'm doing, but because writing it down helps me remember and enjoy.
June 21 was several things. First, it was the longest day of the year, being the solstice. Second, it was Lis's birthday. And, third, we realized that it was exactly my one-third-century mark.
It was also the first day we went into Florence.
Bucine, where we're staying, is like an hour outside Florence, so it's easy to hop on the train, spend the day, and come back. Which is one of the things we've been doing. On the 21st, we did said hopping with my sister, mother, and father. We couldn't figure out how the heck the ticket machine worked, so we ended up riding without the ticket, which is a gamble . . . if you get caught, it's a five euro fine. As it happened, we got caught, and our tickets cost 10 euros apiece, rather than 5 euros. Oh, well.
My sister was hungry enough to be grumpy on the way in, so we stopped at a cafe when we got into Florence, and had pastries and fruit and coffee and juice and stuff. After doing so, we all felt in much better moods, not only Leila. Healthy blood sugar levels are a good thing.
Then we began wandering about the city together. We headed toward the Duomo, and just walked around that area, admiring the gorgeous cathedral, and eventually (after looking at the outdoor spot with dozens of famous statues, including the reproduction of Michalangelo's David (the original is in the Acadame museum, but the reproduction is in the original space where it was put) headed off to the Uffizi Gallery, where we had timed tickets for 12:45.
See, there are always HUGE lines for the Uffizi Gallery, not least because they only let about 600 people in the place at a time. And because it's one of the greatest art museums in the world, and one of the absolute-must-see things of Florence. So, if you wait in line, you can expect to wait for HOURS. And it's honestly worth it.
But, you can also make reservations ahead of time. I mean, you have to make them a couple weeks or even a month or two ahead, but you can do it. Then, you can just show up there, go to an entirely different door, buy your tickets (cash only), and stand in a much, much shorter line consisting only of those people who knew that you're allowed to make reservations.
There's not much I can say about the Uffizi. It was originally an office building ("uffizi" means "offices"). But, see, it was an office building for the Medicis. They had this idea that they ought to impress the hell out of everyone, so they could intimidate anyone going to their offices into knowing just how damn powerful they were. And they decided that making an incredibly beautiful building and then filling it with art would be pretty impressive and intimidating.
When the Medicis finally lost power and the city took over the building, they decided to clear out the actual offices, and fill it with MORE art and make it into a museum.
You've seen pictures of many of the pictures we saw. The Uffizi has some of the greatest works from, as Lis said, "all four of the Ninja Turtles." As well as, like, ALL of the best things Botticelli did, such as "Venus on the Half Shell."
Leila, Dad, and Mom had a bunch of other things they wanted to do, and we decided to split up, so they could see, for instance, the Synogogue in Florence, while we continued looking through the museum. They "only" stayed in the museum for two hours, while we stayed closer to three hours, and then headed out to wander through the city, vaguely looking for food.
We found a small bar somewhere off a side street, and sat down. Wine was 1 euro a glass, so we got one red and one white, we each got a bottle of seltzer (aqua frizante) for 0.40 a bottle, and we got a ham-and-cheese sandwich (well, prosccuto panini) for me and a pizza for Lis. Both of those were just in the display case, and they heated them up.
So we had a reheated pizza and a reheated ham and cheese sandwich.
It was among the best lunches I can remember. I mean, it was just that good.
Someone next to us had wine with some liquer of some sort poured into it, so we got two of those. And we got another wine.
So, we then wandered out and started just more-or-less wandering randomly. We walked past many shops, and Lis saw a cute leather jacket on a mannequin. She pointed it out to me, and started to walk on, but she looked like she wanted to see it more, so I told her to walk in and look at it. I said, "Look -- the guy running the shop is just sitting there listening to music. We can go talk to him; he won't mind us looking through his store."
And he didn't. In fact, he showed us that he had the same jacket in black leather as well as brown. And that the leather was extremely soft. And, y'know, why shouldn't she try it on? And didn't it look amazing on her?
And, after all, it WAS her birthday. . .
It DOES look fantastic on her, and, while we were on the train back to Bucine, Lis had me take a photo of her in her new jacket, so she could blog it.
Anyway, it wasn't that long after buying the jacket that we started figuring that it was time to head home. And we started doing so.
We got to the Duomo area, and headed off down a street to the train station.
And we noticed the name of the piazza we were in, and that we were in the wrong corner of Florence.
I looked at my watch. "Our train is leaving in four minutes!" I said. "We're never going to make it!"
Lis looked at me, and calmly said, "You're right. So why are you hurrying?"
I stopped dead in my tracks. You know that thing where your whole brain re-shifts enough that, for a moment, your body entirely freezes so that your brain can readjust?
There was an all-but-literal click in my brain, and, suddenly, I understood.
And, at that moment, I came to Tuscany.
June 21 was several things. First, it was the longest day of the year, being the solstice. Second, it was Lis's birthday. And, third, we realized that it was exactly my one-third-century mark.
It was also the first day we went into Florence.
Bucine, where we're staying, is like an hour outside Florence, so it's easy to hop on the train, spend the day, and come back. Which is one of the things we've been doing. On the 21st, we did said hopping with my sister, mother, and father. We couldn't figure out how the heck the ticket machine worked, so we ended up riding without the ticket, which is a gamble . . . if you get caught, it's a five euro fine. As it happened, we got caught, and our tickets cost 10 euros apiece, rather than 5 euros. Oh, well.
My sister was hungry enough to be grumpy on the way in, so we stopped at a cafe when we got into Florence, and had pastries and fruit and coffee and juice and stuff. After doing so, we all felt in much better moods, not only Leila. Healthy blood sugar levels are a good thing.
Then we began wandering about the city together. We headed toward the Duomo, and just walked around that area, admiring the gorgeous cathedral, and eventually (after looking at the outdoor spot with dozens of famous statues, including the reproduction of Michalangelo's David (the original is in the Acadame museum, but the reproduction is in the original space where it was put) headed off to the Uffizi Gallery, where we had timed tickets for 12:45.
See, there are always HUGE lines for the Uffizi Gallery, not least because they only let about 600 people in the place at a time. And because it's one of the greatest art museums in the world, and one of the absolute-must-see things of Florence. So, if you wait in line, you can expect to wait for HOURS. And it's honestly worth it.
But, you can also make reservations ahead of time. I mean, you have to make them a couple weeks or even a month or two ahead, but you can do it. Then, you can just show up there, go to an entirely different door, buy your tickets (cash only), and stand in a much, much shorter line consisting only of those people who knew that you're allowed to make reservations.
There's not much I can say about the Uffizi. It was originally an office building ("uffizi" means "offices"). But, see, it was an office building for the Medicis. They had this idea that they ought to impress the hell out of everyone, so they could intimidate anyone going to their offices into knowing just how damn powerful they were. And they decided that making an incredibly beautiful building and then filling it with art would be pretty impressive and intimidating.
When the Medicis finally lost power and the city took over the building, they decided to clear out the actual offices, and fill it with MORE art and make it into a museum.
You've seen pictures of many of the pictures we saw. The Uffizi has some of the greatest works from, as Lis said, "all four of the Ninja Turtles." As well as, like, ALL of the best things Botticelli did, such as "Venus on the Half Shell."
Leila, Dad, and Mom had a bunch of other things they wanted to do, and we decided to split up, so they could see, for instance, the Synogogue in Florence, while we continued looking through the museum. They "only" stayed in the museum for two hours, while we stayed closer to three hours, and then headed out to wander through the city, vaguely looking for food.
We found a small bar somewhere off a side street, and sat down. Wine was 1 euro a glass, so we got one red and one white, we each got a bottle of seltzer (aqua frizante) for 0.40 a bottle, and we got a ham-and-cheese sandwich (well, prosccuto panini) for me and a pizza for Lis. Both of those were just in the display case, and they heated them up.
So we had a reheated pizza and a reheated ham and cheese sandwich.
It was among the best lunches I can remember. I mean, it was just that good.
Someone next to us had wine with some liquer of some sort poured into it, so we got two of those. And we got another wine.
So, we then wandered out and started just more-or-less wandering randomly. We walked past many shops, and Lis saw a cute leather jacket on a mannequin. She pointed it out to me, and started to walk on, but she looked like she wanted to see it more, so I told her to walk in and look at it. I said, "Look -- the guy running the shop is just sitting there listening to music. We can go talk to him; he won't mind us looking through his store."
And he didn't. In fact, he showed us that he had the same jacket in black leather as well as brown. And that the leather was extremely soft. And, y'know, why shouldn't she try it on? And didn't it look amazing on her?
And, after all, it WAS her birthday. . .
It DOES look fantastic on her, and, while we were on the train back to Bucine, Lis had me take a photo of her in her new jacket, so she could blog it.
Anyway, it wasn't that long after buying the jacket that we started figuring that it was time to head home. And we started doing so.
We got to the Duomo area, and headed off down a street to the train station.
And we noticed the name of the piazza we were in, and that we were in the wrong corner of Florence.
I looked at my watch. "Our train is leaving in four minutes!" I said. "We're never going to make it!"
Lis looked at me, and calmly said, "You're right. So why are you hurrying?"
I stopped dead in my tracks. You know that thing where your whole brain re-shifts enough that, for a moment, your body entirely freezes so that your brain can readjust?
There was an all-but-literal click in my brain, and, suddenly, I understood.
And, at that moment, I came to Tuscany.