firenze, Italia

So this weekend was the trip to Firenze (Florence), Italia... it was also the first time that i'll be exploring a new city all alone (well klagenfurt didn't really count.. and the states stuff is different from kraft)

Right now I'm just chilling at the internet booht (free) at Locanda daniel, my hostel and waiting until 7pm to go down and grab a bite then head to the train station. My stay at Florence was a total of 39 hours and yet i feel that i've done all that i could have done in the city. ( Well, if i had an extra day, iàd be taking that trip to the outlet mall called 'the Mall' where they sell the Florence brand like Gucci, Fendi, Prada, Ferragamo cheap, but no time, and also if another extra day, then i'd go to chianti area to taste some fine italian wine...actually if i wasnt travelling alone, id be less weary to try out the wines...since they are so cheap here)

anyways enough enough... i should begin with my travel journal from yesterday morning onward...

FIRENZE, ITALIA

Friday June 22, 2007

I was extremely nervous about travelling to Italy by myself from everything that I’ve heard with pick pockets. I was a bit worried that I was going to get mugged and after a conversation with William and Ian prior to my departure (23:58 night train) it got better and it got worse.

Anyways, I was really prepared for my trip and didn’t carry a lot of cash in visible places. I had the bulk of my money in my money belt as well as my 2 travellers cheques, health card, ISIC card, passport, return train ticket and most importantly my credit card. I went and bought a bike lock for my backpack so that I can lock it to the overhead rail of the train cart.

The 20 minute walk from my place to the train station was a bit scary. (I’ve never walked out into the streets after dark yet, only really early in the morning, like 5). I chose the longer route just so that I can stay on the main streets and got to the station safe and sound.

Because there was reserved seating and I was only able to get a seat this time around for 40 euro each way >< (but a couchette and a sleeper next week for rome, yay!), I had to locate my seat. Guidebook says that for lone traveller, the safest compartments are the ones with families in them. Lucky for me, my compartment had a mom dad and a daughter and some guy in it. It was a really stuffy and crowded compartment for my 6 hour ride. (This was the first exp in a night train). I remember being checked my tickets billions of times (after each stops and there were like 10) so was continuously woken up. The mom and the dad wouldn’t shut up even though their daughter was obviously asleep and everyone else was trying to sleep. Each time the train stops, the ventilation also stops.. there was no air and it was soo hot. So I thought all trains are like this.. but I was proven wrong on my way back.

Saturday June 23, 2007

So after a really hot and stuffy train ride, luckily people in my compartment did not smell.. and not knowing when my stop is (because Italian train conductors don’t check as much as the Austrian ones, so no one told me where we were), I had to guess at my arrival time to know when to get off, I finally arrived in Firenze, Italia (in Italian) safe and sound! I was on my guards at the train station (as they are known to be quite a bit of crime there), located the police station, and then started wandering to the postcard stands. Check in was at 9, so I had 3 hours to spare. After purchasing my post card I decided to locate my hostel, there was a big group of teenagers following a guide, looking like a school group who has also just gotten off the train, so I just walked with them for safety reasons.

Italian street numbers are weird, one street merges into another and they are randomly spaced with red and black letters that goes in ascending order meaning, you can see (red 100, red 102, black 20, red 104, black 22, black 24, red 106… ) etc.. you get the point. Red numbers are commercial numbers and black ones residential. So it’s almost like two streets combined into one… talk about it being confusing..

Anyways, I didn’t have much trouble finding where I needed to go, my hostel – Locanda Daniel, as the map was quite good. But it was still only 6:30am.. and ppl on the street are kinda scary looking, so I walked back to the train station and decided to hang out at the Mickey D’s across from it and write some postcard, and do some planning. I bought a really expensive piece of sweetened pineapple piece (I thought it was like a pineapple freezie type thing) but nope.. it was just a piece of pineapple.. and then sat there for about an hour writing postcards.

I then checked out the Market of San Lorenzo. Street vendors were still setting up their booths (this looked a lot like hong kong streets – “lady street” and “garden street”) mostly selling Florence souvenirs and leather goods, bags, shoes, belts.. and also went into the market building where it was a fresh meat market, also selling Italian wine and cheese, reminded me of the fresh meat market in Kowloon city in HK

It was about 8 when I decided to walk back to find the recommended breakfast place, Bar gusto, to have breakfast there. I had a really really good cold coffee (because I was hot), it was served black and I had to ask in order to get milk. After I checked in and unloaded some of my more bulky stuff (clothes, bike lock, toiletries) into the room – pay attention here – on a shelf after the lady said I could do it. I quickly changed out of my train clothes, got my sunscreen on and set off to my appointment with David. (oh btw, the map they gave me really sucked, so I bought a Florence guidebook with a real city map)

I located the Accademia gallery with no problems and there was already quite a line up going on. (gallery opens at 8:15.. people probably started lining up then). Because my hostel made my reservation for me, I managed to skip the line and go into a shorter reservation line to line up. It wasn’t so much as lining up as they let you in once your appointment time comes. We waited for about 15 minutes, I started chatting to the family group behind me who are from South Carolina, and I got in at 10am sharp. The gallery was a bit small but they were really mean for not taking credit card, (I have a low cash situation) – so I had to hand over my 13 euros cash in order to get in. ( 10 for entrance, 3 for reservation.. totally worth it). There were quite a bit of art on display and Michelangelo’s other sculptures like the 4 prisoners. Then in the center of the tribune stood David. He was massive – I think about 12 feet tall (estimation from measuring a tall guy standing at the foot). It was absolutely stunning and so real. My favourite is his arms and his hand, there were veins visible and the details of the fingers was breathtaking. You can definitely sit there and stare all day long. There were a bunch of art students sitting around doing sketches (you’re not allowed to take pictures, but people did it anyways, so I did it too *shhh*)

So after about an hour to an hour and a half in the gallery (small but there was another side to it with instruments on display – I didn’t go in). I decided to make my way down to my next appointment and explore the city a bit.

Walking towards the famous landmark of Florence, the Duomo, it was actually quite scary, first you have watch out for weird people who might pose a threat to your belonging and safety, then you have to watch out for bikes, who speed through like theres no tomorrow, then there’s motor scooters, who make a lot of noises and travel at high speed, then cars who could care less if they run you over, and finally the busses and transits..

The Duomo was a very large structure and the marble façade was breathtaking in the sunlight. The amount of details and just the building as a whole, combined with the famous red dome top at the back of it is just a great piece of architecture. Continued to walk south, through a street of a lot of clothes/cafes/gelato stores, I arrived at Piazza di Signoria, where there was a palace of some sort standing with lots of statues in front of it. There was the replica of David standing on the same spot that the real one used to stand. This was where I took out my sandwich and decided to eat lunch before I head inside the Gallery of Ueffizi.

It was a windy day and I almost got blown away. Again the piazza was full of tour groups (lots of Disney cruise ones with mickey mouse signs), souvenir vendors, street (fake stuff) vendors, artists, and even fake statues. I went to pick up my tickets from the reservation queue (which was empty), and then headed to the ticket entrance and got in within 10 minutes. Security screening was a bit tight and they had to check large backpacks inside the gallery. I listened to the advice from a friend and bought a guide book as supposed to the audio guide. So following along the guidebook and occasionally standing close to random English tour groups, I wandered through the 45 odd rooms of the Gallery. There were quite a collection, with the famous Bottecelli’s Birth of Venus, the Primervera (they were both under glass cases, which mean very important), collection of Michaelangelo’s works, Da vinci’s works. It was interesting that there were so many stories from the Bible, I only know a bit.. wished I’d paid more attention in RE (religious studies) classes back in St. Paul. Anyways, the guidebook came in handy and also listening in on the guide. The gallery was in a U-shape and it was quite big. There were so much to see and I actually discovered a favourite painting from there. The musical Cherub. The angel was so cute. (insert who it is by)

After about the 20^th room, I got a bit cold, it was very temperature controlled to preserve the arts, alarms everywhere and ladies that yell at you when you talk too loudly.. (strict security), and all the arts started to look the same. Then I just decided to go for the ones behind glass, because they are obviously more famous and only skim through the rest.

I got out of the gallery within 2.5 hours.. thinking that is there something wrong with my appreciation towards fine arts?

Anyways, after the Ueffizi, I headed west into the city and went to check out the Church of Santa Croce. This is the church that houses Galileo’s tomb. I had to put on my jacket in order to go in because churches are strict with shoulders must be covered and so are legs. Again I saved myself a bit of money but skipping the Audioguide and went inside. There were lots of tourgroups again, and I almost started listening to this one but they were speaking in a language that I couldn’t even understand. So I just went ahead to find a different one. Standing there and taking my time to take pictures while discreetly listening in on what the guide has to say about individual tombs. Galileo’s tomb was very symbolic. Lots of stories to tell, each individual component means something. Flames mean fame, his statue, his family emblem of a ladder, the heliocentric universe, geometry, astronomy… lots. Across from him was Michaelangelo’s memorial, mirrored in its splendour, apparently took 10 years to built. His was decorated with statues representing architecture, sculpture and painting. There was also the sister to the Statue of Liberty. Another very symbolic tomb to an important political person had a statue that represented knowledge, who held a laurel and was mourning. The same tomb also had another statue representing Italy. The rest of the church was full of little chapels (some of them are under constructions), with lots of murals and lots of history inside and individual themes. A lot of them were peeling off (hence the restoration) since they were dated from the 13^th or 14^th century or something.

After visiting the Santa Croce, I went to the famous gelato store Vivoli to find a huge line up. I had a raspberry and tiramisu combo and it was absolutely delicious. I tried to walk back to the Duomo to locate the shopping streets and make my way back to the hostel but somehow managed to get lost. Luckily I was able to find a church looking thing in the distance and ended up at the Santa Croce again.

When I got back to the hostel to rest up and decide if I wanted to head to the Piazza di Michaelangelo and check out Florence under sunset, I found out that the room has been cleaned and all my clothes GONE! It was not a pretty feeling I tell you.. I was quite frustrated and pissed off. Anyways, there was a number you can call in case of emergency (office was closed) but I had a lot of difficulties calling out with my cell (I later found out that you actually have to dial the “+” sign in order to call European country..weird eh) Anyways, I met a really nice girl named amber who was living there and she called for me. The hostel staff responded quite quickly (within half an hour and showed up at the hostel to help me out). It ended up being that the cleaning staff made a mistake and packed my stuff into the office. Good thing I didn’t lose anything valuable (they were all disposable, just pain in the butt to replace, like clothes and toiletries)

Anyways I was able to talk to Amber and also met a bunch of graduates from HKU who are on a grad trip. They went to do laundry and when they came back I decided to join them for the evening to head to Piazza Di Michaelangelo (coz safer, otherwise wouldn’t know how to get back after dark without getting mugged). So we headed out and took the bus across the river up the hill. The busses took forever to come and forever to move and cost 2 euros each for a validity of 70 minute. The view up there was breathtaking but because the wait was so long, the sun was quickly disappearing. There were street vendors everywhere selling fake purses again and even tripods. We took lots of pictures and also checked out the little café where the TVB series about airplanes had a scene in it. Heh We then waited for the night view of the Duomo and wanted the Ponte Vecchio to also be lit up (but it didn’t). After waiting for about 2 hours and wasting a lot of memory on our digital cameras, we decided to head home.

I didn’t have a chance to eat dinner, so we went out and grabbed an panini (only thing that was opened at like 2200)

The day concluded with us using the free internet at the hostel to add each other on facebook. Me attempting to turn on the broken A/C in my room (theirs was working), then giving up and borrowed their fan (lucily) and falling asleep to the hustle and bustle of Florence night life beside the window with the fan on and 4 empty beds (mixed dorm people were out and about partying – good thing).

Sunday, June 24, 2007

So I decided that I’ve done most of what I could in Florence and the only thing that was left was the Duomo, the Santa Maria Nouvella Church, and the Ponte Vecchio (didn’t have enough time, or else I would’ve gone to Pisa with the HK students or gone shopping at the Mall which is a bus ride and a train ride away for 30 an hour and quite a bit of walking –but you get prada etc… there; the HK students also went to Milan where they had a great time shopping >< style=""> Anyways, waking up at 9 which was nice, the room was again empty (these ppl don’t sleep do they?) I packed up and checked out, leaving my backpack in the luggage area.

Headed down to the Ueffizi (to look for legendary prada stamps- which I did not find) since the Duomo doesn’t open till the afternoon because of the mass on Sundays. Chilled there for a bit waiting for the post office to open at 11, saw the HK students again :D and then headed down to the Ponte Vecchio to check out the “Old Bridge”. History of the bridge says that it used to be populated with the leather and hyde industry. But because the making of the leather involves some sort of a process that dips them into urine and it get stinky and smelly, the Medici family (I’m guessing they are rulers of Italy/Florence/whatever), moved them out and moved in the neutral smelling gold and silver merchants. The shops are designed on both side of the stone bridge and they have modern glass display cases that are protected by metal/wooden drawbridge style “doors”. They were very old looking and it’s almost like you just fell back in time for a few hundred years. I walked to the other side of the bridge and wanted to check out some of the government building but didn’t really have THAT much interest.

At about noon-ish I went back to the Duomo to line up to go for my visit since I had nothing else planned for the afternoon. Surprisingly there was a line and the line began to move just after noon. By the time I got to the entrance, I realized it was because ill prepared tourist realized that it was not opened yet and decide to give up. Since I really have nothing better to do, I just stayed and secured my first spot in the line. There were an elder American couple and a younger couple behind me. We then began to chat to help the time goes by faster. The elder couple are from California and we started chatting about IAESTE and Biomed and etc. The younger couple are from (I cant remember where). It was quite funny as lots of other tourists (who cannot really read the sign, although it was obvious) kept on asking about when the place was to open. We were jokingly saying that we should put an arrow on “1330” to direct their attention there, or that we should start charging “a euro a question”. Then we had multilingual support too – Chinese, English, French, Spanish, German. Then we started saying it would be really bad if the place doesn’t open at 1330, and the people in the line up would not be happy with us. We were lucky though and the place did open. It got really crowded very quickly as the tourist in the line poured into the church. I did my share of admiring the architecture and decided to go for lunch.

Nearby, there’s a self service restaurant where I had a really yummy real Italian Lasagna. Even better was they took credit card and the prices was fair.

After lunch, I decided to wander a bit more and do a bit of shopping. I was able to discovered some famous brand names of high end fashion stores. (I really liked this pair of sunglasses from miss sixty), stores like Gucci, diesel.. All kinds of brands. I was so tempted to buy shoes (in all its glitters) but they were a bit pricey. I found a really cute dress from this store called “the end” who sells fashion made in france/Paris and Italy. The dress was a 59 euro dress and it was not really perfect and I wouldn’t be able to wear it a lot. So I resorted to getting a really nice top (made in France) and also getting a dress – summer/work/smart casual from a store called promod.

It was about 5pm when I got back to the hostel and I thought that I could rest my feet for about 2 hours prior to heading out to dinner and then to the train station. I took a shower and started using free internet to chat. Dinner was good, as it was another recommended restaurant by the hostel – 13 euro, ½ liter of water, pasta course, main course – juicy pork steak, salad, and bread. The people were really nice, and I managed to waste a bit of time and headed to the train station to catch my train at 9pm.

I made a reservation for the train and apparently this train was much more empty than the one I took to get here. I got a window seat so that was really nice and shared a compartment with 2 couples (younger ones and older ones, older ones won’t shut up again) . They all got off at Bologna and then two guys came into the compartment. The compartment was well ventilated this time and the ventilation didn’t stop when the train stop. Actually it was beyond well ventilated.. it ended up being freezing. It didn’t help that I was beside the vent, and the control was beside the door and the two guys each took two seats and went to sleep (blocked my way). So I was freezing on my way home but I managed to get some shut eye.

Arriving at Klagenfurt at 4 (again had to guess because no body checked tickets until I got to Villach, first stop in Austria), I walked home to Kolping and went right to bed for three hours before going to work.

This trip will be repeated next week, only with a 3 hour train ride extra to and from Rome.

Hopefully I will have just as much luck in Rome with my belongings as I did in Florence.