July 11, 2012
"...the ends justifies the means..." - You should know who said this!
Guess
where Niccolo Machiavelli was born? That's right: Firenze! We actually
saw a statue of him and I thought it was fascinating being in the same
place his ideas originated from.
(Here he is!)
But
before I go into all of that...here's something I've been thinking
about. Whenever we think about Italian cities, we say Rome, Florence,
Venice, Milan, etc. Why? Their original names are Roma, Firenze, Venezia
and Milano. What gives anyone the right to change a name into their
language? I never understood this about Mumbai/Bombay or Bhaarat/India
either. I mean first of all, it just makes it confusing when you're
trying to buy tickets to go somewhere...you can't find it because you
don't even know the original name. But more importantly, it just takes
away from the beautiful name that a certain place was originally given.
That's like saying my name is Dhara in India but everyone else can call
me Dora. (Please don't.) I don't think I'll ever understand this...
Anyway.
Firenze! We had off for the Fourth of July because JCU is an American
University. Instead of sitting around in Rome waiting for our trip to
Milano and Venezia, we decided to take a two day trip to Firenze. Not
expecting much, we arrived to our tour location ready for it to be over
before it even began. We didn't expect much from Firenze, but wow was it
beautiful! Every corner we turned, we saw something new and intriguing.
Here's a quick re-cap of what we saw with pictures instead of boring
you with written details...
The
Medici family's palace or Church...can't remember specifically. The
Medici family is one of the most important families of Firenze! We had
one whole 2 hour tour dedicated to learning about their history.
The most beautiful building I've seen yet...not sure what it is though. =/
Columbus on the right side!
Recycling
is very big in Italy (maybe even all of Europe). They have intense
machines like this with instructions on what the place where. At my
school, the city of Rome can actually fine us if we mess up too many
things. They are environmentally friendly!
Michaelangelo's famous David!
An extremely crowded Piazza...one of the common places to people watch in Firenze.
Part of a gold door that took 27 years to build...
My favorite "hang out" location in Firenze. So relaxing and so much to see!
Street artists!
Santa Maria Novella Church
Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge)!!
A creepy
looking thing I drank water out of :) Unfortunately, the water in
Firenze was not as cold as Roma or Venezia! I wonder why...
My absolute favorite street musician
A server we became friends with one evening...he was trying to entertain us without hurting himself!
So what
did I learn from Firenze? Don't judge anything based on what others say.
We fell in love with a place that we didn't think we would care for.
It's a simple lesson that teachers tell you all the time (don't judge a
book by its cover) but until we experience things like this, we don't
understand it.
What
else did I learn here? Do NOT take a lot of money with you because I
guarantee that you will spend most of it at the famous leather
market...which is HUGE! Image an extremely large street market. Now
multiply that by 10. YES, that large! You can walk up and down these
markets bargaining all day because there are just so many vendors
selling the same exact things...I must say that it was a great place to
buy souvenirs for everyone!
If
you're ever in Firenze, I would recommend the hotel we stayed at: Hotel
Spagna. The rooms are rather small but the location is fabulous and the
price is great. Their service is fantastic and the rooms are super
clean.
Anyway,
it's time to go to bed...unfortunately I didn't post as much as I wanted
to but I'll just have to start taking out a lot more time to do this.
So long!
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