It certainly doesn’t seem like I’ve been here a month. But technically my first month ended on Thursday.
Before setting foot on Italian soil one of my goals was to do most of the Firenze tourist stuff the first month. And that I’ve done. All the major sightseeing in the Centro Storico is complete. Of course I will do more looking but I can wander farther a field.
In that vain and weather permitting, I am meeting with Rosario on Wednesday (he is my friend who lives part time in LA and part time in Montevarchi). He is a tour guide of sorts. That is, he works for a holiday resort and he often escorts tours to neighboring cities, giving them gems of information on the way. He drops them off and then picks them up at the end of the day to get them back to the resort. Since he has been so busy it has been difficult meshing our schedules, so I am tagging along with him when he escorts a group to Siena and San Gimignano. I’ll get to see the countryside on the drive and once we dump the busload of tourists I’ll get a private guide for the day.
Then (again weather permitting) I have reservations to spend four days in the Cinque Terra, beginning Friday. The hotel (as well as most others) is perched high up the hillside and requires (apparently with some rooms) hundreds of stairs. Therefore I am traveling with just my backpack. The computer and steamer trunks filled with cold weather (little used) clothes will remain here.
It has been a warm yet pleasant day. Overcast, mellow and lazy. Sixteen flowers on my new gardenia bush have opened filling the air with the scent of a 1943 High School Prom. Or perhaps, if you lean to the macabre, you might just imagine a funeral home. Nonetheless the air in my apartment is heavy with the perfume of fresh flowers. Outside there is a blanket of mock orange covering the still air of the city.
Your pictures for tonight are: the aforementioned mock orange, a detail from the base of a statue by Cellini (of Perseus slaying the Medusa), a relief of the Medici coat of arms, accordion players and the entry of the Palazzo Vecchio.
