Gelati Gelato

I didn’t plan on falling in love while I was away, but its been just about a month and its happened. I’ve fallen in love with Italy, well more specifically; I’ve fallen in love with Florence. The wallet fiasco meant I had to choose a location to be in for at least 5 days so visa could send me a new card. If you have to be stuck somewhere I’d recommend doing it in Firenze (the actual name of the city). My first few hours in Italy were a little rough (as mentioned in a previous post) but I can pinpoint the exact second that turned around. It was just after the nap I so desperately needed. I turned right out of the hostel to do some exploring of the city and a mere two blocks away was the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore. I cannot do this structure justice with worlds. I came upon it accidently and hadn’t done any research as to its existence. It was so impressive my mind attempted to convince me it was fake, a Hollywood mirage of some kind. I stopped in my tracks and stared in awe at this man made marvel constructed in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The lines to get inside were insanely long so I decided to put it on my list for the next day. That evening I met a fellow golden age backpacker, Adam the Aussie, and we decided on making Friday the ultimate tourist day. We took the morning train out to Pisa to score some classic goofy photos. When we arrived we saw that we weren’t the only ones with this idea. Thousands of photos of people pushing, pulling, holding and squishing the most famous architectural disaster are taken every day. I am now in several! A short train ride back to Florence and we joined the relatively short queue to climb to the top of the Duomo . Most of the museums, sights, tours and such leave you with less euros and a feeling of at least mild disappointment. This was not one of them. Being inside and then on top of the cathedral was just as impressive as seeing from outside. My mind was blown over and over again as I realized I was walking on spiral steps that were over 700 years old and built without the aid of machinery of any kind. I spent an hour at the top just staring out into the rolling hills and ancient construction of a city hundreds of years older than anything that exists in Vancouver. Church steeples and smaller cathedrals poke out everywhere marking the importance of religion in the history of Italia. A gorgeous sunny day, a light refreshing breeze and one of the best views I’ve ever seen made it difficult to want to ever come down. We finally made our way down the maze of tiny staircases back to the piazza. Adam was off to another hostel and I was set to meet up with Mr Jonny C at the Hilton Hotel. Courtesy of Jonny’s current employer (Adidas) I was about to have a well needed break from a month of hostel bunk beds. The adventures of Steve and Jonny will have to wait for the next update.