Florence, Siena and Lornano?
June 23, 2004
Florence wasn't as impressive as I expected. In fact, the whole town was a little annoying. It was extremely crowded with tourists (who are we to talk?) which created some extremely long lines at the museums. We waited more than an hour to enter the museum which houses Michelangelo's David, but the whole thing only took 45 minutes to see. And the entry fee was higher than at the Louvre. The Uffizi museum was a little better, but it had a longer line, insane museum attendants, and rules such as "No pointing at the paintings," "No umbrellas," "No gelatos," "No taking your shoes off," and "No using the bathroom." If the Italian people are supposed to be laid back, their museum staffers are not.
One bright spot in our stay was the baptistry. The doors are the famous relief by Ghiberti. Inside, the ceiling is completely covered in gold with a mosaic placed on top. Where they used clear stones, the gold shines through. The mosaic depicts the final judgement of Christ, as well as scenes from the Old and New Testaments, including the life of John the Baptist, patron saint of Florence. And like all the other cathedral buildings we've seen in Tuscany, it's made of multicolored marble.
We got to see Dave and Laura right before we left, but we were still happy to end our stay in Florence. We took the last train to Siena. We had reserved a hotel that we thought was in Siena, but it was actually in Lornano, a tiny village north of Siena occupied by only a restaurant. Our taxi driver, who spoke little English, unlike most of the people here, didn't know where our hotel was, so he just drove to Lornano and asked for directions. We ended up driving all over the Italian countryside up dirt roads, through some farmer's garden, and around roundabouts. Since our first attempt at directions failed, our driver asked the farmer for directions. These directions included steps such as "Turn left at the green gate" and "Turn Right at the Cross." It turns out there was a metal cross hiding in the bushes by the driveway to our hotel. By the time we got there, the hotel didn't answer their phone and was completely dark. After this, we were tired, so the taxi driver just took us to the hotel he owns with his wife. It was probably better anyway.
We've enjoyed Siena more than Florence so far. The Internet is even cheaper and more abundant, as is the food. The cathedral is beautiful. We saw the old Crypt under the cathedral that was forgotten for 700 years until it was discovered again in 2000. Tomorrow, we're going to try to catch a train to Assisi and spend the day there. We both want to see the chapel that St. Francis built. Then, we will catch the train to Rome, where we will stay for a while.