Firenze AKA Florence: Jordan

We arrived in Florence in the morning and headed out to our wonderfully located hostel. We get there, and as we are checking in we find out that the hostel has a pool, a sauna, a turkish bath, and 2 bars. That works. We head up to the room, toss our stuff, create a game plan, and head out into Florence. We walk down the market street full of leather bags and wallets, jewelry, ceramics, scarves, and of course the wonderful trinkets that no one knows what to do with that say Firenze on them or have a very suggestive picture of the David.

From the market we headed down the major street to the Duomo, Florence's main basillica. We decide to skip the duomo for the day and head down to the Uffizi gallery instead. The line, though not abnormally long, was not moving. The gallery had reached capacity and people were not being let in. Frustrated, we decided to give it up and come back really early the next morning. We walked back towards the duomo and decided to go see that instead. The inside of basilica was cavernous and aside from the beautiful mosaic floors and altar, fairly sparse. I found it really odd that a building that was so incredibly detailed and ornate on the outside could be so simplistic on the inside. Its also possible that a lot of the original decoration was lost, damaged, or moved. The floor of the basilica, however, was decorated with beautiful marble in mosaic form.

After the Duomo we headed towards the Jewish quarter of the city to find the synagogue and find out about going to services the next night. On our way we stopped at the church at the Piazza SS. Annunziata. The church was absolutely incredible and contained incredible works of art and architecture. The frescoes, statues, and paintings of the semi- tucked away church were on par with works in the Louvre and Europe's other major art galleries. Everything was marble and gold, and all of the paintings and frescoes were vibrant.

After seeing the church, we continued down the street in search of the synagogue. On the way, we got distracted by a record store. An actual record store that sold some of the most incredible originals. My first stop was, of course, the Beatles and I was amazed to find original covers (and records) of Sgt. Peppers, Revolver, Yellow Submarine all worth anywhere from 25 euro to 950 euro. It was crazy.



We also wandered the streets of Florence a little bit, walking into only one random church. After sightseeing we walked over to the Jewish quarter of the city, passing an incredible, you guessed it, church a long the way. Check out facebook, the pictures are incredible.

We got to the Jewish quarter and made our way to the synagogue hoping to find out more about the Jewish community in Florence and attending services the next night (Friday). The woman told us just to show up at 8:00. As we were walking back towards the hostel we saw a sign for Chabad House and found out that they offered dinner to tourists and students on Friday nights after services. Since we actually fit both criteria, we decided that services and dinner seemed like a good plan.

After going to the synagogue we headed to the other side of the city to go to Piazzale Michaelangelo which is said to offer a stunning view of the city. After the walk across the city I turned a corner towards the park and found steep stairs leading up to the park. Slowly, we made our way up. When we got the top I walked over to the other side of the park. The view was incredible. It was just before sunset and the blazing sun lit up the entire city before us. The river burned gold, and all of the buildings stood out with their domes and towers. On the other side of the park you could see the countryside of Tuscany stretched out in a sea of neverending green. It was incredible.

The next morning we woke up super early and headed out for the Uffizi gallery. We got there as the line was just starting to form and figured that at least this way once it started moving we were sure to make our way in. Finally the doors opened and the crowd trickled in. We made it into the museum fairly quickly and immediately set out to see everything that we could. The gallery's collection is amazing. There are sculptures from multiple time periods. They mostly depict mythology and religion. The art collection is the most impressive I have ever seen when it comes to Renaissance masters (in much the same way that the Musee d'Orsay is the most impressive impressionist collection). There were a vast number of paintings by Boticelli (including the Birth of Venus), Michaelangelo, Da Vinci, Raphael, and many others some of whom I had at least heard of and others that were a complete surprise to me.

Suffering from sensory overload we decided to return to the hostel to rest a little bit. I decided to take advantage of the hostel's pool which was a great idea. The water was freezing which was a welcome change from the heat outside. Florence in summer is very similar to San Antonio in terms of heat and humidity.

After a swim and shower, with time left over before services, I headed back out to the market about a ten minute walk from our hostel. My stroll through the market included a quick stop at a little bakery almost hidden by the market booths. I picked up a citrus tart and enjoyed the quick snack as I headed back over to the hostel.

We changed for services and then headed out to the synagogue. The synagogue in Florence is incredible. It is done in a moorish style meaning stunning geometrical figures and designs. As expected services were Orthodox meaning women sat off to the side behind a mechitza, which in this case was more of a gate than a curtain. Services were short and followed by dinner at Chabad. There were so many people at the dinner, including a good number of students. One of the Chabad rabbis that was there had met a majority of the students in Venice just a few days before.

The dinner lasted over two hours, which is not a rare occurance with Chabad. After Chabad dinner Nathan and I headed out with two of the students we had met at dinner, Alexandra and Daniel. The two were from Germany and were taking the chance to explore Florence after working in a Jewish summer camp all summer. We had a really good time dancing at some random bar, wandering Florence, and getting caught in the rain.

Next up: Rome