What a beautiful town. To be honest, I didn't even fully appreciate its beauty while I was there on our first visit. Only when we returned a few days later, and after re-acquainting myself to my current open-air concrete prison did I truly appreciate what this place was.
As I mentioned in my previous post, our initial arrival in Florence came as somewhat of a disaster in that our airline overbooked us and we got booted from the original flight to Rome.
Rather than take their request of waiting until 6am the next day, which would require us to go back to the city to sleep for 4 hours and then immediately return, I kicked up a fuss and demanded to be taken instead to Florence as a compromise. The powerless staff acknowledged it and noted there was a flight to Florence RIGHT NOW!!! So we dashed for it and, well, that was that.
Our first impressions were dismal as mentioned before, as we arrived at night and the place was transformed by a lot of young, male migrants who really didn't help us by hanging out with their hoods up and hands in their pockets looking suspicious with endless piles of trash around them.
As the morning broke, however, the city was reset and cleaned up into the stereotype that it was meant to be: A haven of renaissance art and architecture. I quite liked our first hotel which was obviously a very last minute choice (We chose it after landing in Florence!). It was a bit grim and looked very much haunted, which was a cool tone to set on such an adventurous turn of events, and the staff were our first experience with true Italians, and boy they did not disappoint hah.
You can see how it's very construction kind of warps and twists around like it's about to transform into the hell-version of itself. The halls were needlessly long, as if all rooms were in a single corridor extending halfway across town. Pretty neat.
The first thing that flipped my opinions of Florence and Italy from a 'huge mistake' to 'this place is fantastic' were these street performers:
I absolutely loved their quintessential Italian vibe, going back and forth with their own solos and making the whole plaza feel jolly and energised. Kudos for them doing this in the high 30C summer sun.
To my shock, we didn't actually do that much shopping. The main thing we bought, as previously mentioned, was our wedding rings, since we decided to forego an actual wedding but wanted to look married. We went the very touristy root for this by going to Ponte Vecchio, which is an old bridge full of gold and jewelry being sold at higher prices than they probably ought to be.
Normally I would refuse such acts but to be honest, the idea of just spontaneously getting something nice and simple at a random shop in Florence... it just kinda sat well.
It took us over 6 months to choose a ring because after searching far and wide in Japan, in China and online, nothing really felt right going via the overthinking method. So, fitting with the spontaneity of the week, we just went for it, and I'm pretty happy with it.
The wife also got sucked in and bought some other ludicrously priced gold stuff but as long as I ignore my bank account it should be ok.
Ahh, the vibe. I felt safe, relaxed yet energised, and thanks to the narrow streets designed to bring the shade as much as possible, relatively cool. Still monstrously hot, don't let me trick you into thinking otherwise.
Mostly, I just loved the architecture and how well everything was taken care of. Coming from England, you just don't get this kind of beauty. Coming from China, you don't even get this beauty in fantasy movies.
These pictures below are just the norm. Take a google earth trip down pretty much any small town in Italy and it won't be long until you're met with this kind of charm.
Don't even get me started on churches. We went randomly into one simply because it was hot and the doors were open. And it was just full of vast, ancient historical art and relics and paintings. No security, no tickets, no glass walls or barriers. I could just walk up and put my greasy fingerprints all over half the paintings, while many others admittedly were behind ancient metal fence but you could, if inclined, step over and destroy everything.
But nobody does. This is how civilisation should be. I wonder with fear how long it will last in places like this.
Here's another fantastic structure. We were walking around at night hunting for wine or spritzes and came across this plaza where a pair of classical guitarists were performing free on the steps to an audience. Wonderful! Their skill was phenomenal and the performance was flawless. The acoustics carried and bounced around the square and we couldn't resist but to get the drinks outside where we could listen and enjoy.
(Hint: if the guitar is pointing up, leaning on the left leg, it's classical. If not, flamenco!)
Well, I don't want to bore people. Our return trip to Florence was even more incredible so I gotta do a separate post on that. Suffice it to say, I was feeling gooooood and slightly tipsy a lot of the time, after we discovered our love of Limoncello here.
