Florence, Again.

Hey all,

Spent the first day in Florence wandering around and just kind of checking the place out – plenty of time for us to do all the sights together, I thought – also bought a new backpack, which means I am on to my third – the second one had fallen to bits to the point that the even the knots that I was using to tie the broken harness onto the main bag had ripped out and by now, in addition to the top pocket being ripped open, the harness was being held by being tied on to one of the handles, and if that ripped out then I had nothing left to tie anything together with at all and it would no longer be a bag but just a cloth thing with some buckles hanging off it.  You'd expect more for 60 bucks on a dock in Livorno...

Also went to the Bronzino exhibition again which K enjoyed as I'd thought she might.  Pleasant day and not too busy – Florence is not a big Christmas destination – most people go home for Christmas and it is not that big a place.  We went to the sung vespers that night at the monastery in the middle of the city that I have mentioned before.

Next day, Christmas, I awoke in a poisonously bad mood for no good reason – we went to church where the minister gave the entire service in a mixture of Italian and English – she had not known Italian four months before getting the job –  and then lunch with the minister and a number of other people – including the American sculptor of the statue of St. Mark that is pictured – and the reason for my mood started to become clear as I was coming down with a heavy flu.  Was a nice lunch though, and good to spend Christmas day with some people – we all went for a walk after what felt like about a 20 course meal that went until it was dark, then K and I went home.

Boxing day I was too sick to get out of bed.  The day after that, the same.  Also the day after that.  Following day we went for dinner at a restaurant across the road from the hotel, which was my big outing, and then collapsed back into bed.  A bit foggy on the order of events that followed, but we had to move hostels at some point because it turns out that Florence is a big place for New Years, so we went to a hostel a fair way out from the centre where I had stayed before – K and I watched the fireworks as the new year rolled in from the window of the toilet of that hostel – I know how to treat a girl right...

In the last couple of days there K tracked down an English speaking doctor as I just wasn't getting better and I got antibiotics for what had turned into bronchitis, and did improve enough to do some things with her in the last two days – go to the big Palace near the Uffizi, which was a very grand building and also had that Damien Hirst platinum and diamond skull, apparently the most expensive art-work ever made (although according to a documentary I saw he kind of bought it himself in a round about way in order to keep his values high), which I wanted to see, despite thinking that he is less artist than flat out con-artist; the Medici chapel, and the Uffizi itself – where we had to queue for nearly three hours to get in...

We nearly ended up in trouble getting a train from Florence to Venice because they were all booked (would be no drama at all, I assured K) and had to get first class tickets for a late train and even then couldn't sit together – but the late train turned out to be good as it was only that afternoon that I finally managed to track down Model Agent who had gone MIA due to romantic week with someone in the country – so we saw her just before leaving and I retrieved all my stuff.

Anyway, sorry if this post is a bit dull – it was a pretty dull week for me and it wasn't until we had been in Venice for a couple of days that I stopped needing to go to bed and have a snooze every thirty seconds...  Have asked K to write a post about her week in Florence – in between looking after me, listening to me whinge and being kept awake all night by my coughing, apparently she had a nice time – but I will let her tell you about that herself.

Pictures.  1.  Christmas dinner.  2.  Florence on the evening of Christmas day – K under the orange umbrella.  3.  Outside the minister's house – K and another girl shadowy figures at the bottom – took this photo because that plaque you can see by the light fitting on the wall is the height the waters reached during the big flood.  4.  Underneath the statue of Dante is the figure of K, trudging back towards me – this was my first big outing day and I had to sit down because, pathetically, I did not have the energy to make it across the Piazza.  5.  K, on New Years Eve, living the dream with splendid boyfriend taking photos of fireworks through window of toilet in hostel.  6.  Marble statue of Mark, mentioned above.  7.  View from the window of Uffizi which I took because it is a nice one that shows the Medici's private walkway going all the way over the top of the Ponte Vecchio.  8.  My last shot of Florence.

Cheers, B