Firenze

Following in our established patterns, we got to the station at 9:35am in Firenze to find out about our 9:40am train, buy tickets and get onto it. Getting the tickets wasnt an issue- Finding the first destination, platform and location was. Come 9:40 we found the info centre, and they laughed while telling us "stazione dicasette, per numero dicasei e avanti, avanti, avanti! Pronto!" roughly translated, that means start running now to make up the kilometer to your train, oh and you have 10 seconds to do it. In the end, score another point for public transit systems having a laugh at our expense. Like thundering elephants up the wet and slippery outdoor train platform, huffed and puffed with our 20 plus kilos of Luggage and made it onto the train. 20 minutes later, we are rolling off the platform. Every train that matters that we have caught (metro aside) has been late yet we keep stressing about missing them. Ah well- this will be one of the last ones now I guess- We are on the plane back home in 1 week!

Yesterday we got into the free hostel-run tour of Firenze with a bunch of others from the hostel. It went past all the big things in town and was pretty cool. The chick even pointed out to us the hidden local spots for meals and coffees amongst the rip off tourist merchants around town. For example- I checked out a leather jacket for 900 EUR in one shop. The market the guide pointed out was 130 EUR. The first shop was just having a laugh though- Lyn found a fur coat for 38,000 EUR. thats $75,000 AUD and it looked like the fish suit steveo wore in Jackass, only it was made from fox tails, not pilchards. After the tour of Firenze's history and architecture we hit the Uffizi which is a huge art gallery full of ancient paintings from the Renaissance- Da Vinci, Rembrandt, Boticelli, Michelangelo, Galileo... Bugger though, the statue of david was out for restoration, Rembrandts were closed off, some of Da Vinci had been taken down, and the Gallileo room was closed. One random thing we noticed in every painting: The second toe is longer than the big toe. Also the fact 70% of the paintings were madonna and child, but they never depicted anything about his dad, and there were only three paintings, two of which by Da vinci, that acnowledged he was from the middle east in the buildings, and surrounding date palms, but he sill had a caucasian face and white skin... I stuck my head into the Da Vinci room, trying not to set off another alarm and had a quick look around. That bloke seriously looks like he travelled to the future, stole an engineering encyclopedia and came back home. Catapults, trebuchets, scales, helicopters, cranes... These were all frescos around the room, and the entire ceiling was covered in other designs of his.

The duomo and cathedrals around Firenze are amazing- We saw the royal (Medici Family) cathedral in town that remains unfinished- Beffore the marble cladding is applied, its just made of dark coloured rocks and mortar, with stepped horizontal ledges jutting out of the wall every foot or so. Seeing the finished product on the surrounding chapels, Im undecided what looks better. Builders of today I have noticed are a little different- this hidden wall had everything perfectly flat, level and uniform. Having seen modern houses in construction with fine exaples like the smashed brick chunks concreted together and shoved in holes, strips of gang nails to make up for dodgy measurements and walls that dont even resemble right angles, its no surprise that these buildings have lasted 600 years. The Marble facades that we came across here have been some of the most elaborate as well. Tiny intricate etchings and inlays in the marble, similar to those in marocco on soft chalk rock, are all over here- in some places they run the length of the duomo and are every few metres up- its no surprise it took 150 years to finish! The fact theres two 45m wide self-supporting domes with a stone staircase between them on the roof about 8 storeys in a time where they didnt have computer modelling, or even cranes is crazy!

After the Uffizi, we hadd arranged for a small group of us to head out for dinner so we wandered around the cobblestoned streets, through leather, clothes and jewellery street markets freezing our extremities and passing the time. In between we noticed a swanky gold-plated and marble facaded coffee shop that had a queue out the door and decided to stop in for a drink. Lyn and Becky got cioccoladas then had games trying to make the spoons stand up in the cup these things were so thick. By the time we left it was bloody freezing. I cant describe how cold it was- not really windy, but my arms, knees and face were numb and Becky taught us the ways of layering every jumper you posess ontop of each other- then pissed herself laughing because we didnt know about it before- She is from Brandon, Canada: it gets to 40 below there- to which we explained its about 80 degrees C hotter than that in our home country at the moment.

Dinner was at a local firenze place- It seriously looked like a hole in the wall pub with a pizza oven in the front corner. I asked for a tavola per otto, and we were led around a back corner... where the place opened out to a restaurant the size of a basketball court! Wierd. At the table we had Japanese, Canadian, French, German, American and Australian contingents and had a blast- Come the end, the table was full of origami, words scrawled on place mats in every other language and maps of recommended places to go. Something new I came across was from Matt from Colorado- he is a teacher at a waldorf school which is totally different to the traditional schooling systems I am used to. The same teacher stays with you from grade 1 through 8, and the lesson plans focus on incorporating physical actions and training mental stimuli to aid in the learning process at an early age over the traditional education building, then building on those mental patterns during the latter years to speed up the learning process.

The first day that we awoke in Firenze, we headed to the nearby Medieval walled city of Siena. Greeted by a huge fort, it gave a pretty sweet view over the city of the old town- every house with terracotta rooves, built of stones into steep hill sides, and overshadowed by enormous cathedral towers. Walking the streets there was just as cool- at every third intersection there was a new attraction and something new to see. The town boasts the biggest Cathedral in the world... Yep, its big. For lunch we stopped into a local hole in the wall near the Mensa Uni for a bite. We asked for a menu: No. I asked for a beer: No. We gave up and went with his suggestions after that. Lasagne primo piatti and a secondo piatti of chicken meatballs, chicken cutlets, fagioli and the mystery one: Myale something... Pigs liver. I wasnt that upset when my knife slipped and I frisbee'd the ball across the table. no liver for me. Im still not sure how our meal came to 36 EUR ($72 AUD) for the two of us, given the meals on the "menu" outside the front door said 4.50 each though. After that we continued our stagger through town, and on our way to the botanical gardens got lost in a uni, hospital and a kids playground. Needless to say, the petting zoo got a call up. Im not sure what they feed the animals- maybe viagra or something, but they need some divisions in there. There were two creatures in the thing that were the wierdest concoctions I have ever seen. A black Turkey-duck-goose-rooster and behind it a waddling Duck-platypus-turkey. Either way, Im sure they are all delicious, marinated in a selection of the kids' herb garden produce.

The food here in the Tuscany region has been awesome, but expensive. The local specialties of Ribbolita, Bistecca alla Florentine and Trippa alla Florentine are awesome, aside from one thing: Bistecca Alla Florentine. Its a rare-cooked T-bone with salt and pepper seasoning. What the hell? glad I didnt fork out the $40 AUD for it now.

Cool... our first serious snow! Looking out the window of the train there are rolling tree-topped mountains, the trees only sticks and covered completely in snow. The black rocks of the mountains are pretty well hidden in a blanket of while that only stops at vertical drops and under some of the larger olive trees fields. Thank crap I know about the layering now! I still cant bring myself to wear a scarf and gloves though- the next stop after that would probably be aviators and ugh boots. haha- Lynda just got back from the train toilets with a huge grin and raving about how disability accessible they are. She has gone off to snap some photos off a train carriage toilet bowl and is happy as a pig in the proverbial.

We are on our way to see the family in Rimini, and Im really not sure how it will work out now. They dont speak english, we dont speak italian... We do have a couple of gifts though, and its our aunt's birthday tomorrow and we both know the happy birthday song in italian, so we should have a win. Points to Lyn for doing the phone call to them last night- she still has no idea who she spoke to, but struggled through a "can you pick us up from the train station at noon" in italian. Im hoping there will be someone there... No idea how late the train is already though, but its 11:21am, we still need to get to Faenza and catch another train to Rimini- Im hoping they wait, whoever they are and whatever they look like.