Gelati, twice a day, everyday…

I have been in Florence for the last few days and it has been wonderful. It has such a different feel from Paris, Nice was some where in the middle, but Florence is all on its own. Yesterday we basically spent the day wandering through the markets. Its not quite as intense a china town in LA but its close. All the vendors are talking to you trying to get you to spend your time and your money at their little booth. Eventually you begin to see all the same merchandise over and over again and you begin to learn more about what things should be priced and how many x you can get for y. There is a where house in the center of the flea market and inside that is the food market. There are tons of butchers, ladies selling fruit, and cheese and wine stores for one to explore. One store was head and shoulders above the rest in my opinion not only did they have an amazing decor and friendly staff but their samples were delicious and plentiful. At another store I had the best pizza sauce I have ever tasted in my life. I tried some limoncello because I had seen it on a travel channel and thought it looked refreshing…not really it tasted like lemon cough syrup mixed with liquor…burning/medicinal = not refreshing. I also made a few people angry at the fruit market, but in general the Italian population seems to be a little quicker in temper than others so I don’t take it personally. At the first stand there was this cute old woman selling fruit and I thought I might by a peach so I asked her which one she would recommend…she spoke no English (problem) and starts reaching for a bag and is trying to put fruit in it. I’m trying to tell her I was just asking a question and was wondering which…she is putting fruit in the bag and asking me how much more…I’m saying no wait I don’t want that…she saying YES YOU DO…I turn and walk away…she gets a tiny bit upset. Next stand, I still would like a peach but I see nectarines. I think I would love a nectarine, but not one for tomorrow, no, one for now so it needs to be ripe. I pick one up and it feels a little hard I pick another one up it feels good, I hear a man yell NO TOUCH[ing]. I put it down and walk away…

Then an ATM ate Michelle’s credit card and that was the rest of the day…it’s okay don’t worry.
Then we went out to a late dinner and I had the best dessert I have ever had. It was simply fresh strawberries (maybe with a little sugar) on top of lemon gelati. Oh my. The sweet of the strawberries gives way to the cold and the zest of the limone and your mouth sparkles…and my eyes closed with every bite.

Today we went to a few museums. We went to the Accademia Museum which house the David. In the hallway before the David there are Michelangelo’s unfinished sculptures emerging from the rough marble. I was really excited to see those but was actually a little let down. I thought they were finished sculptures just done as if they were emerging from the marble…but no, they are actually unfinished. So their faces are rough without detail and the cuts are jagged. I had loved his thought that there was a being already inside the marble and that he was simply revealing, the sculptures however let me down. Until, I saw David. It was almost a setup. You are looking at these roughly done sculptures thinking the thoughts of Michelangelo, wondering what the figure would have looked like if it had been completed…and then bam…there is the largest and most perfectly done sculpture you have ever seen. It blows your mind to think that David is what Michelangelo saw when he found that discarded marble outside a church. Perfection.

The we went to the Uffizi Museum which holds a large portion of Leonardo Da Vinci’s work. The most famous piece we saw was probably the Birth of Venus. But the most impressive exhibit was Leonardo’s workshop. The exhibit contained numerous interactive pieces from his journals and sketches, his designs and engineering. It truly impressed me with the mind of Da Vinci. So far ahead of his time, so advanced, so wide was his knowledge and creativity. I was overwhelmed with his genius.

Tomorrow we are going on a bike ride of Tuscany…should be hot, should be awesome. Then we leave for Rome.