Mom and I went to Italy! A couple days after she arrived we jetted off to Florence, Italy. We had heard many good things about it and it was number 1 on Mom's list of places to go, so off we went. We had beautiful weather for December, hitting highs in the double digits the entire time we were there with sun every day. We couldn't believe it was December when everything was green, flowers were blooming, and the trees were still holding onto the last of their leaves.
Tuscany was more different from Spain than I had expected. It flourished during the Renaissance and all of it's sights boasted this. Moreover, the Tuscans seems to be very large fans of fresco. Instead of carving all sorts of stone for their magnificent churches like the Spanish, the Tuscans painted their cathedrals with arrays of white and green. We saw many churches in this design and it was quite interesting. But more than anything, those Tuscan's seem to have mastered that art which is food. I could have dined there everyday for the rest of my life. I was in a gastronomical heaven enjoying pizza, pasta, risotto, gelato, cannoli, and so much more.
In my opinion, Florence had many highlights. I thoroughly enjoyed how, like Bilbao, it is surrounded by rolling hills (My guess is they are the foothills from the Alps? While we were flying to Florence we had wonderful views of Lake Geneva and the Swiss Alps. It was a wonderful sight from above). Also, the Italian leather products made shopping delightful. You couldn't go more than a few feet without being tempted by purses, shoes, wallets, gloves... you name it. Of course, the food as mentioned above, and many sights. The ones that truly caught my attention were the view of the entire city from Piazzo Michelangelo, seeing Michelangelo's David in Academia, Piazza Duomo simply because I had never seen a church quite like the cathedral there, and Puente Vecchio. The old, old bridge looked like it was straight out of medieval times and was lined with little shops. From the next bridge over it looked as if people lived in shacks on the bridge, but once we were on the bridge it was a lively ambience and was very original. We didn't even realize we were on the bridge at first because it blended into the street shopping so well. Last but most certainly not the least notable were the christmas lights that lined almost every street. Although there was no snow, and the christmas ornaments only seemed to involved variations of the nativity, the lights on every street were beautiful.
Hasta la proximá vez,
Kathlene
