lucky me

15/9/09

i tried to make reservations for academia, but everything was booked for the week. we checked out the line, but seeing as it went from the museum entrance half-way to the duomo, we decided we’d settle for the copies all over town, including the one by uffizi where the old david used to stand anyway.

we shopped san lorenzo market for most of the day, are the best pizza near the duomo, then sat on a bench inside to admire the cathedral’s pink, green and white marble floors and, of course, the dome.  i read that when the church was first built it had a hole where the dome is now. they were waiting for the technology to build the dome, which was finally completed by filippo brunelleschi. it was the first renaissance dome and the model for those after it.

san lorenzo market

the duomo of florence

inside the duomo

the duomo floor

from there we walked the pedestrian area down via calzaiuoli, through piazza della repubblica and piazza della signoria. in PDR we saw the obelisk, which marks what used to be the intersection of the two main roman roads, and in PDS we saw the copy of david standing where the original stood until 1873.

obelisk marks the point of intersection of the two main roman roads

fake david

after some photo shoots of fake david, joann, gaylyn and i dropped mom and gma at the apt while we strolled ponte vecchio to the pitti palace. hoping to catch a glimpse of the gardens, we were disappointed to discover the fortress walls hiding them. the upside to this “pitti”ful discovery was the little purse/shoe boutique we found which carried handbags we’d spotted at a different store… for a lower price, with a greater variety of colors, and a much friendlier saleslady.

view of the arno from ponte vecchio

on our way back to the apt we saw a cute restaurant called “caruso,” which is aunt ro’s married name, and decided we’d drag the other two back there for dinner. joann and i even know what gma would order. i had a salad with pear, gorgonzola, pear, and walnuts… yum!

after dinner we walked around without a specific direction in mind. we found a new square with a hog statue and tons of people crowded around it. one girl told us that you are to hold a coin in the hog's mouth and then let it drop. if it falls through the cracks of the drain underneath then that means good luck for that person. my coin fell on the first try! walking back to the apartment we passed by uffizi for our first night view and it was beautiful, not to mention there were artists and singers all around displaying their work.

lucky hog!

uffizi at night

area around uffizi at night

that night on tv we found an italian drama to watch and the girls created their own storyline – very entertaining! we were all shocked at the amount of killing that was in the plot, and i decided the next day that the show was to blame for my weird dreams that night.

before bed i searched for more accommodations in rome for friday night so that we could fly out of FCO saturday afternoon. this was probably another reason for my unsettled night’s sleep.