October 16, 1996

Walking into Florence is like walking into an art museum. Every street we saw was transformed into a gallery by a statue, a carved door, an ornate building or a marbled patch of ground. The puddle of rain reflecting the Campanile was art too. A copy of Michelangelo's 'David' towers over the Piazza della Signoria; Ghiberti's gilded bronze doors, known as the 'gates to paradise', adorn the baptistery. Even a girl taking a lunch break on the steps of a piazza warranted a camera click. And of course there is the Duomo cathedral with its enormous dome which, upon entering the city, took our breath away.

Our first day in Florence was spent just wandering. I found that those typical Italian streets I had imagined really do exist. Some are lined with Italian restaurants - small tables outside covered by checkerboard cloths, aproned chefs standing against door frames; some streets are lined with designer shops and posh lunch spots with glass cases of pizzas and pastries. There are streets with gelati parlours and cafes. Most all of them are narrow, curving up or down to end in a piazza, and most all are lined with motorbikes.

It wouldn't be wise to cross a street in Florence without checking and re-checking and then checking again. Motorbikes seem to dominate the roads. They sweep at high speed down the center lanes, between lanes and often up on the sidewalks. Luckily neither of us became road stew, but there were some close calls.

Day two took us to the Uffizi Gallery. It houses the most important art collection in Italy including Botticelli's Birth of Venus, Allegory of Spring and Madonna del Magnificent; as well as works by Tiziano, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vince, Giotto, Raphael, Goya, Rembrandt and more. Unfortunately some of the gallery rooms are still closed for restoration due to the 1993 bomb attack. Still, there was plenty to appreciate and we spent the morning awed by the works of masters.

To complete our Florence experience we walked across the Ponte Vecchio, a bridge built by Arnolfo di Cambio in the 14th century and the only bridge to survive the Nazi bombings of WW II. But how interesting can a bridge be? Well, it didn't feel like a bridge at all. The sides are lined with gold and silversmith shops (originally butcher shops) bustling with activity. When we emerged on the other side of the Arno river, we had to look back to convince ourselves that we had actually been on a bridge and not just down another Italian street.

Before we left Florence we took one more glance at its impressive cityscape from the Piazzela Michelangelo. If we ever come back, I'm sure we will be awestruck all over again. We loaded up the van, said good-bye to Hana and Craig who were on their way to Venice, and hit the highways. John and I have masterminded a whole new traveling itinerary. It means heading west through France into Spain to load onto a boat to Morocco, to a continent we have yet to explore. Arrivederci.