Florence: Bobili Gardens, Truffles and Creepy Baby Jesus's

do you think it's Jesus's or Jesusi?

what we expected to be an easy and uneventful train ride, from Riomaggiore to Florence, turned out to be just that. After we'd gotten on the wrong train in a locked compartment that we weren't meant to be able to board on. oops. Instead of going directly to Florence, we headed north, to Bologna, where we then took a train south to Florence, adding about an hour and a half to the days travel. o well, we got to see some of the countryside, right?

Once we made it to Florence, it was just a short walk to our hostel, Luna Rosso, where we were had some of the best customer service that i'd seen in Europe. Run by Marco, a guy in maybe in his early 30s, was incredibly friendly, helpful, and a wonderful change from our hostel experience in Cinque Terra. he didn't hesitate to point out good restaurants, ways to avoid lines, and things to do. I would highly reccommend looking into his hostel if you're ever in the neighborhood.

Highlights from Florence include the Bobili gardens, which are behind the Pitti palace. while the palace itself is ok, there's some art in there, the gardens are breathtaking (but don't compare to giverny, imho). the major part of the gardens are set up to be a formal garden, full of hedges, grasses, and fountains, and light on flowers. but if you climb all the way through the gardens to the back, you will be wonderfully rewarded with a view looking out on the tuscan countryside.

For mother and I, Florence was a chance to see some amazing works of art in person. As an art history minor, if feels good to know that i've seen Michaelango's David, Botticelli's Venus and Spring in person, just to mention a few. I will also admit that I was a little spoiled by Paris, being able to go whenever i wanted to art museums, not during tourist season, but it was still great to see them. Also, at the Accademia, where David is housed, they had a fasicnating exhibit about rennaissance musical instruments. Julie Carolyn, if you're in Florence, make sure you check it out. you'll enjoy.

Now, besides some renown rennaisance art, Florence was bursting at the seams with medieval art. Simply because the nature of medieval art, it has a religious theme about 99.99997% of the time. the time period did not allow for a lot of artisitc creativity, thus a lot of the works look remarkably similiar. similiarities include goldleafing, a lack of perspective used, and what i've come to dub the creepy baby jesus syndrome. During the Middle Ages, the Divinity of Jesus was heavily emphasized, not his humanity (unlike in the renaissance, what with the rise of humanisism and all). Because of this, medieval artists were prohibited from protraying baby jesus from looking like, well, a baby. so what they ended up doing is creating a baby body, and sticking a full grown man's face on it, creating some of the creepiest looking infants ever seen.

Finally, a note about Italien food. it's good. except for the bread. sorry for those who disagree. We might not have, had we not been in france. but, Italians do make a mean truffle sauce covered ravoli, which my mother fell in love with, and has already sent me on a mission to recreate here.

next up....Venice

---Bisoux!