Florence

Florence has confirmed my love of Italy, although in Florence the tourist presence is much more obvious, and you have to fight against each other to get through crowds. Yesterday, after catching the train here I dropped my bag at my new hostel, a very basic dorm -no kitchen, fridge, or lounge area, just a bed and a toilet. It's quite good, because it forces you to go out and enjoy the city, as it's impossible to enjoy the hostel. I've spent the last two days walking non-stop, and now my ankles feel like jelly. Yesterday I went for a scope around the city, which encompassed the Ponte Vecchio, where the goldsmiths are, the Palazzo Vecchio, and a bunch of churches – the Basilica di Santo Spirito, the Cathedrale di Santa Maria del Flore, the Basilica di San Lorenze, and the Basilica di Santa Maria Novella. While the churches are absolutely huge here, they are not very ornate – it looks like they scrapped the artistry budget and just built the biggest monstrosity possible, perhaps they needed the extra room to fit all the christians in. I checked out multiple markets, which line every street, as well as the leather markets with the hog. I also found the most awesome scribe's shop, with ink, pens, sealing wax and stamps, anything you could want in order to write the most stylish letter this side of Milan. While I walked past the Uffizi Gallery and the Palazzo Pitti, I didn't go in yesterday. Today, I visite the piazza pitti after a bit of a walk around. The part I was most excited about was the Giardina di Boboli, which are supposedly famous. In my opinion, they turned out to be famously crap, mostly consisting of a bunch of overgrown trees with grass and weeds underneath. The occasional marble statue was nice, but nothing like the beautiful palace gardens in Sintra, Portugal. After circulating the massive garden grounds, I headed in the museum, which was much more wortwhile – the treasures of the Kremlin were currently on display, as well as the most ornate carvings you could ever expext to be possible, and a few oddities, like a whole display of small statuettes made entirely of shells. The latter part of the display included jewellery with more diamonds on a single necklace than a normal collarbone could be expected to hold.

The last exhibition I visited was a fashion throughout the ages exhibition – I always wondered how dress codes changed from ballooning, multiple-layered skirts and petticoats to slim dresses. There were even some very old, preserved clothes that had to be viewed under a dim light so as not to destroy them further. While the exhibits on the different clothes were interesting, I came out none the wiser why people used to wear so much and why we are now more practical – the exhibit only vaguely postulated the culture and women's desire for independence fueled the change.