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Notes from a Traveler
Jul. 16th, 2011 10:47 pm1. I have to catch a taxi at 4:30, because I have a flight at 7:10. There must have been an amazing price on that ticket, because otherwise I may need to construct a time machine solely in order to slap myself.
2. Two weeks is a very long time to spend in Florence. You could, actually, spend that much time just looking at buildings and paintings and statues and and and, but for me at least there came a moment when I cried "If I have to admire one more Annunciation then heads will roll."
And I love Annunciations. But eventually it all blurs together into an exhausting monument to Medici grandeur.
Next time I go on an epic trip, I'll try maybe a week for the big cities, and allot some time to smaller towns.
3. Best museum in Florence? Still La Specola - the Florentine Museum of Zoology and Natural History, with endless cases of specimens and the world's most evil aye-aye. Seriously. I think it might be a demon incarnate.
Although I did have a good time at the Uffizi. Just be sure to get reservations at first - you can buy them at Orsanmichele.
4. Traveling alone is an extrovert sport.
This may seem counterintuitive, but bear with me. If you need companionship, it's incredibly easy to scrape acquaintance in a hostel: you chat with your roommate or someone in the common room and suddenly you're all having dinner together, and making plans to go to the Michelangelo Piazza, and then they leave and you do it again. And again. And again. And -
An extrovert could presumably go on meeting all these lovely people indefinitely, but as an introvert I eventually got exhausted with the whole process and gave up. But introverted though I am, I'm not sufficient unto myself (life would be so much simpler if I were cut out for hermitude), and all that being alone is also exhausting. (Although quite conducive to creativity. I have half a series of murder mysteries planned.)
So I'm tired, and glad to be going home.
2. Two weeks is a very long time to spend in Florence. You could, actually, spend that much time just looking at buildings and paintings and statues and and and, but for me at least there came a moment when I cried "If I have to admire one more Annunciation then heads will roll."
And I love Annunciations. But eventually it all blurs together into an exhausting monument to Medici grandeur.
Next time I go on an epic trip, I'll try maybe a week for the big cities, and allot some time to smaller towns.
3. Best museum in Florence? Still La Specola - the Florentine Museum of Zoology and Natural History, with endless cases of specimens and the world's most evil aye-aye. Seriously. I think it might be a demon incarnate.
Although I did have a good time at the Uffizi. Just be sure to get reservations at first - you can buy them at Orsanmichele.
4. Traveling alone is an extrovert sport.
This may seem counterintuitive, but bear with me. If you need companionship, it's incredibly easy to scrape acquaintance in a hostel: you chat with your roommate or someone in the common room and suddenly you're all having dinner together, and making plans to go to the Michelangelo Piazza, and then they leave and you do it again. And again. And again. And -
An extrovert could presumably go on meeting all these lovely people indefinitely, but as an introvert I eventually got exhausted with the whole process and gave up. But introverted though I am, I'm not sufficient unto myself (life would be so much simpler if I were cut out for hermitude), and all that being alone is also exhausting. (Although quite conducive to creativity. I have half a series of murder mysteries planned.)
So I'm tired, and glad to be going home.
