Florence -Visiting the birthplace of renaissance

With out doubt, good weathther has been trying to catch up with me. Whenever i am leaving a city i can see the skies clearing up. Finally it caught up with me in Florence. My host Pasquale is a typical Italian from south of Italy,  with a sense of humor and a heart laugh. He is an economist and a consultant, and visits Florence occasionally. He rents out the roons to the university students near by, and unfortunately for me, he just found new tenants. The room reserved for me has gone to a Hungarian girl, and the other one to a British guy, so my bed is now in the living area. ” you have lost a good room but gained good company” Pasquale said with a laughter.

Cycling in a new city is not a good idea. Any thing can go wrong with the cycle, the traffic and the weather, but when he offered me his cycle to tour the city, i took the chance, and was very relieved to bee back home with nothing going wrong with three cycle, traffic or the weather. It is a magnificent but small city, very doable on the cycle. It was the center of art and culture in the 15th century, and widely considered to be the birth place of Western civilization.  

Florence certainly made up for the disappointment of Milan. Even better, this was the cultural promotion week in Italy so lot of attractions were free, though i had pre-reserved some key attractions to avoid the long queues. That turned our to be a good idea and i could cover a lot in a couple of days,  including Santa Maria cathedral, church of Saint Croce, the duomo, Bargello museum, and the most famous Uffizi. What i didn't finish myself, Pasquale showed me on a private guided tour the second day, along with the historical nuggets to go with it.

Some of the views from the old bridge and Michael Angelo plaza were magnificent . The paintings and the sculptures were astonishingly beautiful, and i finally understood why among the thousands of beautiful sculptures, some like the statue of David are considered path breaking and pinnacle of the art form. It was easy to imagine what the city must have been like in its hey days. Luckily, it still retains its charm from centuries ago.



Location : Via Francesco Caracciolo, 77, 50133 Florence,