As we close out our first month on this grand expedition, we thought it would be good to reflect back on our planning process and why we chose to begin our trip in Italy, in general, and Florence in particular. Our thinking was to begin with an area with which we had some knowledge, thus making the transition from the American life style to the European one, a bit easier. Lori has been to Italy once before, and this is my third trip here. Therefore, we are somewhat familiar with the lay of the land and how to get around. We had already seen the major tourist sites during our previous trips. This time, we wanted to get below the level of tourist and see the smaller shops and markets, eat in restaurants more geared to local Italians, as well as how to deal with the banks (for instance, you can not get money from a teller, you HAVE TO go to an ATM ). By spending 30 days here rather than the typical one or two weeks, we were able to get to know what the down-to-earth every day Florencian did here; where did they go for pizza or spaghetti ? In many respects, we feel we were successful. Yes, we did visit museums, but many of them were the smaller, out of the usual tourist traffic areas. We met, talked with, and in one instance we were adopted by, school children from all over Italy ( elementary, secondary, and high school groups, including a choir group from greater Tuscony) and Europe as well ( we met some very nice high school students from Germany).
When we first arrived here one month ago, we immediately became aware of a lot of construction and renovation work around the Duomo, the Baptistry, and surrounding streets. How nice, we thought, they were doing their best to keep Florence looking nice. There was an ulterior motive, we quickly learned. The Pope is scheduled to visit here in February and celebrate a mass in the Baptistry and the city of Florence wants to put its best face forward.
Tomorrow we take the train to Rome and a new chapter will begin.
Ciao
RSS Feed
