Tuscany, O Tuscany...

On Thursday, I took a daytrip to Siena by bus. Siena (and the Tuscan countryside we drove through) is beautiful, no question about it. I went w/a German girl from my dorm and we caught the last bus back to Florence that night because we were busy seeing so much... Everything we did was pretty much religious in nature: a combined ticket got us into the cathedral, baptistry, crypt, and museum. We also walked around & visited others churches that were free.

By sheer luck, we happeneded to be there during the short time of year when the mosaic floors of the duomo are uncovered. Very, very cool. It was really interesting, too, to look around the duomo and realize how much pre-Christian symbolism was present; it was all over the place. (Side note: There's also pre-Christian and Judaic symbolism on the exterior of the Duomo here in Florence. I spent a while just walking around & looking at it last night. It's kind of like they intentionally included the symbolism of other traditions so that they would feel included/welcome in the new tradition.)

Yesterday, I got up early and got to the Uffizi before 7:30am to start standing in line so that I could get in reasonably. (They open at 8:15am.) I was one of the first 20 people to buy a ticket & get in, but that would not have been the case if I was a few minutes later - by that time, there were literally a few hundred people in line. Crazy. That said, the sacrifice of getting up early (and the high 9.5 € price tag) was totally worth it; the artwork & sculpture was amazing. There were, of course, highlights such as Boticelli's "Birth of Venus" and assorted works by Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael - and even Rembrandt - but I really found that I enjoyed the lesser known (to me) artists. ...and I was smart enough to start writing down their names so that I can research them later... :)

Today, I've just been wandering around visiting churches that are free, sitting in the park watching little Italian grandmothers play with their grandchildren, and generally just relaxing. That's part of what makes a trip like this enjoyable, I think - having the time to be able to do that.

I also booked my train down to Naples for tomorrow morning & actually made reservations for my remaining destinations in Italy. I'm reaching the somewhat surrealistic point where thoughts of home, and of the end of this trip, are starting to manifest. ...but I'm doing my best to block out those thoughts for at least another week :)