Florence, Lucca and A Night In London
I feel like I start all of these off the same way.
Just, for all future blogs assume that I am tired, its just a given at this point.
I got back from my trip to Student Pride / Italy Saturday night at around 7pm. I know I say this and it really depends but I think I'm super down with the idea of paying the extra like fifty quid or whatever and flying into Cardiff rather than back into London because I had an exceptionally long day.
I flew out of Florence, Italy at two in the afternoon (it's only like a two hour flight back into London, Gatwick) but I then had to make my way from Gatwick back to Cardiff which is another three hours-ish. Of course me being me I agreed to go out clubbing that night too so needless to say I was / am tired.
Anyway, enough about after I got back I'll tell you all about my trip(s)!
Photo Cred : http://cdn.londonandpartners.com/asset/restup-london-0db670f53e14c76cd7e54117af38d380.jpg
As I said National Student Pride stretched the Friday and Saturday of last weekend but I flew out to Italy on the following Monday. This effectively meant that I had to find a place to stay for the Sunday night before I could fly out of Gatwick Airport Monday afternoon. I ended up booking a bunk in the Rest Up (Discoll House) hostel which I found on AirBnB. Honestly it wasn't the worst. I'm pretty sure I covered this in my previous post but the staff was really friendly, the shower was A++ and the location fairly convenient. I didn't necessarily like sharing a room with seven other people but whatever, we play the cards we're dealt.
It only cost sixteen Canadian so I'm pretty happy with that.
My flight out to Florence
The next day I caught my flight to Florence, Italy and from there made my way by train to Lucca. For those of you wanting to travel to Florence there is a bus almost right outside the airport which costs six euro and will take you to the main train station. From Santa Maria Novella it takes roughly an hour and a half to get to Lucca. If, like me, you don't speak a word of Italian there are a few things to be aware of when coming to Florence (at least by train).
1. At the train station there are ticket machines with an English option and buying a ticket is easy and reasonably priced.
2. When taking a train you need to validate your ticket! There is a large fine if you don't and they check often (look for the little green machines mounted on the walls.)
3. This is important. I would highly suggest using a money belt to store you're valuable documents / money and don't ever pay a person who isn't an official that works at the station. There are pickpockets and general thieves in this area who will try to deceive you. All train station personal will be wearing a uniform.
Lucca though is a beautiful town.
Yes, town not city.
The amount of history and culture just constantly surrounding you can be overwhelming at times. My Mom (oh yah I was going to Italy to see my Mom) speaks fluent Italian and she and her friends attend this international language school and have done for several years. Over the three days we were in Lucca we ate fantastic Italian food, visited the marble quarry where Michelangelo sourced his marble and just walked a hell of a lot.
Italy for me was a very different experience from England and Wales. Everything here (in Cardiff) is old, yet modern if that makes sense. It has history but a lot of work has been done to modernize buildings and cities.
In Italy it's completely different.
I'm not saying it's bad, just different.
I'm very much a modern city boy. I love history, especially ancient Greek and Roman history but I prefer to live my life in the present day. That is basically impossible in Italy because, as I've said, there aren't really any modern buildings. Everything is a mashup of every civilization which has claimed it over the centuries. Nothing demolished and built again just a sort of combination of everything.
View from the top of Carrara marble quarry
From Lucca we said goodbye to my Mom's friends and the two of us headed to Florence. My Mom has visited Italy many times and so she knew exactly what we could see on our very strict schedule. We had two full days in Florence so we visited the Uffizi Gallery, The Accademia Gallery and the Madici Chapel. I was lucky because as a EU citizen (I'm British) I get really discounted museum entrance rates, around 4-5 euro mostly.
The Uffizi holds a bunch of famous paintings, most notably Michelangelo's Birth of Venus. The Accademia is where The Statue of David is kept and the Medici Chapel celebrates one of Italy's most notable noble families.
The Birth of Venus - Michelangelo
The Uffizi Gallery is where we spent most of the Friday. My mom and I do museums very differently but they do have audio-tours which makes it easier for someone like me (who doesn't know a lot about art history). See, my mom likes to read every piece of information on every piece of artwork where I like to wander a little more. Regardless we spent a good three hours in there and I'm sure we could've spent more. It's huge and every wall and room are full of art. Mostly from the renaissance but Classical Greek and Roman statuary as well.
Italy is a place that needs to be lived and I can only explain so much of it before I sound redundant. The cities I visited aren't like anything I have ever experienced and although I would never live there, they are obviously beautiful in their own way.
The Statue of David - Michelangelo
Now on that cliched ending I shall talk to you guys next week
I'm working on building in different photo galleries on my site dedicated to the different places I've traveled so totally look out for that in the coming week or two.
G-