Florence, Venice, Dubrovnik

I’ve been neglecting again. Sorry.

After Napoli and Capri and Pompeii I made my way to Florence, which was amazing. I stayed at a very cute, very inexpensive Hostel right near the Duomo which was run by a surfer-dude-looking German guy. It had an amazing kitchen as well, so after a long day of sight seeing I would go to the supermarket and come home with loads of fresh pasta and sauce. I loved Florence so much I decided to spend an extra night there.

I went to all the major sight seeing stops in Florence, the Duomo, the Academy, the markets, some major churches and even outside of one synagogue. One night I hiked up to a church on top of a very steep hill and listened to some monks chanting, then I had a picnic dinner (caprese sandwiches with some white wine and fruit) on the veranda and watched the sun set over Florence. On my very last day in Florence I saw a student riot launched against the Italian government, which was very exciting. There seemed to be thousands of students lined up and down the main stretch chanting and holding signs.

The sights in Florence weren’t really a contributing factor to why I enjoyed my time there so much. Really it was the atmosphere of the city itself. While I did go to see the major artworks and churches what I really loved about Florence is hard to describe; the architecture is, of course, amazing, and the markets are really just incredible. And meanwhile in the background you have this lovely stone bridge with this amazing (clean!) river flowing through it. But even all of those things don’t seem to fit the bill as to why I loved it so much. I kept saying to myself “I could live here, I could live in Florence” because I felt so at home there.

The markets in Florence were sort of an Achilles heel for me. I’m really horrible at spending money, and yet I bought a cameo, a pair of leather sandals and leather boots all within a two day span. Pretty uncharacteristic of me. Extremely uncharacteristic, actually. But I love all of my purchases and have cherished them and worn them very proudly.

After Florence came Venice, and I arrived about seven hours later than I had intended due to a very irritating train delay, so I spent two nights there. Really the only thing I felt I absolutely had to see in Venice was the island Murano which is famous for glass blowing. I saw two glass blowing demonstrations and both times saw the artist mold a horse out of the liquid as it came out of the fire. It was very cool, almost surreal how easy they made it look.

Then I rode around in one of the water ferries, easily my favorite part of Venice is riding around on those boats and looking as the city passes you by. I’m not sure why, but I probably could have spent hours just riding around and looking at the city.

I also visited the Piazza san Marco, and many of the famous Venetian shops including one that had amazing handmade masks and another that was famous for its leather bound journals (I bought a little brown one, it’s gorgeous).

After Venice I made my way to Split, Croatia for a night or two and now I’m in Dubrovnik. Croatia has been lovely so far, peaceful and cheap compared to the two weeks I spent in Italy. Italy was lovely, but I’m glad I’ve moved on to the next place since I was beginning to get a bit restless.

I’ll include photos of Florence in my next post. As always the internet is sporadic and hard to navigate here. After Dubrovnik I’m off to Greece, which will happen after a very long day of travel which includes a bus, then a plane, then a train.

Wish me luck!