Florence: Golf, Football and Skeletons

We'd like to consider ourselves relatively well informed about the places we have been visiting - their historical importance and so on. Florence took us a bit by surprise though; despite both of us having studied history I don't think either of us quite realised just how great a role Florence played, not just in Italian affairs, but in shaping the world, for it truly was the birthplace of the Renaissance. The amount of art gathered here is truly staggering - we didn't even attempt to see it all, though we did go and marvel at the original David which even after clocking both the replicas was still astounding. (The 10 euro entry price made us appreciate the free entry to London museums like never before.) The Duomo's facade and dome are remarkably beautiful, though after the marvels of the interior of Siena's Duomo, the interior here struck us as slightly austere and understated, though there were beautiful frescos and paintings to be found there and in other neighbourhood churches we ventured into.

The sheer wealth that must have once resided here must have been exceptional at one time and beyond even the conception of most Florentine contemporaries. This home of Dante, Giotto, Petrarch and Michelangelo is filled with beautiful townhouses, their eaves overhanging the narrow streets to give some respite from the baking sun, which was cooking at 9am and 6pm, and pretty well unbearable at midday. The Ponte Vecchio, still lined with jewelers had a charm that survived the hordes of hawkers and crowds of tourists that rivaled Rome.There were surprises and treats everywhere; a museum of musical instruments, including one of the earliest pianos; a missed bus stop which resulted in us watching the sun set over the city from the heights of Piazzale Michelangelo; discovering quite by chance that on the second evening we were there a large street party, Bianco Notti, would be taking place in the old town around Palazzo Pitti to celebrate (we presumed) the summer solstice; once there stumbling upon a University Museum still open at 11pm on a Saturday and filled with animal skeletons of all shapes and sizes. Florence is a truly magical and surprising city.

If only the campsite had had a swimming pool!! It was baking - by 8am the sun was already high in the sky with the tarmac radiating heat, and at night we were sleeping on top of the covers. The campsite did however have amazing views over the city, which led to the rather incongruous juxtaposition of the illuminated dome of the Cathedral with the bar's big screen showing a rather dull football match between Turkey and Croatia. Loosing interest (in the match not the view) we made friends with Damon and Hannah, two Mancunians spending a month riding the rails around Europe. They taught us a new card game - Golf - which I managed to loose quite spectacularly just in time for the equally spectacular end to an otherwise dull match - two goals in the final two minutes of injury time followed by a penalty shoot out, which Turkey won. Another surprising turn of events.

Rome!!!

We spent 3 days and 3 nights in Rome. It was incredible. How lovely it is to go to a city where eating pizza and ice-cream (not usually together) counts as a cultural activity. Mmmm, delicious.

I'm talking about the food first as there seems to be no way to accurately express the wonderment of Rome the city. Ruins, columns, churches and piazzas that elsewhere would be at the centre piece of the town's tourist trail are here just tucked away, almost unremarked upon. It's not just the huge sense of living history that the Forum and Colosseum represent, but the way it's sucked the world to it; the Vactican Museum had a collection of ancient writings dating back to the 3rd millenia BC - 5,000 years have passed since those legal documents were written in cuniform on clay tablets. Then, wandering through the jaw-dropping private rooms of Pope's past, decorated with stunning frescos painted by Raphael, it hits you that after the Roman Empire came nearly 1700 years of direct rule by the Catholic Church, that the glory of modern Rome with its palaces, cathedrals, fountains, monuments, wide avenues, twisting alleys, shuttered town houses, parks and bridges is a religious construction, not one belonging to antiquity but instead to the Dark Ages, the Holy Roman Empire, the Renaissance, the Counter-Reformation and the Napoleonic era. Florence was a Capital of Italy before Rome ever was, and as we explored the streets there was the sense that Rome will always exist, perhaps long after the Church and State have faded. It is as if the city were alive, feeding on beliefs and ideologies, humans moving through it like blood in arteries, building monuments like muscles and either repelling or absorbing invaders.

We were both truly blown away. After the wonder of the Vatican Museum, we dared not face the majesty of St Peters so soon less its glory be lost or our brains half melted by the Sistine Chapel, the Borgia apartments, the Hall of Maps and countless other treasures. We went the next day instead and were almost blinded by its brilliance; unlike other Churches, often made of dark stone, that are filled with shadows, St Peters is a construction in marble and gold and glows in the sunlight streaming through the windows. That many of the popes behaved like the Roman emperors by commissioning huge artworks to mark their era as pontiff and also installed lavish commemorations to their predecessors was all to the good for the modern visitor. The place is stuffed full of beautifully executed statues, frescoes, carvings, busts and almost everywhere you look, there is something more to see. Plus, it is free to go in and thankfully, we got there early enough to avoid the queues at the entrance.

Next, we took a milk-float style city bus over to the Colisseum, which we'd marvelled at from the outside on our first evening in Rome, but now wanted to see inside. Well, it's pretty impressive, but actually it seemed to lose some of its magic when elbowing through the crowds to see where they used to pen the wild animals and where Caesar and his family would sit to watch the games.

A stroll through the Jewish Ghetto (largely closed as it was Saturday) and the charming Testevere district completed our tour of Rome. Our various walks over the previous couple of days had also taken in (to summarise) the Forum (left us both speechless, no mean feat) the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon, plus a host of other monuments in varying states of splendidness.

After all that history and culture, it seemed fitting to end our Roman Holiday by hooking up with three other Brits, (three Sunderland lads on a two-week holiday - Chris, Paul & Lee), to watch the football (Greece v Russia - not a particularly inspiring game), have a chat and drink lager in time-honoured English fashion. Next stop, a villa in Tuscany.