We made it to Florence late in the evening. Took a cab from the station, had a full on conversation about the weather forecast with the cabby- entirely awkward and fun because he didn’t speak English, and none of us spoke Italian- checked into our seven-bed room and went to sleep. It was cold and noisy that night, but we survived.
The next morning, Steve, Trevor and Farhan headed off to Rome. Erin, Dani, Em and I went to the Accademia to see Michelangelo’s David. We stood in line for about an hour, got tickets, and then made our way through. I spent a bit of time with Giovanni Bologna’s “Rape of the Sabine Women.” walked around and around it to find the most unusual angles, and then took a moment to sketch it out. I had not doodled for some time, so it was nice to be able to do that. When I’d gone around the room full circle to admire the traditional old Italian paintings and came to the entrance of the corridor of Michelangelo’s unfinished works, I saw Dani: gaping at ‘the David.’ I couldn’t help but giggle. Her happiness was infectious. She kept repeating, “He’s so BIG! He’s huge! Can we walk around him again?!” It was nice to be back in Florence. About three years ago, Linda- my sister- and I went on a quick trip with our high school to London, Paris, Pisa, Florence, and Rome. I didn’t think I would remember as much as I did. The gallery hadn’t changed much, but it was different. The electronic information booths were gone, and additional paintings were on the walls of the corridor of Michelangelo’s unfinished works. Other than that, everything was the same. I still liked the sculpture room the best. Anyways, we went off to find food, and then went searching of “Il Porcellino mercato” in the Mercato Nuovo market. Oh my goodness, was it a wild goose chase. not even kidding. We walked back and forth, up and down countless streets, stopping at random places of business, asking them were the illusive bronze hog was. We passed a beautiful market multiple times- markets are a siren call to me- and with much self control, we pressed on. Conveniently, we stumbled upon the Piazza de la Signoria. Marveled at Neptune’s fountain for a while, as well as Flaminio Vacca’s Lion, and then asked a plump Italian man with a thick mustache for directions to the pig. We started walking the direction he told us to go, and- much to our jubilation- finally saw signs specifying were ”Il Porcellino mercato” was sitting. Ironically, it was in the market that we’d passed multiple times. I don’t remember who said it first, but Erin, Dani, Em and I learned a very valuable lesson that day: “Moral of the story? Always shop.” and that became our manifesto. haha. The sun was starting to paint the sky with it’s setting colors, so we made our way to the train station to catch a coach to Roma. On the 4 hour train there, we played 20 questions and were caught in giggle fits. It was a long, but generally pleasant ride. The boys- Steve, Farhan and Trevor- called every hour or so to check in. We appreciated it more than I think they realize we did. And as a side note, I had that song that goes, “When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that’s amore…” stuck in my head - seemingly - forever. I don’t know why, but every time I think of Rome, i think of that song too…
