Adventures, miscellaneous

There have been so many experiences the past few days. They really all deserve their own blog posts, but that would take a lot of time. And I have to only a few minutes to blog before C-- comes back.

There was snow in Florence. It started lightly, with tiny flakes dusting the air. We went into the Uffizi, and watched from the windows as it started falling thicker, and then sticking to the red tile rooftops. When we went out of the museum, it stuck to our clothes. In 20 minutes, it would make a layer on your shoulders that was half an inch thick. It was great packing snow, too. Snowballs came together easily . . . not that I would know anything about a snowball fight . . .

In the morning, in Florence, I walked to the Ponte Vecchio. It's a famous bridge lined built up with apartments. On the ground floors, there are jewelery shops. On the top floors is a secret passage built by the Medici so that they could go from home to work without being assassinated. The point is, they were shooting golf balls from the Ponte Vecchio into the river. Anyone could come with their own golf set and try to hit balls onto one of three floating platforms on the river. There was a platform at 50, 100 and 150 meters. Presumably there were prizes. For the golf balls that missed their target, they was an inflatable sort of motor boat patrolling with a small net downstream.

The next day, we took a train to Rome. We had timed it so that we would make it to the Sistine Chapel. But we missed our train, and the next one was 45 minutes late due to the snow. So when we got to our hotel, we were in serious danger of missing the opening of the ticket booths. And this was the only day we could get to see it. Luckily, the guy at our hotel is incredibly nice. He called two taxi companies to get one that would come to the hotel in time. And the taxi got us to the Chapel entrance 5 minutes before closing. We ran past security to the ticket booths. The security guy was also very nice, telling us where to go. And we were the very last people to get tickets that day. And I chatted with the ticket lady in Italian! She said my Italian was very good, which means that It's not bad, although clearly distinguishable from real Italian. Given that I'd only taken one quarter of it, I'm pretty proud.

Ok, the Vatican museums deserve their own paragraph. They were incredible. First of all, their collection was huge, and encompasses Egyptian and Persian art, as well as beautiful examples of Roman and Renaissance works. But what really awed me were the School of Athens and the Chapel itself. I didn't realize Rafael's School of Athens was in the Vatican. I never expected to get to see it in person. And then there was the Last Judgement in the Chapel. I could have spent an hour just looking at it. I don't have an adequate description of the visit, except that some things should be experienced in person to get the full effect.

And today we went to the market at Porta Portese. It's got everything from antiques to books to underwear to pasta. C-- and I bargained for an antique mortar and pestle. That was a rush, although I'm not sure a blow by blow would do it justice. In the end, I stared the guy down and got my price; I'm sure I still overpaid, but it was exciting! C-- got me a little green turtle from a Chinese stand where they didn't bargain. And I tried to find a Calvino book at every single bookstall, and couldn't find a single one.

But C-- is back now, so I have to go. There is a lot more exploring to do!