Change of plans.

I was on my way to Venice when I just didn't get on the train I needed to transfer to in Firenze. I knew where it was and what time it left, but I just went outside and headed for the Duomo instead. Via a gelateria, of course. I keep falling into delicious trances while I'm staring at Renaissance art and when I snap back out, my tongue is happy and I'm missing a couple of Euros and there's a gelato receipt in my pocket. I hear somewhere around here has a rice flavor I'll have to sample.

Today was a whirlwind of sightseeing. Khiv, I have now had gelato at the top of the tower, and it was every bit as wonderful as you said it would be, though it was warm enough that I had to run up those 414 stairs while trying to catch the drips on my tongue. Giotto's Tower, for everyone else, is right next to the Duomo and has powerful views. I also managed to see the Duomo museum, where all the sculptures (Donatello, etc.) that ought to be inside the cathedral are, the Baptistry, Dante's House (more like mini-castle), the Piazza della Repubblica and its Abbondanza Column, Palazzo Vecchio, Pitti Palace, Chiesa del Carmine, Orcagna's Loggaria (ex-granary), the Uffizi Gallery (though I would like to spend much more time there), Ponte Vecchio, with its row of old shops, Palazzo Strozzi, Chiesa di Santa Maria Novella, Chiesa della S.S. Annunziata and the nearby orphanage (which is supposed to be the first Renaissance building), the Medicis' palace, chapels, and library (woo!), and the Orsanmichele, which has great statues on its external walls. Tired, I had another gelato and two cannoli to fortify me until I could get back to the hostel to make myself some pesto pasta.

I bought this jar of pesto in Cinque Terre and WHOA. It turns out I had never had real pesto before. It dances in my mouth. I have been having ciabiatta and focaccia with pesto at every snacky opportunity. I think I will go out for dinner when I get to Venice, maybe have some fresh fish and vino.

Firenze is so full of Vespas that I think I couldn't survive Rome. They're everywhere, rows along all the streets and zipping past the cars in silver flashes. This city is also full of gelaterias, as you can probably tell, tourists, stores like Bulgari and Louis Vuitton, gold leaf, and statues. The statues outside of the Uffizi remind me that Dante, Leonardo DaVinci, Donatello, the Medicis, Michaelangelo, Macchiavelli, Galileo, Amerigo Vespucci, and many more famous names all called Firenze home. Finally, the sun set, and I admired the ability of these suit-wearing Italians to weave home through mobs of visitors on their bicycles while carrying on a conversation on their mobile phones.