Monday, 16th of September, 2019.
Again, just after Michelangelo drops me in the Eni gas station of Buonconvento, someone stops very quickly. Maria, a pregnant lady from Siena, but who now leaves with her husband in Montalcino, is going to work in Siena and decide to help me. She is very sweet and we talk the whole way. She is still in doubt about the name for the baby, who is a girl, and I said that Cecilia, one of her possibilities, it is a beautiful one and told her about our great Brazilian poet, Cecilia Meireles. Maria does her best to drop me in a place where people are going to Florence and could pick me up. It is actually a good spot and it does not take long until Fernanda and Giorgio stop for me.
Fernanda, Giorgio and Jacky (their beautiful white Labrador) are going to Florence because Jacky is ill. They are this really nice old couple and me and Fernanda chat the whole way to Florence. In Italian! She is very sweet and is fascinated by my travels. Her sons are away, leaving in Switzerland and in another big city of Italy, if I am not mistaken, but I cannot remember clearly. They drop me in the Michelangelo Square, which makes me quickly change my plans for Florence.
The Michelangelo square is really nice. Very spacious and with a great view of Florence, plus the huge statue in honor of Michelangelo in the middle. It is a great spot to spend some time, take a rest and some good pictures. I rest a little bit while rearranged my plans for the town. I had written down the name and location of a few hostel where I would ask to leave my backpack for a few hours and go to explore the city.
Florence is famous for the art and the Medices. They even call it the capital of art in Italy and the house of the Medices. Honestly, I think that both names are overestimated. The many galleries of the city, including the most famous one, Ufizzi, David from Michelangelo and The Birth of Venus from Botticelli, contribute a lot for the first name. I could not visit any of them, of course, because you must pay. As everything in Italy. And in this two cases, they really have no intention to make more people, the less fortunate ones, to have access to this so important art. There are almost no free days or any possibility of visiting the galleries without paying. Viva la Igualitá! Although, in the square in front of the Ufizzi Gallery, Piazza della Signoria, there are some really nice statues, in a area called Loggia dei Lanzi; and the inside garden of the Palazzo Vecchio, which architecture is amazing, can be visited for free. About the Medices, they have palaces split all over the city. From small quite simple to huge and fancy ones, those more out of town, which you can plan a more organized visit. Maybe for the Italians and people interested in art it is a nice history to search about. How they are connected to the art, since they contributed financially with the artists of that time, making possible that so many of this beauties we have nowadays (not we, just some of the ones with money) to admire. But since I was already a bit piss with Italy, I am not that into art, and all of them and this is surrounded by loads of money, I do not pay too much attention. Maybe I was wrong, I do not know.
My attempts to live my backpack in any of those places it is a disaster. Just no after no. And even one Brazilian guy, who is working in a hostel, says that could just keep it if I paid. Unbelievable! So I give up and just started to walk around the city with The Hulk. At some point, I ask in a small tourist company if I could leave in there just to go inside of the Cathedral. The nice attendant from there allows me. I told him it would take just 30 minutes or so. Once I get in the church, there is a huge queue. And a slow one. The only thing I do not need to pay to visit in Italy and I would not be able to visit. People are under the sun and the queue almost not moving at all. It is 3 in the afternoon, according to my timetable I decide not to visit and go to the next spot: The Oblate Library. I read nice things about, in how it is an old monastery and there is a view of the Dome, so I decided to check. It is not that nice but if you are around, why not?
I pass in front a few bookshops and I decide I would buy my Europe map now. Very important! So I walk in this one first, Libraccio Firenze but it is a horrible experience. No one to help, people do not care at all and when I ask about the map, they suggest me to go to the next book shop, Feltrinelli. This one is great! A nice old lady helps me to find the map and the other attendants of the shop are also nice. I recommend! So I get my map! Yay!
Next stop it is the Ponte Vecchio, this very famous bridge which everybody wants to see and be on it. I was curious: what is all this fussy about it? There are a lot of small houses on the bridge. Like not edges, but small constructions, like houses. But when I get in there, what a disappointment: they are all jewelry shops! Insane! What a waste of beautiful spots! And people going crazy, spending time and money in there. There is also another thing that I do not understand: why people want to take pictures from a bridge that is gorgeous? You cannot see the bridge then! Is not like the London Bridge, that is different! Those small and nice old bridges are made for you to take a picture from outside (OK, they are not made for that, but you got my point), made from the next bridge, and then the nice and beautiful structure will show up in your picture. In the back! No sense.
Carry on… after buy some food I pass in front of this other Medice palace, Pallazo Pitti. It is a pity that so many people come to see. Maybe it is beautiful from inside because outside, pfff, looks like a box for me.
I also walk into this big church, Sto Spirito, which has some nice paintings inside. And taking that direction I am getting out of town, in direction of Pisa, to camping somewhere. Bad idea at first, since I thought that camping around one of the “doors” of town would be fine. Nope! So I carry on, walking in the direction of the road where I would hitchhike next morning. I ask for some directions to a guy in a pub. He sounds very nice and into hitchhiking and blablacar. Maybe if I had been honest with him about the camping plan, he could even had offer some help. But I am too stupid and scared to do that. So I find, luckily, this small empty space, with a big tree in the middle, just between some residencial buildings. I felt quite safe because if anyone come to bother me, I could just ask for help. So my bigger concern it is actually being caught for some security, or police, or some jerk neighbor who does not like foreigners and could decide to piss me off. Nothing happen.
Florence it is beautiful. Maybe my opinion it has been compromised because nobody helped me with the backpack and Italian people in general are not that friendly to me. Or maybe the city it is more about the galleries and museums. You can got deeper into the Medice’s history and to connect with the art line, so then maybe you can enjoy more. I do not know. You do your things and try to find a better way to explore the city because mine did not worked pretty well.