One of our last days we decided to walk about the city before the crazy onslaught of off-island visitors. It was a completely different place. How this island(and all the surrounding ones too I'm sure) functions and comes to life in the wee morning hours is fascinating. Being water based, all supplies are barged/ boated in.
Since it is such a tourist destination, phenomenal amounts of supplies are brought in each day. As well, there are all the boats with bags upon bags of laundry from the thousands of hotels housing all the visitors, as well as the garbage and recycling boats...it's staggering.
All of this was occurring on our morning walk as bella Venezia was beginning yet another day.
Locals were opening their businesses and having their morning caffe(standing of course) at their favourite pasticceria or bar, garbage collectors were going house to house with their rolling carts collecting debris, people were walking their dogs and hanging out their laundry...it was the start of another day.
We walked past the still and covered gondolas to Piazza San Marco and found it was so empty!
Once the tourist throngs descend each day, it is a hub of activity, so to be able to stand in the centre of it in stillness was amazing.
It was the same for the Rialto Bridge. During the day you have to push your way through to climb the stairs, but in the early morning hours, it is quiet, empty, and peaceful.
One of my favorite memories of that morning was greeting an elderly gentleman who was slowly making his way down a cobblestone street. "Buongiorno" I said to him as we passed. He turned toward me and as he did so, his face was lit by the sun as he smiled and said "Buongiorno" back. It was a moment.
Now we are in beautiful Firenze with its golden hues, the Arno river running through it, and the Tuscan hills cradling it.
It has it's own beauty, charm and character which we are slowly discovering.
We even found "il porcellino", (Italian for piglet) which is what the Florentines call the wild boar bronze statue in the Mercato Nuovo.
There is a copy of this boar at my alma mater, University of Waterloo. I walked past it every school day for four years as it was a Faculty of Arts Mascot, given to the University by the City of Florence. I always found it kind of odd sitting there outside of the Modern Languages Building, as it did, but promised myself that if ever I would visit Florence, I would look for it there...et voilà! Many years have passed, but I finally have visited it here in Firenze!
Yesterday was the start of Culture Week (Settimana della Cultura) here in Italy which means that state run museums offer free admission! Hourray! Today we visited 3 such sites here in Florence and will visit the Uffizi and the Accademia on Tuesday.
As we walked back along the Arno from the Pitti Palace, the moody skies gave way to some spurts of sunshine which threw some beautiful light as the day drew to a close.
See you next week!