21.7.10

Firenze!

The first Study-Tour was over, and it was time to go back!
And the most important question remained...
Go back where? Milano?

But we had other plans in mind for the weekend! -Florence!! a.k.a. Firenze!

On our way back to Milano, some of us got down at Bologna, from where we had to catch a train to Florence, which was not so far from this station. Meanwhile, Rachita had plans for a short Paris trip, but unfortunately she missed the train that morning. Like if we care.... look at the expressions of the people in this pic :)



Soon, we were in train on our way to Florence...



A few hours of train journey and we were there...



Couldn't resist a few more clicks in front of those great looking trains :)



Day 01

We reached there almost in the afternoon and the first thing to do was to find a place to stay.. or to be more correct, a place to dump our luggages safely! Thanks to google, and suggestions by sahil, we found this nice place called Plus Youth Hostel where we could actually dump our stuff and jump out for the day out.



We were just roaming around in the city, exploring every street and bridge... eating pizza from the street side shop or thinking whether we should actually rent a cycle to move around the city. Well, finally we didn't hire the cycles though.

As far as I can remember, the most important thing that we did that evening was the visit to Accademia Gallery where we could see the.... I mean.. THE david. But of course, the queue was long.



But what interested me the most there was the Half-finished works of Michael Angelo. Those sculptures just stood there as if Michael Angelo was still working on them and he just went out for a coffee or something!!

Looking at those forms emerging from huge rectangular blocks of stone, we can actually say that he was in fact, chiseling out the rest of the stuff just to reveal the sculpture inside.

But waiting there outside that museum, in that long queue was quite taxing. But the street artists some how provided us with some entertainment, like this sheet of paper where Amresh got his name painted.



Some of us were happy with this one museum that we never wanted to spend 10 again to see few more statues. We were kinda saturated. But as the other part of the team went ahead exploring some more museums, we set out to check out the city.



It was a great time exploring that small sweet city... and at night the two teams met again!



... and had an awesome Indian dinner in Florence with Tandoor Roti and Kadai chicken!



While walking around the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, we never felt the real importance of the place, how great it is considered even just to be there. And the realization of the fact that we were NOT like those tourist groups who were walking like ducks behind that tour-guide with a red flag, made our day much more awesome!!



and at some point, we could even catch a bird's eye view of the entire city. Thanks to manish's camera which almost fell of the edge of the city while it was counting down to click.



The walks were just fantastic, and the place, just indescribable. By this time, we had already walked though most of the city streets and bridges. And at one of those bridges, we met this man, playing guitar. He was all into himself, completely immersed in his own music. I couldn't do anything but just stand still somewhere near and listen to the music when he started one of my favorite music pieces ever.



... and it was time to come back to the hostel... a brief halt at the park nearby.



As I mentioned before, Plus was a nice place, where we could get decent accommodation at a reasonable price. It was fun, just spending time with funny stories and stuff. Manish, we'd like to hear that "Lakdi ka pair, aur gaay ka pet" wala story once again from you!!!



Day 02

A good night's sleep and we woke up into the next day of Florence Trip. Walking through the Plus Port brand store, we made our way to the breakfast room.



Like most of the youth hostels, the hostel charge included the breakfast as well. But in contrary to our expectations, that was a great breakfast we had there, which in fact fueled most of the day later.



But as we set out for the city visit again, we were all in tears... almost! That city was completely filled with sculptures!.



You might be wondering why do we have to be sad to see so much of wonderful art right in the open in the streets. Because, we paid a lot of money just to see them 'inside' the museum yesterday!!! And now see, everywhere you look, there's a statue!..



Well, we had to move on... now walking through the same streets that we were exploring last night.



But today, it was much more fun, to see so many street artists who were dressed up like sculptures!. and this cupid was the best among them!! He had a talent for amazing expressions!



...and once again, photo sessions!!!



Well, if you look closer, it's not just Tanu, but we're all in there!



If we had a fake bird's eye view of the city yesterday, today was the time to have it in real. We had to climb really a long way up the mountain just to catch a glimpse of this majestic city, with it's basilica bulging out into the sky like a Queen Bee in a bee swarm!



But it was not just the view of the city that was catching attention there. Uh oh! David again!! That was a copper replica of the famous sculpture David, by the great artist, Michael Angelo! Couldn't resist clicking a photograph of ours, right under his masterpiece! -if you know what I mean.



Although that copper sculpture looked kinda okay from a distance, it was really ugly with all that bird shit right from his head to toe. According to Manoj, from behind, he looked as if he had Diarrhea!! :)



Well, if you think, David was the only one naked around there, you're wrong! we had some guys in some really weird Aprons that could've even made David jump up from the pedestal!



Well, although we didn't really buy any of those aprons, it was indeed fun clicking pics! Had a great time up there checking out the souvenirs, clicking pics and enjoying the view of the city once again!



And on our way back, we met all those street artists once again. Creating stunning artistic works and Spreading happiness for free!



And this time, we got even more close with the cupid!



Once again.. walking back next to canals of that beautiful city...



And finally, it was time to say good bye to Florence... a.k.a Firenze!
We started our journey back from Firenze Train Station that day evening.



And one more great train journey, we all were back in Centrale, Milano!!!



Thank god, yet another awesome trip to add to our great European memories!!!

5 comments:

MAG said...

oohooo...the leaking David..

himani said...

The only feeling i have after evry update on milan.... is to shed some tears on wat and where v r today!!!!!


It was like a dream ... and now it is over!!!

MAG said...

ha ha..i remmered the joke from tanu's comment.."....mere papa ko gai ka pet lagaya hai..woh ab har din 4 ltr dood dete hai"-manish

Unknown said...

Funn...tastitic.
I have gone back to Florence twice after that but it was not the same without u guys. we all have to be there to recreate the magic...

The Vagabond said...

Hi! I stumbled upon your blog while google searching one of my favourite restaurants in Florence. I studied abroad there this past spring and it was such a nice thing to see all of your pictures of the places I experienced while I was there. I love this city so much. It looked like you had a lot of fun. Sorry if this is creepy but I just thought I should say how I definitely understand and appreciate your adventures. : )

Pace!