week one: palaces and puccini

16 September 2009 – Act II?
So, still no internet, figured I’d write more for my blog… hmm… things that don’t add up for euro200??? Yah… well, it gives me some way to organize my thoughts :)
So, this past weekend K and I went to the Palazzo di Pitti across the Ponte Vecchio (yes, I had Puccini’s ever so mutilated “O mio babbino caro” stuck on repeat pretty much the whole time… surprisingly, I did manage to keep my filter locked for that one, thus refraining from the ever tempting bursting into song and getting frightened stares from the many passerby… easy? No. not even close. I kept running into things, people, myself, because I was so damned preoccupied with enjoying the Arno and magical Ponte Vecchio, and ardently trying to keep my big opera mouth shut… oy!) to walk through the gardens and mosey through the museums, yes I do mean to use the plural, there were like 4 museums in one building… you can now begin to imagine the size of this thing… it was a monster… no, not green, but even still :)
Anyway, gardens! Wonderful daytime activity… walking through beautiful flowers, looking at the sculptures, enjoy the beautiful shining… rain. Yup, it was like I was back home in the states… like someone had pressed the rewind button and I was stuck back in June, suffering from a severe Vitamin D deficiency, and even missing the snow… okay, so it wasn’t that bad… but really? Who decided to rain on my parade??? Either way, K and I definitely made the most of the day. It wasn’t really raining hard enough (for the most part… ugh) to stop us from enjoying the slightly graying gardens. I really felt like I was in some Harry potter filming of the Tri-Wizard cup, or Pan’s Labyrinth, or The Secret Garden… very beautiful. Very eerie with the rain, and grey skies, but the glaring positive to that was keeping the noisy tourists at bay. Don’t get me wrong, I love exploring new places just as much as the next loud American, camera in hand and big map in tow (can’t say I’d sanction the fanny pack though… there’s only so far you can push me…) but it is nice to be able to be quiet, and enjoy in peace – especially in a place like this. You have to realize that this was someone’s home (yes, someone and his 8bil servants and dogs) and it was meant to be private. Oh sure, the façade is to enhance the visual interest of the city, and thus up the ante on wealth power, and identity to beat the Jones’ (in this case Rome, Siena, Milan, etc.), but really, it was built for someone to just live (however lavishly). So, with the rain came the more personalized, private experience of what it must have been like to escape from the city life centuries ago, and look out from the tranquil garden of your own gigantor of a palace.
*** pictures to come... sorry, the internet was finally working, and i figured i'd get as much posted as I could before I was days behind :)
ciao <3