week five: wanderlust :)

10 October 2009

Usually I would try to be all authentic and use only Italian to describe my adventures here in Firenze, but there is no better word than wanderlust to describe today… K and I woke up to grey skies and cool weather (honestly, the first I think I’ve seen since I’ve been here) but wanted to do some real exploring (spurned on by a conversation with L about the hills of Firenze)… so we just started wandering… we crossed L’Arno, and wandered up toward San Miniato, but rather than head straight there, we walked along the old wall, and up into the hills… we found ourselves in the real Florence, the Florence you think of when you think of little Tuscan towns and ‘Under the Tuscan Sun’… the quaint little hideaways, castles, and villas that have been in these families for longer than there’s been a united Italy… we even saw a garden through one of the gates that had a stupid ball… now for anyone who does not know what a stupid ball is – as defined by my mother and aunt, a stupid ball is one of those coloured glass spherical lawn ornaments placed on a pedestal in the front of someone’s house… they are, in fact, normally found in front of those houses belonging to Italian Americans, and are the subject of much ridicule in my family… despite the fact that both my mother, and my aunt have at one time almost purchased one themselves… therefore, upon seeing one alive and well in the hills of Tuscany, I was not only appalled and shocked, but slightly wounded by the fact that, indeed all of my fears were true, and that eventually there will be one sitting in my front lawn… damn genetics :-p

allora… we wandered every which way until we were both too tired to keep going… we wandered up into the hills past the city line, and into some town we don’t even know the name of… then we ran into this little Italian man who spoke no English and told us ‘Andate alla chiesa. E’ molto bella.’ So we kept going a little further, and found this beautiful little church with a little rose garden. It was so simple, and so beautiful, and there really was something just so calming about its presence… K and I both decided that we’d come back for mass before flying back state-side… that is if we can ever find this place again…

So, we stopped to sit on the wall, and eat some fruit that we had so knowledgeably packed (thanks, mum :-p)… this is what we saw… despite the ominous looking clouds, it was amazing… honestly, if I write the words ‘amazing, breathtaking, or awe-inspiring’ I’m going to get sick of me!! But, what am I supposed to do??? Everything really is amazing, breathtaking, and awe-inspiring… and this was no exception…

As we descended back into Firenze, not only did we start to come back to earth, but we were followed by darkness and rainclouds… we got a little lost, but found our way to San Miniato, probably my favourite spot in the whole city, and made it inside in time for evening vespers sung by the monks all in Latin…

After mass, K and I made our way back into the city to meet our friend M from the fashion institute for margheritas and a little dish session… M always has a story, and the three of us inevitable have a blast… we’ll have to take her up into the hills with us one day… who knows where else we can explore!