Sotto la pioggia- In the Rain

 

The title for today was aptly chosen, because everything I did today was in the rain.
After getting ready I went out to the bus stop, and just missed the bus, so I waited for about 5 or 10 minutes (in the rain) for the next bus. I got off of the bus and walked about 15 minutes to the Piazza Repubblica to meet up with my group.
It was a very rare sight to see the street on the Ponte Vecchio so empty, which is due partially to the early hour as well as the rain. I had to capture the moment, because in a few months tourist season will pick up and the city will be very crowded.

The Piazza Repubblica was the original city center when the Romans founded Florence.

The Florentines refer to the buildings in the Piazza as modern buildings, even though we wouldn't necessarily consider them modern. You can also see in the picture that there is a carousel. To the left (out of the picture) is the historical Caffe` Giubbe Rosse. Here our group learned how the Italians have their traditional breakfast. They stand at the bar counter and have a pastry (cornetti or brioche and either a cappuccino or caffe latte). The pastries then have different fillings or no filling.

 I got a cornetti (plain) or as the Italian said "empty". Also, I had a cappuccino, and yes, I drank it ALL!! This was the first cappuccino I have ever had because I am not a huge fan of coffee, but in the spirit of having a traditional Italian breakfast I forced myself to drink it. The first few sips were not too good, however by the time I had half of it finished it started tasting pretty good. I'm not sure if it was the sugar that I added or that I finally got over the initial shock. After we finished our breakfast (which was about 10 minutes) we headed off to have a short walking tour with a local guide.

I'm sure that many of you have heard of the Ponte Vecchio. Which literally means the Old Bridge. This is because it is the oldest bridge in Florence, and the only one that survived World War II. It is said that a German general or possibly even Hitler ordered that bridge to be saved. Another interesting aspect of the bridge is the windows that can be seen along the top of the bridge. If you remember from the other day the Palazzo Pitti, was bought by the Medici. Well before buying the Palazzo Pitti the Medici lived and worked on the other side of the Arno River. When the Medici moved into the Palazzo they had to walk back through the city to get to work. Being bankers and a powerful family, they had many enemies and were afraid to walk through the city, so they had an architect build a private passageway from the palace to their work. This passageway even went through houses, seeing that they powerful lords of the city, they could do as they pleased. The easiest place to see this passageway is over the Ponte Vecchio.

 

The circles over the arches are the windows of the passageway.

 

 

 

Also along our tour we went to the Piazza della Signoria, which is known for its outdoor museum of many statues. It was interesting to learn that for a few of the statues the originals were outside and the plaster models are inside other museums around the city. In this Piazza is the replica of the David.

This picture is of the right hand of the Neptune statue that is also in the Piazza della Signoria. The Florentines originally were not very fond of this statue because Michelangelo once criticized this statue and would say that the sculptor ruined a great piece of marble. However, in 2004 an Italian was out celebrating a job promotion and was drinking. As he passed through the Piazza he decided that he would climb up onto the statue and have his friend take his picture. While doing so he slipped and grabbed onto the hand to keep himself from falling. Unfortunately the hand broke off and shattered into 32 pieces. After a few years of repairs and about a hundred thousand euros the hand was finally put back together, but you can still see the cracks. After all that money spent the Florentines have become a little more fond of the statue.

 

After out tour was over, we asked our tour guide for some recommendations for a good panino place. She said that she was on her way to get bread for her lunch and that this place also had good paninis. They are similar to pizza, but are on focaccia bread instead. Some of them had focaccia on the top as well. The one that I chose did not, but it had mozzarella and some very fresh herbs on it. It was excellent!

 

 

 

I walked around a little bit with a few of the guys from my program. We went into the Duomo, saw a pretty cool smart car (it was all windows) , went into a very large Italian bookstore (2 floors) where I bought Harry Potter e la Pietra Filosofale (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone) and went and looked at one of the museums inside the Piazza Pitti. (There was so much art- We kind of got overwhelmed!!)

 

 

 

 

We also grabbed some mini cannoli for 1euro. They were the perfect size and a good end to our day of walking around in the rain!

 

 

P.S. Tomorrow is the first day of school!!