Last Days in the Golden Light

I can't believe I haven't updated you all for such a looooong time! My regrets! Time gets away from me easily these days! Today we went to the Boboli Gardens behind the Pitti Palace owned (as everything was at one time or other by the Medici family, mob bosses of 14th century). It has gotten mind numbingly hot out the past couple days. I think it reached into the upper 80s today, and the Gardens didn't have as much shade as one would hope. But the rose gardens were wonderful and the view of the city quite rewarding, despite the retina scorching sun. Thank goodness there was some ancient, yet properly maintained water fountains around or I would have been completely dehydrated into a human husk....


Above: Me in the Rose gardens at Boboli.

At the end of the Boboli Gardens there is a Grotto (a cavern like spaced, usually with water and statues where a person could sit and cool off) that once held some of the unfinished statues of Michaelangelo's slaves. There are just reproductions there now, since the real ones are in the Accademia Museum. It was really neat place but it was gated off so we couldn't actually go in and cool off, as one is want to do after wandering around the gardens for three hours.... But we had a good time anyways.. Above: The Grotto at the Boboli Gardens.

Last weekend was our trip to Venice. Venice seduced me completely. Before Venice, my relationship with Italy was merely a flirtation, now it's a full fledged romance. Venice has a completely mythological quality to it that just bespells you. Once we got to the train station from Florence we took a water bus or l'acquabus instead of l'autobus, to our hotel. I felt completely transplanted. Walking the streets of Venice I would think to myself, "where I am" and the answer would be... geographically speaking, no where. I stood on stone streets that floated on a man made island in the middle of a lagoon. It was a delicious feeling.

I suspected that the canals would be the same sickly green color that taints the River Arno (the winds lazily around Florence) but I was wonderfully mistaken. Besides the slippery algae that clung to the stone sides, the water was a wonder mixture of aquamarines, emeralds and topaz.

Did I ride in a gondola? I know you want to ask. Of course I rode in a gondola! It's Venice, it's a requirement. But I only ferried across the Grand Canal for 50 cents, because a 30 minute ride in a Gondola cost 80 EURO! Ahh, no thank you. But it was still mesmerizing to look out across the canal from the boat and watch the water lap up against the houses' front doorsteps.


I'm coming home in a week! It's a little surreal that my semester abroad is almost at an end, but at the same time I'm glad to be headed home. But before then I have so much to do! Gelato to eat, the sun to sit in, wine to drink.... busy, busy, busy...