Before I got here though, I spent a day on the islands of San Marino and Torcello outside of Venice, where we saw how glass is made and where an industrious city was abandoned because everyone died of malaria. Except we spent so much time standing up in rainy boat rides traveling to and fro aforementioned islands that we had little time to enjoy them before catching a train to Florence.
When in Florence...see all the artwork you can in 40 hours. Which includes walking/running 14 miles all over the city to marvel at all of the wonderful things that stole my heart a decade ago in my high school European History class. I finally saw Michelangelo's David, which was just as incredible as my ninth grade history teacher described it--the perfect depiction of a renaissance man. Gah, I almost started weeping (while others made immature comments and giggled while taking pictures) because I was looking at one of the first pieces of art that made me want to study history (followed by the Pieta, which I saw today!). In the Uffizi Gallery that same day, I saw the rest of the Renaissance artwork that changed my life in high school, and just kept feeling overwhelmed with gratitude that I am here.
Because 14 miles of regular walking wasn't enough in Florence, we added a dozen flights of stairs and climbed to the top of the Duomo, which was so incredible. I know I keep saying I almost cried, but pretty much everything I see just makes me want to weep because it is all so lovely and I am such a puny human and other puny humans have created such magnificent works of splendor and God just created such a perfect canvas.
I had a lot of moments in Florence where I wanted to capture them and savor their flawlessness. Like eating strawberries and a delicious pita-bread with cheese and tomatoes on a staircase watching people walk, listening to birds chirp and occasional bells ring.
Though I loved Florence, I was actually happy to move on after our short stay--everything was so tall and skinny and I wanted some air...and a break from walking/standing. We rented a bus and took a beautiful ride into the the Tuscan countryside, giving us time to catch up on some sleep (and giving more moments where I almost cried because everything was too beautiful).
We stopped about 70 miles outside of Rome in a tiny town and stayed the night in a pink hotel. Before stopping there though, we took a break and visited some volcanic hot springs and they were so magical (forgive me for my overuse of the words magical, beautiful, and perfect--apparently I need a thesaurus) and a relief for our aching feet.
We had a peaceful night there, visited some cool, old gardens in the town, and then took the bus all the way to Rome, which dropped us first at some of the catacombs at St. Sebastian and then took us to our hotel, which is right outside Vatican City.
And when in Rome....
You have to cook what the Romans cook. We had a super fun cooking class our first night here with the marvelous chef Andrea. It took fours hours for us to make a five course meal, but it was fascinating and subsequently so, so delicious. We handmade noodles, created a nice pasta sauce, made brochettes, yummy chicken, potatoes wedges, and tiramisu. Again, insert the near-crying face because how the heck did I get so lucky to be a part of all this?
#blessed #literallyblessedbythepopethismorning
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