On our last trip to Italy, Florence was by far our favorite stop. We were excited to return and pick up some of the sights that we missed last time on a quick day trip. What we didn’t know is that July is a terrible time to go to Italy in general and Florence in particular.
With heat approaching 100 degrees and in the midst of a flood of sweaty tourists, we walked off the train with a bad feeling. The first stop was Uffizi, which young kids had zero interest in seven years ago. When planning this trip six months ago, everyone signed off on the idea and thought it sounded good, this morning it became the worst idea ever. The sweat rivaled a sumo wrestling match as we crammed around corners to catch a glimpse at Renaissance artwork, each one of us smelling like gym socks. The other tourists would get in a hanmi stance, shove and grunt, and sometimes push us right out of the ring. It was not great.
We found a museum of illusions again (and clearly didn’t learn our lesson about chilling out on early travel days). It was a fun respite and was mildly air conditioned. Then we attempted the Duomo.
Standing in a long, sweaty line in the scorching sun would be bad enough. Add aggressive salesmen pushing shawls, and it was nearly a scene from Do the Right Thing. Apparently Catholic cathedrals in Italy expect women to cover their bare shoulders, presumably because horny monks will give up everything to see some upper arm. These guys outside see skin a mile away and swarm, hawking cheap shawls for €7 (or €5 or €3 as you get closer to the entrance). After saying “no” the thirtieth time, they may also insult your “dirty shoes” and mumble horrible names for you in Italian as they walk away. It all ends when the Duomo staff either hand you a shawl for free or just look the other way as your bare arms glide on in to seduce the monks inside. And all that effort was for a rather disappointing cathedral.
At the end of our sweaty day, complete with train delays and a confounding lack of shade or places to sit, we realized there’s a reason we didn’t do these things in Florence last time. We were also reminded that we shouldn’t over-schedule these early days. And we should probably only go to the Southern hemisphere in July from now on, we’re used to being cold.
 |
| This looks like trouble |
 |
| The artwork was as disappointed as we were with aggressive tourists |
 |
| Marty hanging in Uffizi |
 |
| Much more modest with this see-through shawl |
 |
| Disappointing as far as European cathedrals go |
 |
| Checking to make sure arms are covered before being painted |
 |
| Climbing the walls after so many bad experiences |
No comments:
Post a Comment