My dreams of dancing like Madonna on a gondola in her Like a Virgin video have been dashed! We got to the train station @ 8:20 and found that all the trains to Venice were sold out 'til noon!! That would mean half our day would be gone just being on the train to go to Venice!! No thank you! Instead this has become our free day in Florence to do whatever the heck we wanna do!
After being brutally rebuffed @ the train station, we went to see the duomo in Sta. Maria Novella. It was quite "interesting" that we had to pay €3.50/ea to go inside a church. It was amazing to see the art work of Bochelli and other artists. What disturbed me was Giotto's depiction of the crucifixtion. Waaaaaaay graphic complete with blood spurting out of Christ's side. Lovely. There was supposedly a 14th century optical illusion if you stood in the middle of the nave, but we couldn't see it, try as we might.
Oh I forgot to mention that prior to going to church, we went to the Officiana Profumo-Farmaceutica di Sta Maria Novella. It was some fancy shmancy perfumery that's been around since 1612. When we stepped in, the place looked like an old church (sans pews) with glass cabinets showing off their wares. They had a large "menu" of products in many different languages, but no prices! Where I come from when they don't show you the price of anything it usually means it's expensive! Guess what? It was VERY expensive!!
I would mill about near the cash register to hear prices for what people were buying so that I could guage if I could buy anything. Every time I saw what ppl were buying, it was always bars of soap! I kept wondering what was so great about these soaps that everybody was buying them. Everytime I saw someone being rung up their purchases, they were always bars of soap and sometimes lotions. I sampled their differnt perfumes and thought about buying one of those. My favorite scent was called Angels of Florence! I sprayed some on the list of stores they have world wide (FYI in California, the one and only shop is on Melrose!) and stuck it in my new Mandarina Duck purse. My cousin, Arlyn, also enjoyed the smell of that perfume and was gonna buy a bottle. I thought, "Great! She'll find out for me how much it is!!!" Arlyn gets to the front of the line, asks the bitchy sales lady how much for the perfume and she says €100!!! When I left America it was $1.40 = €1. There's no way in hell that I'm gonna spend $140 on a bottle of perfume!! While my cousin was being helped, I put on my scarf and sprayed that perfume on my scarf and on myself!! At least i'll smell very nice for one day!! :-D
After this little adventure, we headed back to the hotel to drop off my cousin's purchases as well as to use the restroom and plan out next adventure. They had planned on going to the Piti Palace, home of some of the Medeci's. I asked if I could sit this one out since my feet are KILLING me!!!! Tomorrow we have a walking tour of Siena. I'd rather save my feet for then rather than run around Florence more.
I'm sitting in my lovely hotel room overlooking the Arno River, enjoying the silence! All I hear is the bustling of the scooters, horse drawn carriages, and foot traffic below. After posting this blog, I'll take a pic of my view and post it on FB.
Ciao for now!! TTFN!!!!
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