Firenze: Basking in Beauty––Travelogue (October 12-14, 2012)
11 November, 2012
Florence is truly an open-air museum. Everywhere you turn, there is always something beautiful to look at: beautiful buildings with artwork and sculptures; towers with beautiful vistas; public squares with statues dating back several hundred years; little cobblestone streets; arches and mysterious alleyways; engraved façades and trompe l’oeils; interesting bridges and the steady, serene Arno river. Just walking around, you feel beautiful yourself.
Sometimes you find beauty in the most unexpected places, too; in places that most people wouldn’t even think to look, such as upward, at the roof of a building or at the wall space right above a doorframe. Even without entering a single building, Florence offers a feast for the eyes, and the best way to enjoy it all is by strolling along with a cup of heavenly Italian coffee or a delicious gelato.
The city, however, is obviously not lacking for actual museums as well, and among my favourites are the world-renowned Uffizi Gallery, the Galleria dell’Accademia, and the Palazzo Vechio. At least, those are the three that I visited during my stay there, and all the indoor art I can handle for at least the next six months. That’s another thing: it is possible to overindulge in art in Florence, because there is such a profusion of it that without prioritizing and limiting yourself to a few places, you can start to feel overwhelmed. But I would say that that is the best of situations to have when you are in search of beauty and art.
