Impressions of Firenze

Nora was being encouraging, saying, ‘’give it time, you will get attached to the place’’, when she read my gripes about the chaos in Siena.

Today I traveled alone to Firenze, by train. A solitary traveler in a foreign place gives me an indescribable feeling – anonymous, detached. This appeals to me. There are ‘’no strings attached’’; I try to be a wide-eyed, open-minded, and hopefully, detached observer.

So; Florence – the Renaisance city, home to Michelangelo’s David, Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, and Raphael’s Madonna. Famous sites include the Duomo (Santa Maria Dei Fiori), Campanile di Giotto, Battistero, Ponte Vecchio, and the Uffizi.

The city is so rich in arts, history and culture, it sounded daunting and I felt kind of ‘’inadequate’’ as I started on my trip.

Reality is far from the high faluting Renaisance promise. As I descended from the train, a sea of tourists flooded the huge, gloomy but very summer-busy train station. The tourist information office was closed, long queues, and confused travellers were everywhere.

I descended the stairs towards the underground passage, just behind a huge group of American tourists on a guided tour. No wonder the world likes to joke about American tourists. They are loud. And loud. Both in action and in speech. Period.

The underground passage stank, like most underground passages I have walked in Europe.

I arrived at Santa Maria and saw more queues, more crowds, more herds of tourists with guided tours, and more frazzled tourists joining queues which they probably do not know ‘’for what’’. Besides lines of people there were ugly hoardings and barricades, profiteering and ill tempered train station and café staff.

I guess no matter how ‘’Renaissance’’ or cultured the past has been, modernity and the lucrative business of tourism, has rendered this once-upon a time special city crass, and pretty ugly, both metaphorically and physically.