Florence is one of the most romantic places I have visited in Europe. All of the main streets are designed for pedestrians, cobblestone adorns the city everywhere you turn and there are enough cute shops to make my mother's head spin.
The night I arrived, I paid a visit to Piazza Michalengelo, known for its amazing sunsets with 2 friends I had met in Rome.
Shortly after embarking, we decided to pick up a couple beers for the 25 minute ascent up to the square. After walking through the most heavily-trafficked streets of the city, we turned at the Arno River and headed up a number of flights of stairs. We arrived just in time for one of the most beautiful sunsets I had ever seen.
We sat up there for a while and enjoyed the Tuscan view that lay before us. Once it got dark, we headed back to town. The walk back actually ended up being just as enjoyable as the piazza itself. We walked along the river, which was even prettier at night than it had been at dusk. As we turned towards the streets, we heard music playing and eagerly ventured onwards. The singing and guitar-playing became increasingly loud until we found ourselves among a group of 100 or so people enjoying a night concert in the middle of town. A 30s something guy was performing by himself covers of popular tunes of everyone from Bob Dylan, to Dave Matthews to Oasis (everyone knows and loves Oasis in Europe). We sat for a good 20 minutes until we continued towards our hostel.
Later, we walked along the famous street which sells nothing but gold. On both sides of us were store upon store offering jewelry that would have made Danny Ocean's crew giddy.
About 5 minutes later, we came upon one of the coolest things I have seen in all of Europe. A Japanese college student, studying in Florence was on the ground creating a chalk-based rendering of the Mona Lisa. The work was utterly impressive. He said he had only been working on it since late that morning, and would actually have to completely erase it by sun-up to avoid getting into trouble with the Italian police. He wasn't doing this for money or fame; he was doing what he loved to do because he loved to do. And he was damn good.
I found myself walking away from the scene feeling upbeat and optimistic about life in general. It was a weird, but an undeniably good feeling.
2 comments:
Ponte Vecchio, OMG, it calls to me...
I just looked at the chalk rendering of Mona Lisa again and marveled again at the artist's nonchalance at having to erase it at the end of the day to avoid police hassle. That truly is amazing. To be able to do that puts me to shame, with all my collections and the difficulty I am having trying to separate myself from my tangibles. I will think of that artist as I work myself through some of my projects and I think I will be able to proceed with greater agility. Thanks, Ari for sharing that. Mom
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