The Eye of Patrick

The next stop on my trip through Europe was Florence in the Tuscany region of Italy. It is an area known for its wines and great food and I made sure to enjoy both to the fullest while I was there.

We got to Florence on the Euro Star from Rome. The rail system in Italy is similar to Japan in that there is a fairly extensive network of trains you can take and in some cases it is quicker to take train then to fly.

Our stay in Florence was mostly an enjoyable one. We spent much time walking around the town. As the town is fairly small it is easy to get to most things on foot. Before going to Florence I did not really have any idea of what to expect, so I was not sure on what to see.

I started to experiment more with camera and learn about the settings. It is my first DSLR so I am still learning. So while in Florence I learnt about manipulating my exposure time and so I spent the night time playing with the lights and colours. Trying to get the timing right to capture the photo without exposing it for too long. I think I really enjoy night time photography as if you can keep your camera still for the length of the exposure you can get some truly amazing photos.

The next day was New Years Eve and so we wanted to see what Florence did for the New Year. We spent the time near midnight walking around and trying to see where the fireworks would be. While walking around I saw many people setup temporary stalls selling champagne and other alcoholic products to ring in the New Year. It was interesting to think whether they were able to sell it all.

The area near the water was packed and it made for difficult navigating. But we made it to the canal and looked to the stars to see the fireworks. But when it struck midnight, the sky did not awake to a scene of colour. But over the course of 20 minutes individual citizens of Florence let them off. Some of them where crazy and you would see the firework go up and then come down to the place in which it was launched, one being an apartment. It was lucky there was not a fire or anything. After that my family and I made our way back to our hotel and we saw the fireworks from around the world. I hope next year I can make it to one of those places that are covered in fireworks.

When we woke up the next day, we went on a tour, as I wanted to make sure I saw the sights of Florence and I thought a tour guide would be the best way to see it. So we got on the tour bus and then we were off. It was when the tour guide said this I knew this tour was not going to end well;

“60% of all the worlds’ art is located in Italy and 40% of that 60% is in Florence”

When he said that, little alarm bells went off in my head and I thought how that is possible. I mean maybe he meant renaissance art and then it could be possible. But the entire art world only being located in Italy. That is hard to believe.

So it was from that point that the tour got continuously worse. People would slowly peel off from the tour group and quit it because our tour guide mumbled what he said and really did not bring the place alive, but spent time talking about the trivial things. Like the locations of the offices, rather then the meaning of the art when we went to the major art gallery.

So about half way through my family also quit the tour and we went on our own. It is interesting to find out whether he is actually a good tour guide, because I don’t understand how he could be employable for such a long time if he loses his tour group so easily.

I really liked Florence and liked the small feel of it. There were many narrow streets with little shops and restaurants. While there we went to a Mexican restaurant and a bunch of Italian restaurants. I think I had the best food in Italy there.

I really hope to return to Florence one day.

The next post will be about our time in Venice.

Till then,

Patrick