Florence

I think I saw more art and more churches in the last six days than I have in my entire life. Don’t get me wrong, Italy was a beautiful and moving experience, but if I see one more Madonna con Bambino Jesus, I'll convert to Paganism.

I think it was Dave Barry who said, about shrines and temples in Japan, that it's best to see one to three of them, then STOP, because they will be essentially the same. The same holds true for churches, even in Italy and the Vatican City.

On my first morning in Florence, I rushed to the Duomo, the city's cathedral, and queued for forty minutes to get to see the inside when it opened at 10am. The guide book made it sound like this was the most essential thing to see in Florence. After looking around what appeared to me to be just a bigger version of most of the Catholic churches I've ever seen, I was worried that Italy was not for me (this is the best you got?). Thankfully that was not so. For one thing, you can get a 660ml bottle of Peroni beer for €2.20 from a snack stand, drink it on the steps of the Campanile (aka the cathedral's bell tower) and the polizia will nod at you politely.

Of course, I would have to admit that two of the highlights of the trip were indeed church-related. First, for €6 you can climb the bell tower. You can also climb to the top of the Duomo, but there was a two-hour wait for that (no line for the bell tower), and plus when you climb the Duomo, obviously you don't get a view of it, as I did from the bell tower. This climb is not for those with a fear of heights or closed spaces. On the way up the 400-plus steps, there are several spots, especially near the top, where you have to wait at a corner, ducking your head, to allow others to come down the same narrow staircase. More than once I was essentially trapped for several minutes as streams of people came from the other direction. Add to that that you are surrounded by stone - stairs, walls, ceiling - and in many of the corridors there is very little light. Yet it's quite the opposite when you arrive at the top: open air, a view for miles, and nothing but a mesh canopy between you and a several hundred foot drop. Awesome.

Second was Santa Maria Novella, a sizeable church very near the train station. I had decided I'd seen enough churches after the Doumo, San Lorenzo, San Spirito, and San Trinita, but I had a couple hours to kill waiting for the next train to Rome. So I saw what turned out to be one of the little gems of Florence. Inside was like a mini-museum. There is Masaccio's freso, Trinity, from 1427. It was one of the very first paintings to use proportion to create the illusion of three dimensions. You may remember from Art 101 that this involved the use of a 'vanishing point.' Supposedly Florentines waited in long lines to see this illusion, and it still is working today, almost 600 years later.

In one of the chapels is a massive fresco taking up three walls: Nardo di Cione's Last Judgement. The center wall depicts judgment day, with angels leading souls to the center of the painting to be judged. If they are lucky, they join the happy souls on the left wall which depicts paradise. But in a corner of the center painting, the devil pitchforks the damned off to the right wall, which contains purgatory and hell, based on Dante's version. Unfortunately pictures were not allowed in Santa Maria Novella.

After seeing it inside, I was happy to sit outside in its piazza and people watch with a Peroni or three in perfect weather. Question: is Italy the only place where atrociously large sunglasses have become fashionable? I wouldn't know since, in Ireland, the sun doesn't shine. But I was mystified as to why such beautiful people would obscure two-thirds of their face with these monstrosities. Similar to the fashion puke that was trucker hats, I blame Paris Hilton.

On a side note, everything in Italy keeps different and very unusual hours, at least from an American perspective. Typical example: June & July Mon-Fri 9:30am to 12pm and 3pm to 6pm, Sat 9am to 5pm; Sept-May Mon-Sat 10am to 4pm; first and last Sun of the month 1pm to 5pm; closed August.