First Impressions

I know this is sort of late, but I feel like I should put down my first impressions of Florence.


Florence, and even Italy, was not as I expected. In my thoughts of the future I had seen rolling countryside, sparsely decorated with the small red-roofed cottages of olive and goat farmers. While the plane was landing I could see that the land, although not densely populated, was clearly covered almost completely, whether by groves of olive trees, housing complexes, or roads. I will admit though that even the complexes had the white stucco walls and red roof tiles that this area seems to favor exclusively. It's like everything is owned by the Cheesecake Factory and is fake and forced even though I know that it is real.

The city itself is again not what I expected. In a way it is almost similar to Boston, only in a different outfit. It has historic, old, narrow streets steeped in history, surrounded by zig-zaggy roads that hold everything from leather merchants hawking faked goods to high end designer shops, and all of that is surrounding by the gentle sprawl of society. The sprawl is not so bad as near Boston and seems to be healthy and well maintained, unlike many of the regions around that fair city of the Northeast. We were really given a taste of this on the taxi ride from the airport because it is outside the city, and we came through all the separate regions, and saw it first hand. For some reason in my mind I had seen an isolated city nestled in the Tuscan countryside, still living in untouched 14th century structures. A museum city. I prefer the actual Florence. Yes it's old, but it's fresh and is still a metropolis. I am very eager to explore it, to find a bicycle (which are everywhere) and ride the streets late at night and see the real people of the city. Trying to go to sleep the first night was nearly impossible. We had walked around all evening soaking in the energy and trying to find a place to eat, and the excitement of a new city, with new haunts and new areas to explore and new people to meet, filled me so much that my mind would not rest and I did not fall asleep until early in the morning.