Thirty-Four: Layover Firenze (09-20-2022)
The trip I'm currently on is not, in the complete sense, travel. I arrived in a new place and will remain here for an extended period of time, rather than only staying briefly for pleasure. I have business to attend to, work to be done, and as such it does not feel like travel. Travelling is a more apt term when the duration of actual travel, physical movement, is palpable in relation to the total duration of stay. Nevertheless, I did, for this past weekend, travel- layover-styled stay in Florence, with just enough time to taste and see the city. Taking inspiration from the late, great Anthony Bourdain, I took the roughly thirty-six hour stay as an opportunity to sample the experience of the city, and observe it critically to be returned to an audience as digestive vicarious content.
Arriving in Florence from abroad means a taxi from the airport, but arriving from within Italy places the traveler conveniently central to most of the city's sights at its central train station. Unlike other major cities, this station is clean and free of society's downtrodden underclass for the majority of the day. I personally only witnessed a single overdose-in-progress. The first order of business off the train is the procurement of sustenance and energy, best absorbed through food, which is available in abundance, and coffee, which gets no better than in Florence. At any number of bars (coffee shops), food is available for cheap in tandem with espressos and cappuccinos, but a delicious McDonald's breakfast is available at the train station without even leaving the platforms.
Once full, the first stop for any traveler in Florence is and always should be the Duomo, Florence's cathedral. This enormous Brunelleschi Renaissance masterpiece is undeniable evidence for architecture students to present to the jurors when attempting to justify their projects' incompleteness. The lack of total completion, and minor structural damage, does not draw away from the building's grandeur even five hundred years later. If it's pouring rain, which it was for me, the building's majesty is further enhanced and crowds are nonexistent. Tickets for the climb to the top of the cupola, bell tower, and access to the basement ruins and neighboring museum can be had for thirty euros. Other major landmarks worth seeing, and all within a mile of the Duomo are the Palazzo Vecchio, Ponte Vecchio, and the Museo Accademia, home to Michelangelo's David, and little else.
Getting into the Accademia, considering its ownership of a world-icon piece of art (and, truly, little else), is difficult. Lines for tickets day-of can be hours long, and are frequently sold out. An unplanned layover in Florence would seemingly prohibit access. Instead, look for scalpers and pay the extra fees to skip the line for tickets. In my case, the scalper gave me and my travelling party fake tour radios to allow us access in with a guided tour, instructing us to return them to the tour guide once inside. Corruption in the tourism industry sometimes works in the desperate traveler's favor. After seeing the David, feel free to waste your time looking at everything else in the gallery, then catch a tag in the bathroom and leave for more food.
Florence, like any centuries-old city, is best explored walking and seeing for oneself. Quaint alleyways, overhead passages, and fascinating structural experiments are everywhere. At the end of a first day in a two-night stay, make sure to wander past sunset and see the icons of the city lit up. Then head to one of the city's several popular clubs for loud music, expensive drinks, disgusting bathrooms, and if you're lucky, a tear gas bombing to clear out the crowd.
A morning in Florence rewards the early birds, but is even better spent hungover and rushing to vacate a hostel. Add to this frantic packing the bizarre realization that you managed to break your room key, and a headache and nausea morning becomes the chaos that travel requires. Get a late breakfast at a kebab shop before visiting the last of the museums on your all-in-one Duomo ticket. Florence's best lunch options are an on-the-go sandwich, fantastic from All'Antico Vinaio if you're willing to wait in line, bust just as good from off-the-beaten-path shops as well. Try a trippa alla fiorentina panino for a gloriously messy offal treat, perfect to cure a malignant mid-afternoon hangover.
Finish a stay in Florence like I did by falling asleep at the train station three hours before your train because you stayed out too late and drank too much and need sleep before hand surgery the following day. Ruining travel plans with injuries is sometimes a learning experience.