A Date With The Renaissance

I left Rome yesterday as a total convert - I went from hating to loving the iconic Italian city and I feel like I barely even scratched the surface.  My couch surfing host really helped to make it a wonderful experience.  He took me to a live show,  we hung out in bars in the ancient narrow streets, sat in piazzas next to beautiful water fountains, ate pizza and pasta and drank lots of wine.  We played guitar, he taught me some tricks for fingerpicking technique, we sang Beatles songs and he introduced me to the world of Jimmy Hendrix. 

We also did a guided tour on one of the oldest roads built in Rome, where the ruins of old churches, tombs and public baths are scattered.  The highlight of my stay was when he took me for a ride on his motorbike around the historic part of the city late at night.  The streets were empty, not a tourist in site - it was the most beautiful way to see the famous ancient monuments, they were silhouettes against the moonlit sky. 

Sadly, thanks to the pressure of time and lack of money I had to keep moving and I am writing to you now from the picturesque town of Florence.  This beautiful city is quite dense and compact, theres a lot to see  but its all within walking distance.  It definitly fits the more sterotypical, romantic idea that I had of Italy.  Rome was quite a surprise to me because a lot of the time I felt I could have been in Africa or in an Arab country, but here in Florence, Italian culture dominates the streets.   

For one thing there is a strong smell of leather in the air and youd be lucky to find a street that didnt have a shop selling brightly coloured leather bags, shoes and jackets.  There are a lot of outdoor and indoor markets, fruit and vegetable stands, flower shops,  italian cafes and restaurant, icecream shops, icecream shops and more icecream shops...believe it or not ive manged to resist the temptation of gelato so far, but i may cave in before the night ends.

Shortly after I arrived yesterday I found the coolest music store full of old instruments, recording equipment, books, records, nick nacks, posters and more.  It turned out the guy who owned it used to be a recording engineer and had a studio back in the day. 

As soon as he found out I was a musician he set up a guitar and microphone for me and got me to play him a few songs, he cranked it up so load a few people walking past stopped to listen.  It was a fun way to start the day.  I also found out there is a bar not too far from my hostel that has live music so Im planning to check it out tonight.  Apparently Tuesday night is Beatles night...their music seems to be following me where ever I go...

Aside from wandering the streets I managed to check out the Uffizi gallery and saw the famous paintings by Boticelli. As usual, i have a problem when it comes to paying attention to detail, and so it wasnt until I reached the exit that I realised I had missed the 2nd floor of the gallery and didnt see the works of Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo...Of course somehow I manged to lose my ticket somewhere along the way and they wouldnt let me back in.  It was a typical scattered brained event for me...things like this are happening to me all the time...Its expensive to be me!

PS sorry for missing apostrophes, i cant find the button on this keyboard

xx