The Florentines still rule

There is a reason I had several people tell me I had to visit Florence if I was going to spend time in Italy; because it is a fabulous city. After visiting several other major cities in Italy, I could appreciate what each of them had to offer, but I just wasn’t thrilled by any of them. It felt like there was a lot of other negative vibes you had to try to overcome while absorbing the relaxation of vacation. Then I got to Florence and the negative vibes went away. The city was cleaner, the people were more pleasant, and the transportation was quick to figure out.
My last day in Rome didn’t go as expected, so I decided last minute to leave in the morning instead of the late afternoon. This meant that once again I headed into a new city on the train with absolutely no plan or accommodations once I got there. I keep telling myself I need to quite doing that…but it works out better as often as it leaves me frantic, so maybe I will keep playing the odds. But this time when I got off the train, walked into the street, and began to stare aimlessly in each direction trying to figure out where to start, I had several people come up to me and try to assist the obviously oblivious foreign backpacker. One of these people was a girl from Turkey/Canada (yeah, I was confused at first too). She pointed me in the direction of a hostel she had checked into a few hours before; and even gave me pointers on booking it online first to get a very reduced rate. After just a short period of time searching for an internet café and figuring out the busing layout, I was checked-in with plenty of time for a shower (with consistent hot water and good pressure, oh yeah!) before the in-house prepared dinner in the court yard. The place was great. I met several other cool people around the dinner table the couple of nights I ate there.
The low prices, free internet access (albeit a sporadic wifi signal), comforting feel of the city, and easy access to other travelers made it a quick decision to stay there for several days. In that time there was plenty to do. It had plenty of history and magnificent architecture. I visited the Uffizi Art Museum, which is one of the best in the world. And several of us from the hostel went to Piazza Michelangelo for a picnic dinner, with local Chianti wine, and watched the beautiful sunset over the city.
Plus, Florence is a great central location to take day trips in nearly every direction. I may have to put Florence atop the list for the best ‘all-around’ city I have visited so far. Although, it was not more structurally amazing than Edinburgh. So maybe I will just need to create ‘The Tops’ lists for different categories. Hey, it’s my blog, I can do whatever I want.