Italia

My family and I spent three weeks in Italy in 2003. We started off in Assisi, (well, actually Santa Maria degli Angeli) where we got used to the whole traveling thing by wandering the around Assisi proper (~2 miles uphill) during the day and getting acclimated to Italy time at night. Assisi is cute, almost too cute because we only saw it during the day when it was filled with tourists and pilgrims.

Gubbio—Sunset in the Piazza

We also took day trips to Orvieto—a confusing little town where my sister and I got “lost” causing us to miss the return bus (we trained back instead)—and Gubbio where we spent our first evening in a real town watching townies instead of tourists. I sort of consider Gubbio to be the beginning of my trip since it was the first time I really settled in to the rhythm of the place instead of just wandering around like a Japanese tourist taking snapshots. I think my photography bears this out too.

Siena at Dusk

Our next stop was Siena which we caught between Palios. So we could see the members of Selva still celebrating their win while at the same time we could look out our hotel room window and watch Lupa practicing for the next race.

I really fell for Siena. And much of the appeal is the fact that the senese and tourists mingle so much. The town is there for both of them and since there is nothing you HAVE to do (besides climb the tower) you just get to explore on your own and interact with the locals on their own turf. It’s really low-key and a wonderful way to spend your time.

Fruit Market on Rio San Barnaba

And now for something completely different. Well, not totally. Venice is a city without locals. It’s overrun with tourists and the Italians commute in for jobs in the service sector. Yeah. So no mingling with locals. That said, Venice is possibly the most beautiful city I have seen. I managed blow through more film here than anywhere else on my trip. Around every corner is a new surprise and after reviewing my shots, it is very hard to choose my favorites.

While we were in Venice we also took in Biennale In fact, my sister and I spent probably four days just doing Biennale things (which is how I never got around to visiting the Peggy Guggenheim Museum). One very nice bit about Biennale is that the country exhibitions scattered around the city gave us a great reason to find out-of-the-way places and navigate the strange logic that formed the twisted maze of streets.

Firenze—View from the Duomo

Florence is also completely overrun by tourists. Unlike Venice (where they pretty much swarm over the entire city), the tourists congregate in the handful of THINGS YOU HAVE TO SEE WHEN YOU GO TO FLORENCE. These are the places I like to avoid. Unfortunately, in Florence, you can’t do that. This is actually true, upon visiting Florence (especially the first time) you DO have to see the Uffizi, Academia, Duomo, Palazzo Pitti, etc.

I kind of felt annoyed by having so much that I was expected to see. Also, Florence didn’t have the same sort of explorability that Siena or Venice did. At the same time, there was so much more to see at the MUST-SEEs besides just the David or Birth of Venus so once you got out of those rooms you could explore a relatively empty museum. And it was pretty cool to see the cultural cliches in person.

The best part about Florence was its city-ness—it was the biggest city we visited. Emma was able to shop at Camper and Benetton and we were able to sample all kinds of gelato and granite—the clear winner is the granite at Carabe.

So yeah, Florence was great, Venice was beautiful, but I fell in love with Siena and have been jonesing to return ever since.