E ora, sono stato a Italia

cat9 and I are safely back from Italy.

In other news, I don't seem to have mentioned that cat9 and I were taking a trip to Italy. We just did that.

At the moment, it feels like a whirlwind tour of six airports with layovers in Venice and Florence, but that's just the last 18 hours talking. It was really a fabulous time, full of more art, architecture, culture, and especially food than I can intelligently discourse on, at least at the moment. Someone else might have taken meticulous notes on what was eaten and drunk when, but for me it was a heady succession of excellent things.

Of Venice I would say that everything you know about it is true. It is by nature a city whose uniqueness cannot help but be noticed constantly. It is beautiful, byzantine (and Byzantine), historical, pungent, inspiring, and decrepit. There was no Acqua Alta while we were there (in fact the weather was perfect the entire trip), but I'm glad that I went to see the city before nature took a greater toll on it than it already has. A particular highlight for me was drinking in a winebar that my SCA persona could have visited.

We took a pleasant train trip from Venice to Florence, which suggested on the way the Padua might be a lot like Newark, and Bologna might be kind of interesting. Arriving in a city where every type of vehicle is likely to be on top of you at any moment was a jolt after what seemed like weeks without seeing any cars, but we got acclimatized quickly. Certainly our second destination is a more modern city, and more like others in Europe, but it was also more full of specific historical things to see and do. I can now say that the Duomo is exceptional (and the climb to the top worthwhile provided you do not suffer heart disease, claustrophobia, achrophobia, or whatever sort of phobia prevents you muscling through down-clambering visitors on you way up the many steps). The Uffizi is a very nice building that reportedly has quite a bit of great art in it, and actually contains some lovely Botticelli (the Birth of Venus and Primavera in specific) and a few Raphaels, but seemed not to actually be showing any of the Leonardo, Michelangelo, or Rubens that they allegedly have, nor the exhibits on mathematics and on maps. So, for my part, it was slightly disappointing. The Pitti Palace, on the other hand, I didn't know much about, and it's really great. A beautiful building, some excellent artwork, a whole lot of amazing carved work (all under the heading of silver, but of every kind of precise art you could expect), and contrary to guidebooks' suggestions the Boboli gardens were extremely nice, including many gorgeous views of Florence and of the surrounding Tuscan country.

Oh, and we didn't see David. One day he was on strike (well, the museum was; we don't know the details), and the following day the lines were immense, and we simply didn't care enough.

So all in all, we had a great time wearing jaunty scarves and eating squid ink pasta. Would buy again.