Welcome to Florence, the cradle of the Renaissance and the cultural capital of Italy. Compared to Siena it’s a much bigger and more bustling city…and much hotter. There’s not a day that passes that I don’t soak my shirt in sweat. And I thought Cuba was bad.

Italian Fashion

People at home routinely mock my impeccable fashion sense. One person in particular, let’s call him Mitul – because, well, that’s his real name – likes to give me grief about the length of my pants, calling them too short. What’s the point of awesome socks if people can’t see them?

Anyway, within my first few minutes of arriving in Florence I saw this dapper guy:

When the town floods, this guy will never need to worry about wet pant legs. I’ll now return back home with renewed confidence, and who knows…I may even let my ankles go commando too.

Uffizi

The Uffizi Gallery is the jewel of Florence’s cultural crown, full of Renaissance art. It is a huge U-shaped gallery on two floors, and it takes several hours to go through it all. Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Raphael all have their works displayed here. The artists, not the ninja turtles.

Unfortunately, my knowledge and appreciation for art is limited, but I’ve included some of the more interesting pieces and what I feel their names should be:

“Disco Fever”

“I Should Photoshop His Face”

“Importance of Checking for Diabetic Foot Ulcers”

And finally this one:

Why this painting? It’s not particularly well known, but after 100 paintings it was a refreshing change of subject material. After all, there’s a limit to how many portraits of Madonna, child, or Madonna and child I can handle…

David

We saw the world’s most famous naked man today. The statue David was created by Michelangelo between 1501 and 1504, and represents the biblical hero (as in David and Goliath.) We went to the Galleria dell’Accademia to view it, but after yesterday’s tiring journey inside the Uffizi, we wanted to go straight to the good stuff. Bypassing all other statues, we looked only for these signs:

When we finally reached it, it really was incredible:

Photos never truly reveal the size of this great statue, which is close to 14 feet high. It’s actually quite amazing to think that this was created from a single piece of marble…a mediocre quality one that Michelangelo didn’t even select himself. Most impressive is the anatomic detail (especially considering how it was formed by chipping away with a hammer and chisel), in particular the veins on the back of the hands and arms.

The Uffizi gallery? Meh. But this was absolutely worth it.

No to Mafia

Walking down the street in Florence, I came across this:

I figured I should support them. In general it’s good to adopt a No On Mafia policy.

Favorite Italian Meal

Italian food…I’m sick of it. Really, I just can’t take another spaghettini alla this or pomodoro alla that. While Italian cuisine is tasty, I much prefer flavors that are more powerful and pungent (i.e. the foods I bring to work for my lunches everyday.)

Our last night in Italy, all of us felt the same. Thanks to a quick search online, we were able to eat the best meal of our trip to Italy: chicken tikka masala.