Rome via Brooklyn

924 words, 5 minute read time (DOUBLE POST)

An INSANE amount of things happened today, it was so overwhelming in the best way possible. Florence is one of those cities that just call to me, a part of me always felt drawn to it (as corny as that may sound). The bullet train ride itself went very smoothly, though the Termini station is huge and a little difficult to navigate, it reminded me of Grand Central. The view outside the train consisted of a lot of farmland and small villages, all super cute!

It was (obviously) incredibly hot, but the sun was honestly the only familiar thing in comparison to Rome. We were around the Uffizi and Accademia the entire time, so it was packed with tourists; it really felt like Times Square. The smell of horses and sewage really added to the atmosphere. Florence felt like a proper European city (if that makes any sense), it wasn’t like Rome where you see ruins everywhere you turn. The oldest buildings we saw there were churches.

Now to what I’ve been looking forward to the most on this entire trip: the Uffizi Gallery! It’s been my dream for years to visit it and see all my favorite paintings in person. I tend to wander off on my own in museums, so I ended up stood in front of Botticelli’s Primavera for 5 minutes just staring at it (and crying). It’s hard to put into words what exactly I was feeling, seeing the painting in person, the same way I can’t really explain why it means so much to me. Something about Primavera struck deep within me back when I saw it for the first time; I was 16 and half-awake on Nyquil with a crazy fever, and I saw the painting in a random Youtube video about Italian art history. Since then, it’s been my favorite painting of all time.

The Uffizi had a million other amazing things to offer other than Botticelli paintings, of course (like that one Martin Luther portrait!). It was a lot bigger on the inside then how it looked outside, but we managed to hit every room. So many museum visits in a row have changed my perspective on what art mediums I enjoy. I’ve taken much more of a liking to sculptures than I used to, though maybe it’s because I found my (legal) namesake.

We had some time to kill before our entry to the Accademia, so we had some (incredibly mediocre) lunch at the Uffizi cafeteria before leaving. We wandered around a little, and only realized much later that we walked straight by the Duomo without even noticing. The sun was actually out to get us, so we stopped for some gelato. I will continue to advertise the lemon and strawberry combo, it’s literally the best.

And now we come to the Accademia, which I honestly enjoyed more than the Uffizi (my main interest of the Uffizi anyway was really just Primavera). This is where we saw Michelangelo’s David! It was much bigger than I thought, I weirdly always (stupidly) imagined it to just be life-sized. And just like any popular work of art, it was absolutely swarmed by tourists. Still, it was amazing to see something so famous in person.

I will proudly go to my grave saying that the absolute best thing the Accademia offers is this room full of sculptures. Every one of these works was incredible, and I spent a long time staring at them (not crying this time). There were also these huge paintings covering the walls, and I really felt the vibe that I was in an art academy, that this was where all the masters learned their craft.

One of my favorite subjects of this period of art is actually Cupid (or Eros). I particularly love the childish and cherubic depiction of Cupid, I think it’s really adorable. They always give him the sassiest poses, too.

The second floor of the Accademia was small but cute, though I can’t say the same for the works on display. It seems artists of the early Renaissance could only ever paint a Madonna and Child or Crucifixion. I really don’t know how many more of these I can take. I get that there was a canon for these Catholic-style icons (controversial title, I know), but it really got tiring seeing the same thing over and over. Still, I had an absolute blast here, and I can’t wait to visit again.

After the Accademia, we took the sacred American pilgrimage to a McDonald’s. I expected it to taste different from the states, but it honestly tasted exactly the same. We had some more time before our train back, so we window-shopped a little. Everything was obviously very expensive, but we still found joy in smelling all of the perfume samples at Sephora.

The trip finally ended at a super cool little bar, where we had some fun banter with the bartender. It was apparently a tradition for customers to leave little notes and/or doodles on napkins to decorate the wall and tables with (we even found some from 2012!), so we left a little message for anyone in the future to see.

And who knows, maybe one day we ourselves might find our way back to this very bar, and see our message from one of the most special days of my life.

–Nico Vila