By now, we’re done roaming Rome, so it’s off to Florence, home of Michelangelo, Lenonardo, and a whole bunch of people named Medici. Honestly, you can’t walk ten feet (that’s 3.048 meters to non-Americans) in Firenze without gazing at or walking on or running into or sitting on Something di Medici. Anyway, we took our first train betwixt the two cities, which provided some nice scenic views.
Next to Rome, Florence was the most touristy place we’ve been so far. This was immediately obvious when we got off the train and heard the English of a thousand ugly American tourists. To their credit, this is definitely a place worth visiting—everything’s so florentinian, ya know? Can’t blame ‘em.
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What’s a visit to Rome without a visit to the Vatican? That’s what the plan was today, so we started off early with a visit to St. Peter’s Basilica. It was impressive, to say the least, since I believe that is indeed the desired effect. You pretty much can’t look anywhere without seeing some sculpture or mosaic or ornate architectural feature. Oh yeah, and it’s hugenormous.
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The bus from Marseille took us further down the coast of the Meditteranean. We passed through Nice and into Italy. With the help of a little dramamine from Jen, Katelyn slept better and Nick and Greg were out cold for most of the ride. We woke with the sun and knew immediately that we were in Italy because it looked just like Italy should. Colorful villas dotted the hillsides with Italian cyprus trees and vineyards stretched out before us. We got stuck in traffic for a while and made a few stops, including one in Florence, before finally arriving in the Eternal City.
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For our second morning in Aix, Katelyn decided she wanted to climb Montagne Saint-Victoire. In hindsight, this probably was not the brilliant beyond brilliant idea that Katelyn thought it would be after such a late night. Nevertheless, the five of us set out around 10 am to catch the bus to the mountain side. Mt. Saint-Victoire is the mountain that makes starring appearance in many of Cézanne’s masterpieces and our expectations were as high as its altitude as we began our ascent. Jen and Nick were a couple of mountain goats, quickly getting ahead of the rest of us while Greg and Katie lagged behind, and Geraldine acting as our guide brought up the rear, wise to conserve her energy for later (she was climbing for a second time despite her better judgement).
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