5/30/23
Day 6
Florence -> Venice
Hello everyone, we did it! We had a successful travel day where everything went according to plan!!!
Today was our travel day from Florence to Venice. But we couldn’t leave Florence without seeing Michelangelo’s David sculpture. We woke up early and packed up our stuff to get in line. We didn’t have any ticket reservations which ment we were subject to the will of the public line. When faced with this long public line, we did what any normal person would do… play chess
As our time in the line went on, we became hungry. Nathan held down our spot in line while Aydan, Luke and I went searching for sandwich’s. We found the perfect mom and pop shop. The owners were very nice and their sandwich preparation skills were nearly as proficient as my own. I was impressed.
While we were eating our sandwiches, a leather shop caught my eye. Luke is still looking for a leather wallet, so we went to check it out. Small shop, with bags, purses, wallets, journals and more. All hand made by the owner. His name is Giovanni and this was his 10th day at that location in Florence. He has an original shop in Berlin for years and is just starting to go back and forth between the two. Before he had the shops, he worked for Gucci. I was looking at some stuff, eyeing the journals and he told us to ask any questions we had. I continued to eye the journals and he said that if I had anything specific or special in mind that he could make it that day. “Gimme three hours and it’s done. It’s my job” he said.
I started calculating the numbers in my head of how long we had in line, how long the museum would take, what time the train was leaving, when we had to be at the rail yard… the numbers were crunched and the timeline worked.
I asked him if he could make one in green with a latch on it. He said “no problem. It’s my job” and whipped out 6 different greens to choose from. I asked if he could do it today and told him our timeline because we were living the city today. He shrugged his shoulders and said “oh, absolutely. It’s my job.” And immediately started tracing the dimensions for the journal.
We got into the museum and got to see the big boy himself. David. It makes sense why it is one of the most famous statues in the world. Because it is impressive how something like that can be pulled out of a cube of stone.
We also checked out the surrounding art and sculptures. My friend once made a joke calling me John the Baptist. But after seeing some of the paintings of him… I understand why the comparison was made.
After making our rounds in the museum it was time for the journal unveiling. I asked for a latch, my initials on the inside and for the Florence symbol of the people’s militia. The symbol is one that caught my eye and is all over the city. When Florence was built, they were not a war oriented group. They were more focused on art. The city had massive walls around it and no standing military. However, if the city fell under attack, a gong would ring and the people of Florence would come out of their homes with weapons, ready to face any enemy.
The bottom picture is Giovanni hammering my initials into the journal.
Now you might be thinking “Terry, a hand made, customized leather journal.. that was created that same day?? That must have been expensive”. Wrong. It was only 35 euros.. amazing
We were now on our way back to the rail yard to hop on our train to Venice. My this point we knew well all the different ways this could go wrong. We did our best to avoid those outcomes and it all worked out! Unfortunately we probably used up all our good luck on this one train ride.
Now we are in Venice!!! Lots of water, mosquitoes, boats and bridges.
We got to the Airbnb and ventured back out for groceries and some pizza to go. The sky was very blue and very pretty tonight.
