As I reached Florence, it was raining and it was cold. I shivered outside the Santa Maria Novella railway station. I had been trapped by my friend Roberto from the school of health and sustainable development in Florence. He was organising this big international meeting and one of his speakers had ditched him at the last moment. So I was co-opted.
It had been a long time since I had been in Florence. Perhaps the last time was in 2001, I am not so sure. Any way, it had been even longer, since I had gone there as a tourist. As I looked around, hurried florentians were rushing off to work, holding on to their umbrellas. I had come an hour earlier, so I could afford to walk slowly, look around and smile at those who showed their irritation 'cause they were getting late for work or some appointment.
It is funny, how you can live next to the most beautiful place in the world and yet, how you stop seeing the beauty because you are too busy running. I guess, that happens to me as well in Bologna!
I love the old buildings on the street leading to the city centre from the railway station. I saw an ancient looking church on the way. The board outside said that it was first built around the end of ninth century. I decided to go inside. It was beautiful with old frescos on the walls that were peeling off. And, it was cold and dark. A young man in his impeccable business suit and briefcase, made the sign of cross hurriedly and rushed out. I like places that are still being used for the normal day to day life, even while the tourist stand around and gape.
The paintings and statues on the wall, gained more depth and life in the dim light. There was a beautiful painting of Joseph with baby Jesus in his hands, looking at the child with fatherly love, while Mary seemed like a self-satisfied mom, looking adoringly at her husband and the baby. Behind them in the painting, there was some high ranking priest speaking in a church with another younger priest kneeling on the ground. I am sure that painting was commissioned by that elderly priest, wishing to show himself off with the holy family to the congregation.
But what caught my attention was a group of statues with crucified Jesus in the middle. The saint like figure on the right, seemed to crush the head of a protrate man with his foot, resembling the Durga-Mahishasur statues.
After this brief stop-over, I proceeded towards the Duomo, the cathedral of Florence. It is one of the most beautiful squares in the world, with its pink, burgundy, cream and dark grey wedding-cake like church, bell tower and the round battistero.
While walking towards the Cathedral, my attention was caught by the plastic chairs under a tent outside a restaurant. The chairs at the outside edge had all been turned inside to save them from the rain. It thought it would make for a nice view of the cathedral, though the final result does not look very artistic!
They must be Japanese, I thought. But as I came closer and heard them talking, I realised that they were Chinese! Must be a nightmare for these Europeans I guess, seeing all those Chinese, who are shown in the media as illegal immigrants, exploiting human labour to make cheap things, doing "dishonest" practices to dump their exports, etc., to realise that their bread and butter depnds upon these lowly tourists! Perhaps a day would come when Indian tourists will also descend here like a storm of birds, haggling over the price with the souvenir shops. Perhaps they already are!
The famous statue of David by Michaelangelo, outside the gate of the old palace is a copy, the original is inside the museum. I am surprised that the church and all those self-righteous leaders have not cried to ban or cover those statues. Actually they must have tried. Two smaller statues next to the door, have the genitals covered by fig leaves, though they seem to have an opposite effect, in the sense, from a distance, they look like pubic hair. I like this picture and the policeman in the middle of the nude statues.
I think that this is a sign of civilization and of abundance, that city has decided to put some of good statues outside, so that general public can admire them without going inside the museums and without buying any tickets.
In fact in Italy, Florence has the reputation of being a civlized city like Lucknow in India. When Italy was unified, it adopted the language of Florence as the "standard Italian".
Right outside the Innocenti centre, there are two fountains with science-fiction kind of martian figures puking water on the back of flying turtles.
Even if the cathedral is unadorned, it has a beautiful dome with wonderful paintings, though you need to have a mirror in your hand to look at them since looking up directly can strain your neck!
Not just the big churches, or monuments, even simple doorways of some houses, probably belonging to some noble family, can give beautiful glimpses of paintings and statues.
Or like this shop selling leather bags and accessories, that has two wonderful statues guarding its door.
In the evening as the meeting finished, it was already dark. Before going back to the railway station, I had a quick look at Santa croce church with the statue of Dante, another famous son of Florence, who used to live around there!
It had been nice day, thanks to the time I had taken off to go around for my tourist visit, because the meeting had been quite unexciting!
