Still as a statue.

The weather in Florence was as temperamental as an angry Chinese teacher (or Florence on her period :P) - one minute it's drizzling, then it's sunny, and the next thing you know, it's raining cats & dogs and you find yourself haggling for a red umbrella from a random Italian salesman who's exasperatedly yelling out 'mamma mia, mamma mia!' as he plays tug-of-war with the wind in attempt to keep his own green umbrella within grasp.

Gloomy weather.

Much like the rest of Italy, Florence seemed to be teeming with churches, and flooded with tourists.

Our guide was an adorable, and slightly dotty old lady with incredibly large amounts of dark eyeshadow and a penchant for bright colours everywhere else.

With both my guides.

Besides the horrible weather, Florence stood out from the rest of the cities for its statues! Outside the Government Palace, there were statues carved of marble and bronze, all done in remarkable detail.

Um.

- pictures that follow may not be appropriate for children  -


Against the famed Fountain of Neptune.

And here's a good copy of Michaelangelo's famous masterpiece, the statue of David.

And if I'm not mistaken.. this is Hercules.. and someone else.

These were famous statues all done by Michaelangelo's pupils. The most popular ones are these two.

This depicts the myth of Medusa's decapitation by Perseus. Which I only know about thanks to Percy Jackson.

This shows the rape of Serbian women (??) during the war. As my guide put it, "zey stole ze women and zhen zey.. Zey raped zem becauze zey were evil solziers!"

Besides indecent statues, Florence is home to a statue of a wild boar, which snout when touched, is said to bring good luck.

Naturally, I had to get my hands on that large gold nose!

Noh! I'm not sharing my luck!

Much better! :D

I've done so many 'luck-bringing' things in Italy that you'd think I'd be completely free of bad luck by now. For that week at least. But alas, my penchant for breaking things and falling over didn't seem to quite disappear.. and I broke a cup in a hotel the next morning. Whoops. :P

But I digress.

Florence's highlight was Piazza Michaelangelo with a huge copy of the statue of David overlooking a gorgeous panaromic view of Florence.

But thanks to the wonderful weather.. This was our view.

Gorgeous tulips I never got to see up close.

T.T

It should've been like this!!

*sighs*

And and.. The red and white tulips!! :(

Tulips are my favorite flowers and are so hard to come by in Malaysia! Boo! *consoles self*

You all know what's coming - here are random pictures from Florence which don't seem to fit anywhere else:

Proof of how quickly Florence's weather changes its mind.

See suddenly so bright and cheery omg!

Gorgeous authentic leather bags sold at the side of the street..


The statue with the beard is Galileo.

Just randomly posing in a street.


Graffiti everywhere! And.. Australiano, which I roughly translate as Australia. I mean, I could be wrong la but with my one week of Italian exposure, I think that's highly unlikely. :P

And on this somewhat abrupt note, I shall end this post with an obvious proclamation!

Because loving New York is too mainstream.