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Rome is great. Loud, lively and invigorating. In fact its so invigorating I might go somewhere quieter for the New Year’s to have a bit of a rest.

A Roman Christmas

Nickjenkins
2003-11-20 11:12:08

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the city. The Baptistery of the Duomo is also quite special. It features the Gates of Paradise, a set of doors that took the artist Giraldi 18 years to complete. The clients were so happy with his work they immediately commissioned another set, which of course took another fifteen years.

The other major attraction in Florence is the Uffizi gallery which I found disappointing. The wait in the queue outside was excruciating and once inside I found a lot of the exhibits closed due to a terrorist attack in 1993. The remaining exhibits were largely emotionless religious pictures and portraits. In the end I think I spent longer in the queue than in the gallery.

Apart from that Florence is beautiful and has a nicer atmosphere than Rome. The locals seem to have less attitude and speak more English so at least you know when they're being insulting!

New Year's Eve in Florence was fun but traumatic. The Italians are fond of fireworks and not necessarily the ones with pretty displays of light and sparks. Anything that goes bang is just fine with them.

Hence, on New Year's Eve, while standing in a crowd you will be suddenly surrounded by an expanding ring of emptiness. Looking down you will discover that some local smart arse has just lobbed something extremely combustable at your feet and it is just about to go bang. Leaping to one side you will avoid actual burns but will more than likely be without your hearing for an hour or two.

So after getting properly inebriated we celebrated the New Year with the locals and two burst ear drums.

The next morning I got up quite early in beautiful sunshine and toured the parts of the city I hadn't visited yet. From the top of the Piazzale Michelangelo you get a stunning view of the city, the Duomo, the Palazzio Vecchio and the snow capped mountains beyond.

Cinque ...