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July 2005

Florence & Cortona (Tuscany)

Jeremy Koh
2005-11-05 12:15:44

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unless you had a lot of money, you probably wouldn't find much to buy on this bridge. High above the shops, a secret passageway known as the Corrodoio Vasariano links the Uffizi Gallery to the Pitti Palace. Built by Vasari, it was intended to shield the powerful Medici family from the Florentine riffraff, as they journeyed from one palace to the other.

Well, the bridge has an interesting history, but it's not a place that needs a lot of time to explore, thus we crossed the bridge into the "other side of Florence"- the Oltrarno. This part of the neighborhood is slightly off the beaten track, and it supposedly offers a glimpse at the Florence of the past. However, we didn't spend a lot of time here. We headed straight to the Palazzo Pitti, a grand structure which houses seven museums. However, we did not enter the museums because we had to catch the train back to Arezzo. After a short rest in front of Palazzo Pitti, we started backtracking and soon we were back in the Piazza della Signoria. Of course by now we were all famished and we grabbed some pizza from a nearby trattoria, which Serene declares to be the best she's eaten so far. Thereafter, we decided to head to the Duomo to have one last look at the magnificent monument before we left. It looks even more lovely in the soft glow of the setting sun. Alas, we were running out of time by then and had to head for the train station to catch our train.

Cortona

Cortona is one of Italy's oldest cities (said by Virgil to be the mother of Troy and the grandmother of Rome... e.g. "Dardano, son of Jove and Elettra, left Corito, city of Etruria, before he came to Troy" [Virgil's Aenid 3, 104]). But if you're not very familiar with ancient history, like me, you probably wouldn't be as caught up with Cortona's history. Nonetheless at more than 600 meters above sea level, Cortona is still an absolute delight.
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